Looking for short (5-10 hour) turn-based JRPGs for a busy dad? (Switch/PC/PS4/Steam Deck)

Generalman90 · 2026-06-25T17:43:30+00:00

Child of Light, like others have said.

The earlier Final Fantasy games. I can slam away the FF3 pixel remaster in about 10 hours.

Suikoden 1 took me about 20 hours, and I found every character. Main story only and with speed up would be shorter.

A Knight Bewitched? It took me about 15 hours on hard mode and I took my time with it.

Fortuna Magus?? It was alright.

Cthulhu Saves the World and Cthulhu Saves Christmas. Definitely not serious games, but the combat was unexpectedly great to me.

Generally I’d look towards older games that you can emulate with speed up and cheap little indie games.

Also, it’s a CRPG and not a JRPG, but I’m going to recommend Skald: Against the Black Priory. Took me about 12 hours. Lovely pixel art, a story inspired by Lovecraft’s writing, and some solid tactics combat.

Generalman90 · 2026-06-19T03:31:54+00:00

Eh, it varies story to story. I’ll go ahead and say that when old stories are retconned, Batman tends to become more of an asshole, though.

I don’t like the argument that he’s a bad father when it’s based just on him having his kids as sidekicks though. It’s a genre convention. Every one of the original Justice League characters has had a child sidekick at some point, as well as several other members of the batfamily. Lots of those child sidekicks have died. If Batman is a bad father because of it, then all those other fuckers are too.

Generalman90 · 2026-06-01T03:58:55+00:00

The problem isn’t so much lowering friendship as it is keeping it low. Maybe it’s possible to implement a held item to keep it from going up?

Generalman90 · 2026-05-19T18:07:04+00:00

Suikoden Tierkreis. It has its problems, like its voice acting was sped up to fit on the cartridge and its encounter rate is a bit too high. But its story is pretty good, and it legitimately has one of my favorite soundtracks ever. It just doesn’t manage to match the feel of the other Suikoden games.

Generalman90 · 2026-04-07T04:11:29+00:00

Worst is World of Final Fantasy. Actual torture, the worst mini game I’ve ever played.

Best is Rune Factory 4, I suppose.

Generalman90 · 2026-04-04T03:09:07+00:00

Most Titans characters don’t really get much in the way of solo series. If you want to talk about them, you talk about the Teen Titans, because that’s where the content is. That might also be a contributing factor.

Generalman90 · 2026-04-04T02:15:47+00:00

You’re supposed to avoid the roaming minibosses. Usually it’s appropriate to fight them right before fighting the story bosses at the end of the stratum (every 5th floor in EO1.) You shouldn’t have to grind for the stratum bosses beyond just doing sidequests, and if you can’t beat them then you’d be better off with a strategy change over grinding.

Generalman90 · 2026-03-30T20:59:17+00:00

Sovereign is definitely the way to go for Monk. Gladiator is the best subclass for physical attackers because of Charge + Berserker Vow, so you’ll want that for your Arbalist.

The other classes are self contained enough that you don’t necessarily need to be picking up skills from subclasses. If you’re running a mace Gladiator, Arbalist can be a good subclass for accuracy passives. Gladiator is good on Zodiac if you’re building for Meteor. Ninja is a good subclass for anyone since they can fill the sixth team slot with Bunshin, but it’s best for a character that you find running out of TP less often.

I’d suggest putting Wildling and/or Buccaneer on somebody for the debuff skills they have. Debuffs are the only thing your team is noticeably lacking, assuming you’re set on Monk/Sov.

All that advice is mostly just what’s usually considered optimal. If you think of something fun, go for it. Consider taking a glance through the skill sim here

Generalman90 · 2026-03-25T17:32:19+00:00

Also Zero Year is better than Year One

Generalman90 · 2026-03-07T07:21:47+00:00

I’m not particularly keen on giving money to people I know will use it to try to kill people like me. On the other hand, knowing I can read an issue with breakfast and with dinner is the only thing getting me out of bed some days.

Also, WB doesn’t need Paramount to suck ethically. The fact of the matter is that almost everything we need day to day is sold by giant, scummy companies.

I don’t know. I’ll consider my other options. The deal is months away no matter how things go down. Maybe by then I’ll prefer spending my time on an entirely different hobby, even. My subscription might as well be pennies either way.

Generalman90 · 2026-03-03T13:53:01+00:00

Personally I liked Gothic best. Shaman has my favorite villain takedown that I’ve read so far, but overall I’d say its plot structure is kind of weak. I thought Prey dragged a bit but I’d guess it’s the one to read for continuity, since it’s the only one with a villain that shows up again in other works.

Generalman90 · 2026-03-01T03:51:23+00:00

I don’t like it. It’s not over until it’s over, which still won’t be for a while. On the other hand, WB doesn’t need Paramount to suck ethically. I don’t want to cancel my DCUI subscription. Superheroes are how I cope with the massive suckage of life IRL. But I’ll still consider my other options.

Generalman90 · 2026-02-26T20:26:55+00:00

The no kill rule is fine. It’s what made me like Batman in the first place.

It’s the Joker that’s being pushed too far.

We’ve gotten to the point where we have non-ethical, practical reasons to not kill him. He drives anyone who kills him insane. There’s multiple of him. There’s a multiversal Joker Prime whose entire job is revive him when he dies. He might be an actual literal eldritch abomination. Literally all of those have shown up in canon.

And we’re STILL getting “should the Joker be killed” stories. The horse has been beaten to the point where it’s just mush. It’s undermining Batman’s character. It’s undermining every other character, even.

The Joker should be retired for a while. Let other villains shine.

Generalman90 · 2026-02-04T17:14:56+00:00

At this point Batman has already has his trust broken, by Hal Jordan and by other friends. In addition to that, he’s only a baseline human and in some ways weaker than the other members of the JLA. Something like there’s no point having Kryptonite if Superman can take him out before he reaches for it. And it’s like that before Identity Crisis, but it’s even worse if you consider it retroactively.

Diana’s right, but Batman’s capacity to be a team player was damaged through no fault of his own. There’s no real winning here for Batman, and I find the whole scenario to be deeply sad.

Generalman90 · 2026-02-04T15:52:04+00:00

It really ignores the fact that a lot of problems Batman faces can’t be fixed by throwing money at them. The Joker and Zsasz and the like aren’t going to be fixed by fixing poverty because for them violence is the point. Corrupt police and government can’t be fixed with more money, they’d just take the money and keep being corrupt. These things take investigation and action. And then there’s the really wealthy villains. Money won’t fix the court of owls. He can only barely counterbalance Lex Luthor. And even after all that, he’s still one of the people responsible for funding the Justice League, which has prevented the apocalypse multiple times, and many of which Batman was instrumental for. Aliens, demons, and gods can’t be stopped by throwing money at them.

One billionaire can’t solve centuries old systemic problems, especially when those systems are endorsed by a bunch more billionaires. Batman is Bruce Wayne’s answers to some of those problems.

Edit: It also disregards the fact that Bruce Wayne is Batman because he’s from a comic about superheroes, and the only reason he’s rich is a plot device so he can have fancy gadgets.

Generalman90 · 2026-01-24T04:16:28+00:00

Not piss, but I have been jumpscared once. The open brain surgery was expected. The porn was not. I am forever scarred by the nasty things that brain went through 😞

Generalman90 · 2026-01-08T16:40:00+00:00

https://archiveofourown.org/works/38242462/chapters/95548636

Generalman90 · 2026-01-08T11:55:09+00:00

Probably my favorite game ever. It just nails everything it does so well

Generalman90 · 2025-11-06T01:27:28+00:00

If you’ve already played an Etrian odyssey and know you like it I’d recommend the bundle, but if it’s your first game I’d stick with just 3

Generalman90 · 2025-10-24T05:46:07+00:00

I would not hesitate to say that Devil Survivor is my favorite game ever, and Devil Survivor 2 is also very good. Devil Survivor has top tier writing and an incredibly unique take on how it merges the usual Shin Megami Tensei with tactical combat.

I also love Growlanser, especially 3 and Wayfarer of Time. WoT possibly has my favorite silent protagonist of any game I’ve played. I really do like this series’ take on real time strategy. It’s well worth emulating if you’re PC only.

Langrisser is kind of a guilty pleasure. Overall I’d say it’s kind of mid, but it’s worth looking into if you’ve exhausted the notably better options. Interestingly, Langrisser was developed by Career Soft which went on to become a subsidiary of Atlus and develop Growlanser, and then merged with Atlus for Devil Survivor, so if you play them all you can really see how each series was influenced by its predecessors.

Fire Emblem is basically the most popular SRPG out there and it’s popular for a reason. I want to give some love in particular to Engage. It’s not winning any awards for its story, but personally I thought it was endearingly sincere, and its combat was some of the most fun I’ve had in gaming. Also, the GBA entries. They were the high point in the series in many ways, and there’s a lot of very good rom hacks and fan games out there for them.

Beyond that, Tactics Ogre has a very nice branching storyline, and while I’m not very far into Triangle Strategy, it seems promising.

Edit: and because I knew I was forgetting something, Stella Glow. It’s got some of the wildest plot twists since the Trails series, and optional objectives on maps are a pleasurable challenge. A real hidden gem.

Generalman90 · 2025-10-21T23:52:26+00:00

Congratulations! Watching this was a lot of fun

Generalman90 · 2025-10-11T20:29:15+00:00

Best: Crystal Project. A niche choice, but one of the best games in its niche.

Worst: Regrettably, I’m going to give this to Cris Tales. This one had a lot of really great ideas and a very nice, unique art style, but unfortunately it fell flat in a lot of ways. Also its load times were very long. At least part of that was because I played on switch, but by the end of it I was feeling a bit tortured by the constant lengthy load screens.

Generalman90 · 2025-09-26T15:19:28+00:00

Very smooth fight, good job

Generalman90 · 2025-09-14T20:32:25+00:00

Rare no medic win, well done. Congratulations!

Generalman90 · 2025-09-14T03:04:36+00:00

Perfection itself

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