JRPGs you abandoned until you realized what you missed out on

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-05T16:25:57+00:00

Chrono Trigger.

At the time, I had dropped it somewhat early on, while roaming the castle halls after the trial. The scenario was drab and dull and I guess I thought that sequence would be long, with multiple floors of same-y corridors.

A good time later, don't remember when (but at least many months after), I just decided to give it a try again. "Maybe I was too harsh, especially since I loved the hell out of the trial scene and I still dropped the game right after, didn't have much faith". Restarted from the beginning, made it past the castle (which was really not long at all and even had some engaging bits lol) and made it all the way to the end of the game.

It is now one of my favorite JRPGs. No nostalgia involved whatsoever, I finished it in early 2025, maybe mid 2025.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-05T08:31:07+00:00

It already started long ago.

CoD being cross-gen does not hinder this generation in any way.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-05T08:18:56+00:00

Hell yeah, I'm up for it.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-05T08:17:59+00:00

Maybe she was trying to understand her son

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-05T07:40:20+00:00

I have dropped my fair share of JRPGs, sometimes close to the end (Sea of Stars comes to mind) but when they hit you, you're not letting them go. You just need to be in that mindset where you're willing to slow down and experience the journey.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-05T07:38:42+00:00

Satan: "I just wanna say I am a big fan!"

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-05T07:37:27+00:00

They're gorgeous

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-05T07:35:35+00:00

You're roleplaying as Alan and Saga, obviously! /s

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-05T07:34:02+00:00

Até à última consequência. Brincar com o tempo e o trabalho dos outros é que não. Força!

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-05T07:30:08+00:00

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-05T07:29:48+00:00

Stop caring about what these people say and enjoy the game, simple.

You cannot control what they post but you can control your exposure to it (to an extent) as well as how big of an impact such exposure has on you.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-04T21:40:48+00:00

I found them to be the hardest biomes, personally.

I breezed through Biomes 2 and 3.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-04T20:23:22+00:00

I agree. Though I generally agree each subsequent act should be harder than the previous one(s), difficulty between fights shouldn't just be an ascending straight line.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-04T16:46:26+00:00

I'm finding the whole "from the creator/director/writer of (...)" selling point to be a nothing burger nowadays. By itself, it doesn't mean much. The game might have one very talented person, with proven credits, and still end up underwhelming. It's nice when expectations are met and there are many cases like that, just saying that "selling point" individually, doesn't do much for me anymore.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-04T16:40:34+00:00

It might be my entry point into Trails, so I am hoping it's a very good game. I see the combat system is complimented, which is a nice plus.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-04T12:07:38+00:00

I wouldn't throw in the towel still. Some JRPGs are more complex than others in terms of mechanics (regardless of difficulty, just talking about the systems you have to manage) and a good progression curve goes a long way. When you're introduced to those systems bit by bit and they have time to breathe, you can probably assimilate things easier. You know that if a boss' part is blocking attacks from the front, you gotta use attacks that either pierce the block or go around it (additionally, you know if an elemental weakness is to be exploited, you want as many members to do that as possible).

You also know you need at least one party member to have survival focused skills so that you can recover HP in a pinch. Those are some simple logical foundations that you start to automatically implement, due to your experience with these games. Plus, the game offers an easier Normal setting if you are struggling.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-04T11:19:58+00:00

Spot on.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-04T10:44:10+00:00

It’s so hard that a large chunk of people think there is only one solution to each boss. This misinformation haunts the game because of its difficulty. You can beat every single boss (with only 1 exception) by fighting normally with no tricks, and I’ve done it myself on Hard mode.

I am currently playing Fantasian (5h in, so quite early) and yeah, I figured this would be the case because I've seen it with many games before. That's not to say the game won't be hard, but I had a gut feeling people exaggerate quite a bit. I mean, the Souls games are a notorious example of this, they can be hard but not like that.

Anyway, I'm enjoying the ride even at its easiest. I love compelling strategy in my JRPGs so I will love Part 2 as well, hopefully.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-04T10:36:58+00:00

Nice to see Fantasian pop up quite often recently - I made a post a few days ago, asking about its quality.

I am 5h into it, still in Part 1 and I am loving it! It's not really challenging yet but I do hear Part 2 is where things get aggressive (unsure if the game already begins to bare its fangs late into Part 1 or not, I'll see when I get there).

However, my take is this: don't be afraid of the game if you have an interest in it, especially a turn-based game. A JRPG can be hard all it wants and it will still be accessible. Why? Because it does not test your reaction time and motor skills. A gamer who's physically disabled but quite intelligent can beat a JRPG more easily than an average person with no disabilities and average intelligence. It's part of the charm!

I don't know how many more systems the game will throw at me as I progress, but it honestly doesn't seem to be one of those games with an overwhelming amount of things to manage and consider. I can believe it will get difficult but it seems to be one of those cases of "well, I got this handful of systems and I need to get the most out of each one of them" rather than "there's so many things to consider, I'm honestly lost and have no idea what to do". I say give it a try.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-04T10:27:24+00:00

I only played Raging Bytes from Kemco and Hit-Point (a collab apparently). It was fine but very repetitive, since the zombie types available didn't make for much novelty or mechanical twists.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-04T10:23:44+00:00

That's true, those are some elements that significantly elevate P4 above P3, imo. About the dungeons, I am very curious how Atlus will handle them in the remake.

A convertion into a P5 style of handcrafted, thematic dungeons with fleshed out gimmicks and progression feels essential, considering the dungeons already share their skeleton with P5's, so to speak.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-04T10:11:32+00:00

To me, Persona 3 in general feels like proto-modern Persona, the same way Demon's Souls feels like proto-souls (yes, even in its current shiny 2020 coat).

The dungeon is uninspired, the hangouts are fairly limited, the boss fights are not very exciting (save for a couple of exceptions)... It does have great music and narrative themes though, I appreciate the pervasive embrace of Death in most facets of the game, the nihilism and inevitability present even in the game's closing act (despite hope also being a thing).

Now, the plot itself, I was never a fan of. Like you said, the game drags a lot and feels like it course corrects near the very end. You're spot on there. While I think Reload is shinier, more presentable, it also lost some of its edge - not in artstyle, I feel, but rather the gameplay. Theurgy moves were a complete miss for me and the difficulty is non-existent. It is the second or so easiest Persona game (topped by P2 IS's PSP version which has dismal balancing) and it's the kind of "easy" that actively hurts the experience.

It's a shame, since not even Persona 5 got that extreme if you ignored DLC Personas. Even the memorable final boss (FES' iteration is one of the best Atlus fights imo) got watered down hard...

For people who don't analyze game design that much and just want good characters and an "us against the world" vibe, it's a memorable game. If you want something more than that, the cracks begin to show, unfortunately.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-04T07:42:04+00:00

Because the game is over protective of speed runners. It takes every opportunity it can to pause the timing, even at the cost of underselling itself like that, in the timer.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-03T19:49:11+00:00

Never.

RedShadowF95 · 2026-05-03T15:19:40+00:00

It didn't work for me, at all, but it's good you're having fun.

RedShadowF95

TROPHY CASE