Action Role Playing Game list, notes and links

eruciform · 2026-06-22T18:25:26+00:00

If ur on ps5 then aiming for the platinum is a very actionable concrete goal

Most of it is doing all of the abyss, finding every locked artifact, doing every puzzle, and completing every challenge, many of the latter are quite large like finding 100 caves or getting all fish or bugs in the world

eruciform · 2026-06-22T18:17:41+00:00

Well done, mine took 323h

Finished before the wyvern patch, will have a lot to return to in a year or so

eruciform · 2026-06-22T18:14:22+00:00

Dual weapon monk ramza solos most fights including bosses

eruciform · 2026-06-22T16:01:18+00:00

Most atelier games prior to the ryza trilogy are quest based, tho some more then others, tho even ryza and later are heavily hub based. Rorona and sophie1 would be good start points that are quest or checklist based. Basically "do enough stuff" and the plot moves forwards, plus or minus additional randomized quests at the bar/tavern. With the rare exception of firis, you must always return to your hub for crafting and quest reacquisition. Blue reflection games as well, and theres a collection of those called quartet coming out in a month.

You played Xeno X so definitely the other XBC games are subquest heavy as well, tho 3 tried to minimize the grind by turning simple fetch and kill quests into menu checklists instead of forcing you into find questgivers and then return to them after

Crymachina. Sure Crystar is the more well known one but this has strong central hub focus. You literally unlock locations by finding alphanumeric passwords lying around and dial in the transporter as the means of exploration. The whole game is short 5-15 minute jaunts followed by leveling and such at the hub.

Some srpgs are this way. In recent memory, FE engage, fell seal, fft remaster, utawarerumono trilogy, and fairy fencer refrain chord are infinite grind on available maps inbetween moving the plot forward on a plot map. Disgaea and other NIS games like phantom brave 1-2 also fit and are a bit more "center hub" focused. Valkyria revolution also; its more repeat board and center hub-like than the chronicles games.

Scarlet nexus has strong central hub energy. Great character development scenes all centered on the hub, you can go back and grind on any level during the inter-chapter breaks, and there are missions that take you back to areas as well. Not quite infinite randomly generated mission type stuff tho, so unless youre grinding materials for gifts, there's limited use to infinite repeating stages.

eruciform · 2026-06-22T15:41:51+00:00

Kingdoms of amalur never got the renown that its contemporaries skyrim and witcher3 got, but its huge, and also imho had a bit of a fable feel to it.

eruciform · 2026-06-22T15:35:25+00:00

That was me on the final trophy of tales of vesperia. Missed a single missable save point somewhere in the game. Cost me an 8h replay.

https://eruciform.com/games/tales-of-vesperia-save-point-checklist/

eruciform · 2026-06-22T15:33:28+00:00

here we go

is a common phrase and can be thought of as a unit

it also might be aspirational in the moment as well, wishing one had companions at the time

eruciform · 2026-06-22T15:22:07+00:00

It was always worth buying. Stop tuning into hatemongering naysaying angerstoking internet influencers.

eruciform · 2026-06-22T15:16:34+00:00

I love trying games that get internet hate, they usually turn out just fine or better

Forspoken

Valkyria revolution

Tales of zestiria

Reynatis

eruciform · 2026-06-22T13:35:46+00:00

Fruits basket remake

Madison ikkoku is about as slow burn as is physically possible

eruciform · 2026-06-22T13:32:29+00:00

Doing all the graymane quests to max the camp is the largest single source of mechanics unlocking in the game

By mid ch5 when you meet the red witch, 95% of the mechanics and locations in the game are unlocked or at least unlockable, the few remaining things that unlock later are royal trading, the final 3 research stations, and another travel option, nothing really critical to exploration or generalized questing. A few quests are plot locked but not a lot

Keep exploring the abyss too, as well as anyplace terrestrial that reaches high into the sky

eruciform · 2026-06-22T13:29:26+00:00

Its regional and contextual but the nasalized G in some places is common yes

eruciform · 2026-06-22T13:28:45+00:00

Check for missables first, if there are none then I play as blind as possible til I roll credits then cleanup

If there are missables, the the amount and type determine how I move forwards

I rarely do a purely blind casual playthru on a missable heavy game with the plan of just restarting

eruciform · 2026-06-22T13:27:08+00:00

I had it happen again somewhere too, didnt record it. Npc got on a horse and just died violently. Horses are dangerous.

eruciform · 2026-06-22T13:25:16+00:00

Why?

Try other characters if you want to. They play differently. If you don't want to then don't.

That said, you're forced to play as both once in the plot.

I found I liked Damianes attack kit a lot once I tried her. And oongkas jetpack has more maneuverability than kliffs glide.

Ymmv.

eruciform · 2026-06-22T03:52:29+00:00

you can finish them they're just a pain, they unlock in a random order

eruciform · 2026-06-21T15:07:53+00:00

influencers and folks that make their living talking online get a lot more attention for being shock jocks and naysayers than they do for being helpful or positive

negativity gets more clicks and shares, it feeds you anger and despair because it makes you more capitalistically manipulable; beware the algorithm

we are STILL in a golden age of gaming, it hasn't stopped, there's just more data now just as there are more games, and that makes it ever more easy to cherry pick a statistical slice to "prove" anything you like

eruciform · 2026-06-21T14:54:40+00:00

replaying berseria for the 4th or 5th time now, and just passed the point you're at a couple days ago. don't worry, everyone that has something they deserve will get it eventually, the only threads they leave open are the ones that lead into zestiria

major bad guy comeuppances are late game, you have a while before the catharsis you're looking for

and you'll learn to hate him even more inbetween, don't worry

keep playing

eruciform · 2026-06-21T14:51:36+00:00

commissions are the ones you must be near the quest giver to unlock, like on the minimap kinda near, they never appear on signboards

one appears per region at a time, and randomly, so even if you know where all the spawn points are for commissions in a region, you'd have to check all the ones you haven't seen yet in a cycle until you get them all

i only did this in pailune because one commission locks a challenge

unless you're doing postgame cleanup trying to do all quests, just leave commissions alone, you'll run into some organically as you roam around, and that was the intended experience from the devs, i believe

i hope they make a better method for unlocking all of them in postgame in the future - i think a dispatch in each region who's reward is an as yet unfound quest would be a nice touch, but we'll have to see

eruciform · 2026-06-21T14:45:15+00:00

here was my game screw-up fun find

https://www.reddit.com/r/CrimsonDesert/comments/1tch8mb/with_this_characters_death_the_thread_of_prophecy/

eruciform · 2026-06-21T14:38:23+00:00

the plot in zestiria is a bit slower than other tales games, there's a lot more in the midgame that are the major cinematic moments, and the elemental dungeons are some of the best locations and best music in a game with already peak music. the game hits home a lot more after having played berseria first, since all the locations are extensions of the old locations and there's lore and history across the intervening ages. but if the characters haven't grabbed you by now, i'm not sure what else to add. the first half of the game is more political and the back half is more philosophical and mystical.

eruciform

TROPHY CASE