Ok guys, resurrecting a thread from much earlier this year to pose some questions. My girlfriend and I only recently really began actively playing our PS3, and a couple of weeks ago we realized that my girlfriend didn't have any JRPGs to play.
I know, I know, we've discussed that there really aren't very many worth looking into this generation. But regardless, what is currently available to us PS3 players?
Since then, we've picked up Resonance of Fate and Last Rebellion. While she doesn't really like the plot of Resonance of Fate, the combat system is different enough to interest her. Last Rebellion on the other hand was a big let down with its story exposition...honestly it felt like a cop out from Nippon Ichi. But she hasn't gotten more than a half hour in it, so does it improve? And what other titles are out there? Is White Knight Chronicles worth picking up? How about the new Star Ocean?
And why should I be interested in buying Valkyria Chronicles?
PS 3 RPGs
Re: PS 3 RPGs
You should be interested in Valkyria Chronicles because it's the best RPG on the PS3 (or at least was until Demon's Souls came along, but that's another animal entirely). As a Tactical RPG fan, I really liked that VC took the concept of a Tactical RPG in a new direction. The characters are likable, too.
I've heard Last Rebellion is pretty bad, though. Resonance of Fate was pretty good from what I've played of it, although it honestly wasn't very much. Should probably dive back into it when I feel like an RPG again.
I've heard Last Rebellion is pretty bad, though. Resonance of Fate was pretty good from what I've played of it, although it honestly wasn't very much. Should probably dive back into it when I feel like an RPG again.
Re: PS 3 RPGs
So Valkyria Chronicles is a definite must then? I like a good strategy RPG, but when I heard the concept of this game several years ago, it made me laugh. Hard. It's actually worth putting down the money for?
Re: PS 3 RPGs
Ack wrote:So Valkyria Chronicles is a definite must then? I like a good strategy RPG, but when I heard the concept of this game several years ago, it made me laugh. Hard. It's actually worth putting down the money for?
Most definitely Ack. It looks and plays beautifully. I have Disgaea 3, Folklore and Eternal Sonata which I enjoyed a lot as well and can recommend. Its weird that the PS2 was a RPG factory and now the Wii and 360 both have a more robust RPG selection than the PS3
Re: PS 3 RPGs
Ack wrote:Wait, Folklore is a JRPG?
Yep, here is the devs wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Republic The game does have a very Irish feel to it though.
Re: PS 3 RPGs
Ack wrote:So Valkyria Chronicles is a definite must then? I like a good strategy RPG, but when I heard the concept of this game several years ago, it made me laugh. Hard. It's actually worth putting down the money for?
What made you laugh about it, exactly?
You can always try the demo. A lot of people said it didn't do the game justice, but it was enough to make me buy it as soon as I could.
But yes, I'd say Valkyria Chronicles is at least in the Top 5 of the best PS3 games thus far.
Re: PS 3 RPGs
When I first saw it, it appeared to be a strategy RPG featuring a Japanese take on World War II in which the Nazis were vampires.
You don't think there's something funny about that?
You don't think there's something funny about that?
Re: PS 3 RPGs
Let me give you a rundown of my PS3 RPG collection Ack:
3D Dot Game Heroes - A massive homage to the original Legend of Zelda, and it also includes a large number of references to other games. Off the top of my head there are references to Demon's Souls, Armored Core, several Dragon Quest games, and Mega Man 2. If you're a fan of Zelda you'll enjoy this game.
Cross Edge - A pretty mediocre crossover RPG between the universes of several developers. The combat system is the most interesting part, but you need to get quite a ways in to the game before you get enough abilities and AP for this to become apparent. It has the obligatory crafting system with no depth. The story is thin and not worth mentioning. I wouldn't recommend this unless you really like several of the universes contained within.
Demon's Souls - A third person action RPG that will humble you. Even mooks are deadly and the game requires you to proceed with caution and pay attention to your surroundings. That big two handed sword won't work well in a narrow corridor; the walls get in the way. However, if you properly use the environment and your equipment to your advantage you'll go far, and the feeling of overcoming your foes is very satisfying. World 5-2 is bullshit, though, no matter how you slice it. The story isn't as in-your-face as a JRPG though; think of it more like the Diablo story. It's there, and it drives things, but it's mostly an excuse to have you slay a bunch of dudes. It also has a pretty good crafting system; there are several base weapons, and then you can choose to specialize them in different ways to suit your stats and the types of enemies you'll be facing, as well as crafting yourself several unique weapons. I'd list this as a must-have (though it's more of a WRPG than a JRPG).
Enchanted Arms - I'm only a little ways into this. Combat is turn based on grids, similar to how Mega Man Battle Network is (although turn based instead of active). The story and characters are pretty mundane. Also, I discovered that you can fight an optional nasty monster early on while far from a save point and with no warning, which annoyed me and I haven't touched it since. There's better out there.
Eternal Sonata - The combat system plays out like a turn based Star Ocean game; when you start to take action you have a certain amount of time to perform actions (which include running up to the target). There's a chaining system where if you build up a lot of regular hits it powers up your skills. The game has excellent use of color; it is a visual treat that suits its setting in the dream world of Chopin as he lies on his deathbed. To be honest I can't remember much of the story, but I enjoyed the time I had with the game.
Final Fantasy XIII - Personally, I enjoyed this. The combat system did a nice job of automating the normal tedium of menu-based combat in non-SMT games while switching up your configuration of jobs kept you active in the difficult fights. The environments are gorgeous and while you are just running down a linear path, it's no worse than FFX was. I enjoyed the characters and found that they took on real growth through the story. I'd recommend it if you haven't been turned off on the FF series yet.
Resonance of Fate - You already have it. I have to agree with your girlfriend; I felt the story progression was fairly weak. It was an interesting experiment and it could potentially work if implemented better. But the combat is definitely unique and you start being able to do ridiculous things as you go on. Then when you get to the bonus dungeon you discover you HAVE to do those ridiculous things or you'll get destroyed.
Star Ocean - A Star Ocean game that has the most space elements in it. The combat system is standard Star Ocean fare, and you have the bonus board that you can manipulate to ease grinding (whether necessary or imagined). The PS3 version has the JP voices, which is nice, as a few of the characters were not voiced well by the US actors. The story is nothing special but it gets the job done. I'd certainly recommend it.
Valkyria Chronicles - The system isn't the easiest to explain, but I fell in love with it when I first played the demo at the Sega booth of PAX 08. It is an excellent evolution of the standard SRPG and it also works very well for the war setting. The characters are very likable and the game nicely has you level all characters of a given class at once. Thus you are free to adjust your squad composition as needed, instead of other SRPGs where you sometimes find yourself in a bad spot because you hated leveling Clerics. Different characters are differentiated by their potentials; abilities that may activate in battle) and you'll quickly develop a list of favorite characters. The story is presented extremely well. This is another game on the "must have" list for the system. Try the demo to understand the combat, just remember that the demo's mission is very dry; most missions involve things such as flanking and more varied environments.
3D Dot Game Heroes - A massive homage to the original Legend of Zelda, and it also includes a large number of references to other games. Off the top of my head there are references to Demon's Souls, Armored Core, several Dragon Quest games, and Mega Man 2. If you're a fan of Zelda you'll enjoy this game.
Cross Edge - A pretty mediocre crossover RPG between the universes of several developers. The combat system is the most interesting part, but you need to get quite a ways in to the game before you get enough abilities and AP for this to become apparent. It has the obligatory crafting system with no depth. The story is thin and not worth mentioning. I wouldn't recommend this unless you really like several of the universes contained within.
Demon's Souls - A third person action RPG that will humble you. Even mooks are deadly and the game requires you to proceed with caution and pay attention to your surroundings. That big two handed sword won't work well in a narrow corridor; the walls get in the way. However, if you properly use the environment and your equipment to your advantage you'll go far, and the feeling of overcoming your foes is very satisfying. World 5-2 is bullshit, though, no matter how you slice it. The story isn't as in-your-face as a JRPG though; think of it more like the Diablo story. It's there, and it drives things, but it's mostly an excuse to have you slay a bunch of dudes. It also has a pretty good crafting system; there are several base weapons, and then you can choose to specialize them in different ways to suit your stats and the types of enemies you'll be facing, as well as crafting yourself several unique weapons. I'd list this as a must-have (though it's more of a WRPG than a JRPG).
Enchanted Arms - I'm only a little ways into this. Combat is turn based on grids, similar to how Mega Man Battle Network is (although turn based instead of active). The story and characters are pretty mundane. Also, I discovered that you can fight an optional nasty monster early on while far from a save point and with no warning, which annoyed me and I haven't touched it since. There's better out there.
Eternal Sonata - The combat system plays out like a turn based Star Ocean game; when you start to take action you have a certain amount of time to perform actions (which include running up to the target). There's a chaining system where if you build up a lot of regular hits it powers up your skills. The game has excellent use of color; it is a visual treat that suits its setting in the dream world of Chopin as he lies on his deathbed. To be honest I can't remember much of the story, but I enjoyed the time I had with the game.
Final Fantasy XIII - Personally, I enjoyed this. The combat system did a nice job of automating the normal tedium of menu-based combat in non-SMT games while switching up your configuration of jobs kept you active in the difficult fights. The environments are gorgeous and while you are just running down a linear path, it's no worse than FFX was. I enjoyed the characters and found that they took on real growth through the story. I'd recommend it if you haven't been turned off on the FF series yet.
Resonance of Fate - You already have it. I have to agree with your girlfriend; I felt the story progression was fairly weak. It was an interesting experiment and it could potentially work if implemented better. But the combat is definitely unique and you start being able to do ridiculous things as you go on. Then when you get to the bonus dungeon you discover you HAVE to do those ridiculous things or you'll get destroyed.
Star Ocean - A Star Ocean game that has the most space elements in it. The combat system is standard Star Ocean fare, and you have the bonus board that you can manipulate to ease grinding (whether necessary or imagined). The PS3 version has the JP voices, which is nice, as a few of the characters were not voiced well by the US actors. The story is nothing special but it gets the job done. I'd certainly recommend it.
Valkyria Chronicles - The system isn't the easiest to explain, but I fell in love with it when I first played the demo at the Sega booth of PAX 08. It is an excellent evolution of the standard SRPG and it also works very well for the war setting. The characters are very likable and the game nicely has you level all characters of a given class at once. Thus you are free to adjust your squad composition as needed, instead of other SRPGs where you sometimes find yourself in a bad spot because you hated leveling Clerics. Different characters are differentiated by their potentials; abilities that may activate in battle) and you'll quickly develop a list of favorite characters. The story is presented extremely well. This is another game on the "must have" list for the system. Try the demo to understand the combat, just remember that the demo's mission is very dry; most missions involve things such as flanking and more varied environments.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.
Re: PS 3 RPGs
Ack wrote:When I first saw it, it appeared to be a strategy RPG featuring a Japanese take on World War II in which the Nazis were vampires.
You don't think there's something funny about that?
There were vampires in Valkyria Chronicles?
I don't remember that. The only supernatural race I really remember are the Valkyria themselves, and they exist on both sides.
In fact, the 'Nazis' are more human in this game than probably any other game that tackles World War II (perhaps because it isn't directly tackling World War II). I remember at least a few instances where the soldiers and officers on the enemy side were presented as quite honorable.