I want to pour a lot of hours on a comfy retro JRPG this Summer, so options are these games, Dragon Warrior 7 or Xenogears for the PSX
I just really want a decent story and combats and the sensation of being part of an adventure.
>>3315417
bump
>>3315417
Shameless bump
>>3315417
bump
Could you repeat the question?
PS games are short compared to Dragon Warrior 7. Under 30 hours. Probably under 20 on a replay.
Better more focused, experience though. I'd recommend the even numbered ones.
I didn't care for them. They're about as generic and grindy as JRPGs come, and Sega butchered the English localizations with plenty of censorship, bad grammar and completely arbitrary changes.
>>3315647
>So you don´t recommend them?
Not at all, unless Sega hardware is all you own and you're just that desperate for an RPG fix. Even then, there are series like Shining Force to consider.
PSIV is.
just skip to IV, it's fuckin sweet
>>3315417
I love Phantasy Star 1 and 4, but 2 is an unplayable nightmare and 3, although very ahead of its time, is very clunky.
I highly recommend playing 4 first. They all tie together, but across a vast length of time and you being in the dark about the past puts you on level ground with your characters.
4 is GOAT. One of my favorite retro RPGs. I might have to play it again soon.
>>3315417
Skies of Arcadia is incredibly comfy.
Just be prepared for the random encounters if you choose to explore a lot.
Phantasy Star IV is by far my favorite Sega JRPG.
That's not saying much, though.
The first Phantasy Star isn't exactly "comfy".
I have memories of my brother making pages of grid maps he made for it- but some people enjoy that kind of thing.
I think it's a classic with a wonderful soundtrack, but I was never able to get into the later games (maybe I just had too many options at that point?)
Xenogears isn't quite comfy either, story-wise, but DW7 could be.
>>3315598
> pure sci fi setting
> as genetic as jrpgs come
Okay
>>3315598
>generic and grindy
Yeah, 'cause so many RPGs back then seamlessly combined fantasy and sci-fi. 1 was only grindy in the beginning(like, you know, EVERY OTHER RPG), and 3 was only grindy because it took you so fucking long to get anywhere.
The other points I will give you on the first 3, however.
OP, you may be interested in trying the Sega AGES remakes of PS1 and PS2 for the PS... Playstation 2. It's got some quality of life changes, it's a bit more attractive, and cutscenes have been added. There's no official English translation, but it's been fan translated and it's easy enough to run CD-Rs & DVD-Rs on the thing. I'm not sure I'd call it "the definitive version", but if you get any heartburn from 8-bit JRPGs, it'll help.
That being said, Phantasy Star 4 is a damn fine game. PS3 can be modified to lower the encounter rate and increase the movement speed, but it's a proper pain to do. Without it, it may be better to just skip. It's worth noting that PS4 has more punch if you've played PS1 and PS2.
>>3315417
Really don't need to bump, m8.
>the sensation of being part of an adventure.
PS1 is adventurous as fuck, I think you'll like it. You get to explore 3 whole worlds and have no clue what you're doing half the time! It's great. It may sound sarcastic when I put it that way, but I'm serious.
So yeah, play Phantasy Star. 1 and 4 are fantastic games.
>>3316646
Might & Magic lore has canon science fiction, so does Star Ocean, and Shadowrun.
>>3316646
I think most of his post is bollocks but
>butchered the English localizations ... completely arbitrary changes.
definately applies to PS4 as much as any of them.
Dunno about the other ones but PS 2 is a hellish, repetitive grind-fest that drained my spirit.
>>3317654
If you include steampunk and dieselpunk, Final Fantasy has been doing that for a while.
Phantasy Star on the Master System was my first jrpg. It fucking blew me away and I was hopelessly hooked on it.
There are tons of far better jrpgs I could recommend but Phantasy Star is still solid and holds a special place in my hollow tin chest to this day.
>>3318762
Same. PS and Ys Vanished Omens.
Man, I keep hearing people reminiscing about all those maps and spreadsheets they drew as they played the game but I honestly just brute-forced all the way through until I was done.
I wasn't very smart as a kid, never even thought about that.
aside from 3 they are very good. Nice change of pace from the standard fantasy setting.
4 is easily one of the best RPGs of it's generation
If you wanna waste 90 hrs of your life on an RPG, pick dragon warrior 7
That game unfortunately got slept on because of its release during the final moments of PS1 but as far as grinding games go, my god it was a trip.
Why was phantasy star 3 the bad one of the series? I always hear it gets a lot of flak from other people but I never heard explicitly why so
>>3319110
Made by Sega's B-team and clearly released unfinished. Play it through yourself and you'll probably agree. Its tedious and all the good ideas go nowhere.
Playing IV now, it quickly turns into a fun satisfying adventure, my only advice is to use macros and look up combos. It'll make the grinding hurt less. Again however its a fun diverse adventure and im enjoying it as a an rpg.
>>3317654
>M&M
1 franchise, but I'll give you that
>Star Ocean
That's debatable. I'm not saying the elements weren't there, but after the first one, the sci-fi elements were pretty much shoved out for generic fantasy.
>Shadowrun
Okay, 2 franchises. Still doesn't mean a fantasy/sci-fi RPG is 'generic'.
>>3317726
Ever since 2 or 3, right?
>>3317691
I know there were SOME changes, but arbitrary? Butchered english localizations? Care to provide some citations/links?
>>3319110
As much as I love that entry, I have to agree with >>3319531 on most points. In addition, so much of the world in general just feels dead, as towns have at max 3 NPCs wandering around(I think there was ONE exception). Add in the screwed up technique system, poison(OH GOD, poison!), and bare bones story...I still like it, but it takes some SERIOUSLY rose tinted glasses.
I didn't particularly care for the early ones. Dungeon crawlers tend to be rather bland.
>>3318835
Making maps is a waste of time, really. I have a shit memory and I made my way through all the dungeons just fine without any maps. People really exaggerate the complexity of it all.
Suikoden 1 was great imo
Phantasy Star and Xenogears are both great choices. If you're looking for more exploran' and adventuran', go with Phantasy Star. If you want amazing graphics and soundtrack, go with Xenogears. Story is pretty awesome in both.
Giving Phantasy Star a try.
Is it normal to get wrecked so soon?
>>3319950
If you don't know what you're doing, yeah. It's an 80's RPG, you gotta grind a bit until you're strong enough to take a few steps away from town. This is every 80's RPG. You can rest for free in the first town, so it's pretty lenient.
In ps1? Yea. Ps4? No.
>>3319961
I found the cash in the tunnel bought a shield and attempting to grind in the immediate vicinity of the town. Anything but a Sworm fucks my shit up.
>>3319994
Fight sworms and run from the rest until you have a couple levels. Or say fuck that noise and just wander east to the next town because why not.
>>3319994
>sworm
Uh-oh, are you playing the official translation? It's not too late to set things right.
>http://www.smspower.org/Translations/PhantasyStar-SMS-EN
Anyway, yeah kill them flies for a bit, combat will get easy in no time.
>>3320018
The new translation is an incredible improvement, and the FM soundtrack is how the game was meant to be experienced. Thought I don't know if your Wii emulator does FM sound or not.
>>3315417
Phantasy Star IV is great.
The others are kind of poor.
>>3318880
No Picalo on the cover?
>>3315417
Play 4. If you're into 8-bit JRPGs also, play 1 afterwards (I don't mind the official translation, but there are better ones out there).
(personally, I love 2 and 3 also, but they're story-light and grind-heavy)
>>3319736
>Add in the screwed up technique system, poison(OH GOD, poison!), and bare bones story
Eh, poison's not too bad. Just carry around a couple antidotes and don't use them until you need to heal. If you find yourself needing the anti tech a lot, put it up to 3 and just roll.
The tech system had a lot of potential, and if the monsters weren't all heavily resistant to them, it'd be useful aside from having Lyle and Wren cast Zan when there's a lot of enemies on the front row.
>>3320312
True, but it can get frustrating for people who have no manual(this was the same era of people who would have trouble with the Sonic 3 barrel, after all). And it was still a pain, though not to the level I made it sound.
Like a lot of the game, yeah...the tech system had potential. But now that I know what does what, over half of the techs are STILL shit. Besides, why would you have Wren cast anything when his vulcans can fuck just as many up better and/or for free? The only techs that were worth a damn were Res, Gires and Anti. Most everything else was shit, and your party was better off just attacking(especially since your attacks had 100% hit, and techs could still fail).
>>3320548
>Like a lot of the game, yeah...the tech system had potential. But now that I know what does what, over half of the techs are STILL shit. Besides, why would you have Wren cast anything when his vulcans can fuck just as many up better and/or for free?
You're forgetting all the parts of the game when Wren's stuck with single-shot, or in the boss fights where he probably needs the stronger single-shot weapon to keep the fight from taking ages, but you still want to wipe out the front row ASAP to get Mieu and your prince a chance to hit the boss - the Rulakir fight is an excellent example.
>The only techs that were worth a damn were Res, Gires and Anti. Most everything else was shit, and your party was better off just attacking(especially since your attacks had 100% hit, and techs could still fail).
All the heal techs were good - yes, rever too. (if you put any points into it at all, it was almost guaranteed). I never really did much with the time techs, but you can get some use out of them in a solo or low-level run (but yeah, generally useless). Fanbi makes some of the boss fights go by faster, and Nasak has definitely saved my ass before.
The melee techs never miss either, by the way - at worst, you'll do 0-1 damage (same for attacking regularly) - the reason they suck is that usually your regular attack is better than your Foi (unless you're Lyle, and even then he's better off using Zan or Tsu), and unless you can 2-hit or 1-hit the front row with Zan, or all of the enemies are clumped on one side, it's often not worth it either. Gra is, of course, a piece of shit because everything's resistant to it. I usually had Lyle and Wren max out Zan or Tsu, and it saw a little use (certainly saved me money buying weapons for Lyle - his defense is high enough as it is, and his techs are strong enough at the beginning of the game to actually use).
>>3320596
1. There are fewer points than one would think that Wren is 'stuck' with single shot. Yes, he's stuck with the Cannon for a LONG time, but it still serves its purpose admirably even up to the point you finally trade up. Boss fights I can concede, but most of your party(in attacking) will be wiping out the front row in short order anyway, particularly if you have 3 dual wielders in the party.
2. As you and I said, most of them were shit. OBVIOUSLY there will be exceptions, heh. However, your point on the melee techs makes no sense...how in the hell are you able to get to a point where your *attacks* do 0-1 damage without being slaughtered? I've never seen that happen myself, so I might just be missing the point you're trying to make. As for Lyle...while he is probably the eponymous battlemage, I feel that he's more battle than mage, dual wielding his staves and kicking all kinds of ass. Hell, by the end of the first gen, he's doing as much damage PER HAND that Rhys is doing with one.
No.
It was pretty much
>Wanna play Final Fantasy?
>Don't own a Nintendo?
>Too bad, you're getting Phantasy Star
>>3323292
>You're awesome, you're getting Phantasy Star
Fixed it for you. Final Fantasy's good, but Phantasy Star is right up there too.
So I got Myau and Odin. Now the game has picked up and I'm enjoying it. Turns out I've been playing the lux hack which apparently cranks up the difficulty some, might explain why I was getting my ass kicked very early in the game.
>>3324050
How could you play a hack by accident? You'd have to go out of your way to find a hack, whereas vanilla roms are all over the place. This is madness.
