Lookin' for a JRPG for the Xbox 360.

[Dragor]

Exactly what it says on the tin. I'm friends with two Final Fantasy fangirls who've slowly skewed my originally biased view on them. My interest has been piqued by what I've read about Lost Odyssey thus far.

I've played games like Skies of Arcadia (Gamecube version) and Baten Kaitos in the past and adored them. I own a Wii as well, but the Xbox seems to have a bigger catalogue (although the Tales games on the Gamecube interested me, I never found a copy in the stores near me, and I don't particularly feel like ordering any.)

So, tell me your thoughts :smallsmile:

[Oregano]

Get The Last Remnant, install if you can but at least play it. Well actually I wouldn't recommend it if you want a more standard JRPG as it's a bit unique to be honest.

Lost Odyssey's enjoyable, but the characters are a bit abrasive in my opinion.

Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata are good, worth a try at least and Infinite Undiscovery is good in my opinion but horrendously difficult(might just be me though).

The only other one I can think of is Tales of Vesperia, but I dunno if that's out even(I'm not a big fan but I'd like to try it some time).

EDIT: Oh yeah Lost Odyssey's pretty much a Final Fantasy game, so if you expect something to be in an FF it's probs in Lost Odyssey(except the trademarked/copyrighted stuff of course).

[Ranis]

I would recommend Infinite Undiscovery and The Last Remnant, two newer titles.

Infinite Undiscovery is real-time combat, and it can get pretty intense sometimes. It's very visually pleasing. Last Remnant has a unique mechanic with troop morale and tends to focus on being a general in a large-scale combat environment.

Lost Odyssey is very true to very old school turn-based strategy and it gives you plenty of time to think about characters' actions, which you will need. I wrote a long review on Lost Odyssey, let me see if I can find it.

Here it is: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76091&highlight=cleaning+trash

[Oregano]

I'll read your review and see if there's anything I disagree with.:smallwink:

Although, the use of fully turn based is annoying when you have to hold off the four dragons because they move in real time(it was still easily achieved but it was infuriating watching the intro to battle when I could be killing!

EDIT: The reviews pretty much spot on but why no love for Jansen? Oh yer Mack and Cooke are obviously expies of Palom and Porom for Final Fantasy IV, even with the annoyingness.

for the record though, the reason Sakaguchi left was the fact that he lost 120 million for them with The Spirits Within and not stagnation especially considering they hadn't even thought about FFVII(and sequels/prequels to it) until a few years later. But I digress, sorry.

[Joran]

Yes, Tales of Vesperia is out. My friend liked it, but he's a big fan of the Tales series.

[Airk]

Tales of Vesperia is a very good offering - it's not the best game in the Tales series (A title which is contested, most likely, between Abyss and Symphonia) but it's very, very good. It's singlehandedly responsible for the only time the 360 has outsold the Wii in Japan . I honestly don't understand why it doesn't get more mention in threads like this, since it's the only entry in a real, longstanding JRPG franchise on the 360.

The only thing that might put some people off ToV is the realtime combat, but frankly, the engine is tight, interesting, and if my wife, who claims to have no motor skills at all, can play it, anyone can. Plus, if you have multiple controllers, and friends who like RPGs, it has the best feature ever, namely, multiplayer cooperative battles. It's really hard to beat the sense of teamwork, and though the characters aren't super balanced, it's cooperative, so it's not a big deal.

I could write a full review, but I should probably wait until I finish it. :P Still, I give it a firm thumbs up - it's my style of RPG, closer in mood and style to a Skies of Arcadia than to, say, an FF game.

[potatocubed]

Don't touch Last Remnant with a bargepole. The first 20 minutes of that game inspired nothing but cringing - with the exception of the rather interesting battle system - and the next hour or so didn't change my opinion. So very wooden. So very boring.

Or, if you must buy it, my copy is on ebay right now. :smalltongue:

On the other hand, I absolutely adore Lost Odyssey and recommend it unconditionally.

Enchanted Arms is okay, and you might be able to get it for cheap since it's been out for ages.

Also! If you have a DS you neglected to mention, or if someone else is reading this thread looking for a JRPG, The World Ends With You is one of the best games of recent years.

[Rogue 7]

I've been trying to spread the Vesperia love around, but no one seems to care...

I was a pretty big Tales of Symphonia fanboy, and I still love the original (haven't played the sequel yet- the monster farming sort of turns me off of it), but I will say that Tales of Vesperia is far and away the better game. Here's a review.

The Tales series has a history that's almost as long as Final Fantasy. I know nothing about Final Fantasy, so I'll leave that be. Tales' signature feature has always been the real-time combat, which makes things a hell of a lot more fun in random battles, and makes boss battles a lot more tense when you can't plan out your next moves thanks to the turn system. Tales of Symphonia had a system that was ultimately very similar to Super Smash Bros, and Vesperia is functionally the same. You've got your front-line characters (Yuri, Karol, Repede, and Judith in this one), your rear-line support (Rita and Estelle, the caster and healer, though they both have some battle artes that I never use) and Raven, who's something of a do-anything character in my experience. I tend to switch between Yuri and Judith depending on my mood (though it's usually Yuri for boss fights). You fight in a big flat circular environment against usually a few small enemies or one big one. You can free run by holding the left trigger, which is useful for flanking and getting to the enemy you want to kill first (seriously, if you see an enemy sorcerer, kill them first.), but most of the time you can simply change targets with RB and approach the enemy you want to start beating the snot out of. In melee combat, you've got basic attacks linked to the B button (left-most, I think, right?) and using the left stick, you can vary the method of your attacks a bit. Yuri's attacks aren't too different, but it's very important if you're playing Judith. Holding up on the stick as you hit the enemy will usually lift them into the air, which, if you're playing as Judith, means that you can follow up and rip them apart in midair. You generally get three or four attacks in a combo before you go into a reset animation and start over. However, you can combo your attacks into artes, which are special moves. One's linked to each of the four positions on your left stick in concert with the A button- Up, down, neutral, and left/right. You start with just the basic artes, but you'll quickly get arcane artes, which you can link from base artes. That's functionally the basics, it's a very quick system to pick up.

The game is set in a world called...Terca Lumines, I think (I probably spelled that wrong.) Its magic is supplied by something called aer, which is converted for practical use by ancient artifacts called blastia. If you know the Tales series, you can guess where this goes, but if not I won't spoil it for you. The story opens with Yuri Lowell. Yuri, whose awesome character I will delve into later, is an ex-imperial knight currently living in the Lower Quarter of Zaphias, the Imperial capital. He sets out to find a thief who stole the core of a blastia that controlled the lower quarter's water fountain. In the course of investigation, he breaks into a noble's house and, being a regular lawbreaker, gets thrown in jail. He escapes and meets up with Estelle, who is very clearly not a princess at all, she swears.:smallwink: Estelle tells Yuri that she needs to find Flynn Scifo, an officer in the knights, and Yuri's childhood friend. Since Yuri found out that the thief escaped, he heads off with her to track the two things down. From there, stuff happens. The first third of the game is not immediately "we've got to save the world!", which I like quite a bit. Instead it's about Yuri trying to find the thief, Estelle trying to find Flynn, the corruption of local officials (Ragou, the magistrate of a local city, takes being pure evil to logic-defying extremes), and the conflict between the association of Guilds and the Empire. The second part (and third, from what I've heard, being only 2/3 done) gets more into the mythic and world-important events more typical of JRPGs, and it's done well, but I like mundane a lot so the first part is the best. It's not a new plot, but it's well-done, believable, and quite a bit more coherent than Symphonia's.

The main characters are some of the best I've encountered in an RPG. Yuri in particular is perhaps the single most awesome hero I've seen in a good long while. He's the essence of Chaotic Good, and a large part of his characterization comes from the conflict of his ideals against that of Flynn's Lawful Good ideals. Yuri and Flynn originally joined the knights to try and improve things for the lower quarter and the people therin, but Yuri quit when he saw that he wouldn't be able to do so. So, he's something of a robin hood type, not having a lot of faith in the empire to do what's right, so he's determined to do it himself. That extends into typical determinator dedication to help his friends and people in general, but also a few other things... He's also very big on personal choice and freedom, particularly to Estelle, and he's got a fantastic sense of humor. He's also generally intelligent, something that makes a nice change from the idiocy I came to expect from Lloyd Irving.

Estelle is your typical sheltered, fairly naive princess. If Yuri's the essence of Chaotic Good, Estelle is neutral good. She's just plain nice, also going out of her way to help anyone she sees, which is fairly easy to do when you have ridiculously powerful healing artes. Her naivitee is also not often played for laughs, mainly manifesting itself in bouts of indecision over what to do, something that Yuri always encourages her to resolve on her own. She's friendly and eager, sometimes to a fault. Normally I'd probably dislike a character like Estelle, but she never gives the sense of being stupid, as Colette of Tales of Symphonia often did. I'd say more, but that would be a fairly large spoiler.

I could go on about the rest of the cast, but I won't for the sake of keeping this marginally manageable. Karol, Rita, Judith, and Raven are all good characters. Judith and Raven in particular have good backstories and motivations for their actions, and the entire cast banters back and forth incredibly well. Everyone but Karol and Estelle (well, and Repede, but he can't talk) have a very deadpan sense of humor. This brings me to a staple of the Tales series- the skits. These are optional bits of dialogue between character portraits that serve as additional characterization and at times exposition for the main cast. THey really give the characters a lot more depth and characterization than you'd expect in a typical RPG, simply because there are so many more opportunities for interaction. Because the cast is so great, I often find myself wishing for more, especially since I play them the moment they pop up (I remember my brother, in Symphonia, never bothered playing them, and there'd always be four or five cycling at the bottom of the screen. Couldn't understand that).

Combat can be hard, man. I usually need at least two tries for at least half the bosses, and sometimes they just come down to luck. Early on in the game, there's one boss that comes out of nowhere- the wolf on Ehmead hill. Took me at least six tries to beat it, and I've had similar problems throughout. That's counting all the other advantages you get in combat as you progress through the game- over limit, burst artes, and fatal strkies, all of which add a lot to combat and make things really interesting.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the voice acting in the game. It's all top-notch, supplied for the most part by fairly big names in the anime/video game field. I can't think of any one voice in particular that's bad, and most of them are great. Special mention to Raven and Rita's actors, who both convey their characters very well.

The game looks brilliant, especially on my 40-something inch LCD TV:smallbiggrin:. It's ridiculously detailed, and full of color, but I've never been a huge graphics guy. The game looks nice, let's leave it at that.

So, to sum up- very fun combat, a good plot, and a ridiculously awesome cast with great voice acting, a long plot and difficult challenges make for a game I'd count as being one of my favorites of all time. I played this game for thirty-five hours over the course of about a week, and I'm still in slight withdrawal since coming back up to college. It's awesome.

[Ranis]

The only thing that I have to say bad about Tales of Vesperia is that sometimes, during the more heavily story-driven parts of ToV, that those people you may have over could/would get bored quickly compared to just wanting to kill stuff. I had 3 friends over to play it, and while one was very much into the game and the other two got bored quickly when not killing things. But the game recieves two thumbs up from me, definitely.

[Rogue 7]

Heh. Alone in my basement at midnight for me.

[Airk]

I admit, I'm not really that impressed with Yuri; Sure, he's very -different- from the typical RPG hero, but he's a little too relaxed about things to be interesting. Particularly during the first third of the game or so, you get the feeling that he's not really particularly interested in anything that's going on, and is only participating because he has nothing else to do with his time. He's only interestign when he encounters situations that let him show off his peculiar brand of morality, which, unfortunately, don't happen -nearly- often enough. Or rather, which happen plenty often enough, because more often would seem really contrived, but he needs some other defining characteristic than "Has trouble with authority" :P He also has a tendancy to get stuck babysitting, which is mercifully mitigated somewhat once Raven and Judith arrive on the scene.

On the other hand, Estelle is awesome. The "naive princess" thing may be a cliche, but it's done SO WELL here that I cannot fault it all. She's not annoying, she's not stupid, and in fact, she quite routinely knows -more- about things than the very worldly acting (but not actually very worldly) Yuri, by virtue of being tremendously well read. She's also a very interesting character from a -gameplay- perspective, breaking out of the cliche role of "gimpy white mage/staff chick that can only hide in back and heal" even more effectively than than Tear did in ToA . It's like your primary healer is a Paladin - she uses a sword and shield in combat (though no one will ever accuse her of being terribly effective with them), and her unique selection of skills make her a FORTRESS, with higher defensive values than anyone else, who heals herself everytime she heals someone else, who has a chance to get healed everytime she gets hit, who automatically revives from death once a combat, regenerates TP when she blocks, and blahblahblahetc.

Which actually leads to one of my other bits of praise for ToV. They do a -very- effective job of differentiating the characters from a gameplay perspective. Yuri in an upclose, in your face combo machine, Repede is a hit & run thief who can be everywhere in short spans of time, Estelle is a defensive powerhouse full of heals and some decent offensive spells... Karol is an up close brawler with charged attacks and heals, Rita is a maelstrom of destruction with magic spells for every occasion, Judith is a striker who can kick opponents up into the air and toy with them, and Raven is this wacky dual-ranged jack-of-all-trades that is fully capable of making a tremendous nuisance of himself from anywhere on the field. Of course, it takes some time to get to this point - folks start off a lot more similar than they eventually become when they have their full complement of skills and artes, but that's to be expected.

[Another_Poet]

I definitely have to recommend Eternal Sonata. It's exactly what you're asking for, and the battles are a lot of fun. I personally am a bit put off by the amoutn of talking/cutscenes/plot exposition/faux philosophising but that's what puts the J in JRPG. Plus, the fact that someone not only pitched a game with occasional photo slideshows narrated with Chopin's biography and got the game made makes me squeal with laughter, delight and amazement.

The characters are pretty fun and, even though they repeat catch phrases during battle, they have enough of them that it doesn't get too annoying. Battle getsprogressively harder as the game goes on, mostly because you get less and less time to input commands per turn.

The story itself is pretty standard defeat the evil guy / nature is better than technology / you don't need to start a war to win justice / the power of friendship defeats all. But, aside from that, there are some really neat aspects to the storyline. I think the idea that only people dying of terminal diseases can use magic adds a really nice twist.

Anyway, worth a try if you can get it. GORGEOUS graphics.

[Rogue 7]

I admit, I'm not really that impressed with Yuri; Sure, he's very -different- from the typical RPG hero, but he's a little too relaxed about things to be interesting. Particularly during the first third of the game or so, you get the feeling that he's not really particularly interested in anything that's going on, and is only participating because he has nothing else to do with his time. He's only interestign when he encounters situations that let him show off his peculiar brand of morality, which, unfortunately, don't happen -nearly- often enough. Or rather, which happen plenty often enough, because more often would seem really contrived, but he needs some other defining characteristic than "Has trouble with authority" :P He also has a tendancy to get stuck babysitting, which is mercifully mitigated somewhat once Raven and Judith arrive on the scene.

I kinda like the "not really interested, this is all a chore" attitude, because, let's face it, it is. He's out there to get the aqua blastia back, and all this diversion in helping Estelle even though her really doesn't want to but his conscience won't leave him alone isn't helping him get the blastia back. He's very much a "help everyone I can" kind of guy, tempered by the intelligence to know that he can't help absolutely everyone.



On the other hand, Estelle is awesome. The "naive princess" thing may be a cliche, but it's done SO WELL here that I cannot fault it all. She's not annoying, she's not stupid, and in fact, she quite routinely knows -more- about things than the very worldly acting (but not actually very worldly) Yuri, by virtue of being tremendously well read. She's also a very interesting character from a -gameplay- perspective, breaking out of the cliche role of "gimpy white mage/staff chick that can only hide in back and heal" even more effectively than than Tear did in ToA . It's like your primary healer is a Paladin - she uses a sword and shield in combat (though no one will ever accuse her of being terribly effective with them), and her unique selection of skills make her a FORTRESS, with higher defensive values than anyone else, who heals herself everytime she heals someone else, who has a chance to get healed everytime she gets hit, who automatically revives from death once a combat, regenerates TP when she blocks, and blahblahblahetc.

I never use her in combat (well, actively. My preferred party is Estelle, Rita, Yuri and Judith, where I take either of the last two, but Raven is pretty handy, and Karol and Repede aren't bad.)


Which actually leads to one of my other bits of praise for ToV. They do a -very- effective job of differentiating the characters from a gameplay perspective. Yuri in an upclose, in your face combo machine, Repede is a hit & run thief who can be everywhere in short spans of time, Estelle is a defensive powerhouse full of heals and some decent offensive spells... Karol is an up close brawler with charged attacks and heals, Rita is a maelstrom of destruction with magic spells for every occasion, Judith is a striker who can kick opponents up into the air and toy with them, and Raven is this wacky dual-ranged jack-of-all-trades that is fully capable of making a tremendous nuisance of himself from anywhere on the field. Of course, it takes some time to get to this point - folks start off a lot more similar than they eventually become when they have their full complement of skills and artes, but that's to be expected.
Rita is really fun to break the game with, I found in the three minutes I played her when testing out her Mystic Arte- overlimit+Violent Pain=fun, but standing around casting, though quite a bit more efficient than the AI, isn't that much fun when you aren't in over limit. Yuri I have three combos for- the general all-purpose deal craptons of damage combo is 4 attacks into Shining fang into shining dragon swarm (and I should probably try to tack on an altered arte to that, but I don't think I've got the skill) followed by Divine Wolf Storm if I feel like it, 4 attacks followed by azure edge into azure wolf strike or something similar to knock someone down if I need a breather, and the combo I've got on the right stick, destruction field into crushing eagle/Guardian field for area of effect. Judith is just fun to play as, even if I can't figure out her aireal combos particularly well. Raven is a great support character, dealing quite a bit of damage at long range and being able to back that up with good melee skills and an awesome healing arte that's arguably better than Estelle's thanks to a lack of casting time once you get it firing 3 shots. Estelle I feel I'm not taking advantage of since I just mainly let the AI handle her. Repede my brother liked to use when he played a bit with me, but I've got no experience with him aside from knowing he makes good backup for Yuri to double-team opponents. Karol...well, I don't like him very much. The few times I controlled him, he felt like a much clunkier Presea, and Presea was already pretty clunky to begin with. He's slow, his attacks are slow and there aren't very many of them, and he uses TP like there's a black hole hidden in that bag of his. Saying that, they're all very unique.

[JerryMcJerrison]

Re: Eternal Sonata:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/unskippable/485-Eternal-Sonata

[Airk]

I kinda like the "not really interested, this is all a chore" attitude, because, let's face it, it is. He's out there to get the aqua blastia back, and all this diversion in helping Estelle even though her really doesn't want to but his conscience won't leave him alone isn't helping him get the blastia back. He's very much a "help everyone I can" kind of guy, tempered by the intelligence to know that he can't help absolutely everyone.


I dunno. It didn't even really seem like he cared about getting the Aqua Blastia back. Every once in a while, there'd be a conversation about what folks wanted to do next, and invariably it'd end with something like "Oh yeah, Yuri. You want to go get the Aqua Blastia back! We should...." and he'd reply with something like, "Yeah, that's true." The exchange always left me with the feeling that the rest of the party was reminding him/the player of what he was supposed to be doing.



Rita is really fun to break the game with, I found in the three minutes I played her when testing out her Mystic Arte- overlimit+Violent Pain=fun, but standing around casting, though quite a bit more efficient than the AI, isn't that much fun when you aren't in over limit.

You really need to turn on the right skills for her to be entertaining. Spell combo, for example, helps a lot. And you shouldn't forget to button mash while casting to activate Rhythm. I suggest Light Magic as well, for faster casting times, etc, and revenge spell if you can get the hang of it.

I don't know that playing her is that much better than the AI, except for those random times when the AI decides that "keep distance" means "stand just outside of melee range when casting."



Judith is just fun to play as, even if I can't figure out her aireal combos particularly well. Raven is a great support character, dealing quite a bit of damage at long range and being able to back that up with good melee skills and an awesome healing arte that's arguably better than Estelle's thanks to a lack of casting time once you get it firing 3 shots.

I would never use Raven as a primary healer, simply because you can't target who he heals. Invariably, he heals Judith first, sometimes when I swear she's not even hurt, followed usually by Rita, then Estelle. He only seems to heal Yuri if no one else is hurt. :P



Estelle I feel I'm not taking advantage of since I just mainly let the AI handle her.

AI Estelle is, again, far from terrible. Equipped with the right skills she just keeps going and going. And some people just don't like playing the healer (it's probably the pressure ;)).



Repede my brother liked to use when he played a bit with me, but I've got no experience with him aside from knowing he makes good backup for Yuri to double-team opponents.

I really only use Repede when I need to steal things. The rest of the time he's off peeing on a rock or something while the party fights. :P


Karol...well, I don't like him very much. The few times I controlled him, he felt like a much clunkier Presea, and Presea was already pretty clunky to begin with. He's slow, his attacks are slow and there aren't very many of them, and he uses TP like there's a black hole hidden in that bag of his.

I haven't taken any time to get a handle on him either, because he's my least favorite character story/personality wise, and that makes me want to not play as him. That said, he's a surprisingly effective healer - I cast him in that role far more often than Raven - but does seem to have TP issues. I think, actually, that he's probably one of the characters with the potential to be the most improved when played by a person due to all his charge attacks and junk, but I really haven't experimented yet. Maybe on playthrough 2.

[Dragor]

Thanks for all the replies!

I have Blue Dragon and I don't like it so much. I got up to just after getting Maromaro (sp? I can't remember. It's been a while.) in my party, and I found him quite annoying. The characters didn't seem deep at all; Kluke was nothing more than a pretty face, Shu was aggravating and wouldn't stop saying "I'll never give up" (I'll be honest, though, Vyse wouldn't stop saying "Nothing is impossible" in Skies of Arcadia). Wasn't my cup of tea, although I've heard things get better when Zora joins the party.

Still, it wasn't enough for me to give it enough of a chance, I'm afraid.

I watched the Unskippable take on Eternal Sonata. By all means I'm not disputing beautiful, crisp visuals- I mean, wow. But that dialogue, except perhaps for the mother, grated on me badly. Even though I've heard bad things about it, I've heard brilliant praise for it as well, and I'm tempted either way.

I've heard pretty bad things about Infinite Undiscovery- a game marred by bugs which would other be great. Oh, and terrible FPS. It hasn't caught my eye.

Looks like Lost Odyssey is a sure-fire bet, then. I don't have a lot of money, so I really only have enough for a single purchase (and even then I may have to be getting someone Gears of War 2 for their birthday.)

[Oregano]

I've heard pretty bad things about Infinite Undiscovery- a game marred by bugs which would other be great. Oh, and terrible FPS. It hasn't caught my eye.


Wait, what bugs, I haven't noticed any, the only complaint I have against it is that the world's too big and some parts are painfully difficult.

Or do you mean the Last Remnant because if so the issues it has were really overstated in my opinion, and a lot of people(my self included) believe it only has bad reviews and being constantly complained about because it's a SE game. I think Fable 2 had worse bugs and that was still really well recieved.

If you need to know more about Infinite Undiscovery or The Last Remnant just ask me, I'll be happy to provide you with as much information as possible.

EDIT: I also think Blue Dragon is a lot better than Lost Odyssey, much more enjoyable because it doesn't take itself as seriously, I like the Toriyama artwork as well.

[Innis Cabal]

I'll...how ever many its up to now LO. Long game, indepth game, serious game, but awsome none the less.

The stories it goes through are...painfully serious at times, though it in no way takes away from the story. Well written all around