#honestly any jrpg

[broccoli-bitching]

What's your favourite game that "requires" a wiki in order to play?

[littleeyesofpallas]

[viulus]

Finally tried out Ghost Trick tonight

[yusuke-of-valla]

Ok T-minus 30ish minutes til the Nintendo Direct here is my wishlist in no particular order

Fantasy Life I info and possibly release date

Ace Attorney Investigations port

Genealogy Port/Remake

Scarlet and Violet DLC release date

Professor Layton Vs Phoenix Wright port and/or sequel

Tactica DLC news

Pokemon Conquest Port/remake

Re: Fantazio Switch ver

[raven]

heres my thoughts on persona 2 so far i genuonely cannot believe they chose to remake 3 over this one i mean i can because they changed all the lore in 3 but that game is NOTHING compared to this one. the TEDIUM. but hey when the maya's there, maya's there

[imagiguard]

ok picture this: there's this well known story out there. it's epic, it's sprawling, it's your typical idealistic good guy victory story, with a bittersweet ending, where the hero ascends. nothing objectionable so far...

but it turns out the story has propaganda. it may be intentional or may be a result of the mainstream culture of the time. pro-military, copaganda, capitalist, you name it: it's secretly got some flaws in its values.

and then it's revealed that the story you knew was distorted. it was told by someone, centuries later, probably with a nostalgia for the "good old days", to someone with a fresher view of the world. it went through heavy historical revisionism: maybe the hero of that story was a champion of the systems rather than the people. maybe the hero wasn't the idealistic model of perfection. yet everyone worships the ascended hero of the times past, since they need to find a way to support their systems. to stay complacent.

the child, to whom the story was told to, begins to grow up and truly wonder how true the stories of the past hero are. what really happened, whose champion were they? what couldn't the original story which we're familiar with convey due to dissonant values irl?

and so a new adventure begins.

[maespri]

oh my i never really saw myself making a post like this, but i really wanna talk about morgana! more specifically… why i don’t really understand the hate he receives.

for starters, i know a lot of people dislike mona because he gets on ryuji’s case often. his squabbling with ryuji can get hurtful at times too, i know, but i feel like so many people conveniently leave out the fact that… ryuji returns fire? it’s not as though mona is constantly attacking poor ryuji who can’t defend himself; it’s a two-sided fight throughout most of the game. both of them are constantly fueling the fire. not to mention, it’s a fight that eventually ends. both individuals have great character development (i could talk about it for /ages/, but i digress) that ends with their fighting essentially ceasing entirely. they’re both dumb teenage boys, they both said dumb stuff to each other, and they both hurt each other, and all of that is recognized and left in the past.

the hatred toward mona in general is something i struggle to understand entirely. you hate this cat because he tells you to go to bed? the game would have told you to do that one way or another, because it’s a game. there have to be constraints, or you’d get terribly overpowered incredibly fast. i wholeheartedly agree that mona’s lacking in comparison to the other characters in many ways- but i’ve never hated him, and was surprised to see a lot of people did.

maybe i’m just weirdly empathetic toward fictional characters, but i really liked his storyline. mona’s been with the protagonist since day one, helping him out, staying with him, encouraging and supporting him in everything he does, navigating them through mementos and palaces and battles… and he’s never really appreciated for any of it. obviously, the other phantom thieves do the same and don’t require any extra praise, but morgana already has a complex stemming from the fact that he’s not human. inherently, he believes he’s not nearly as good as any of the others, and subsequently, that he isn’t good enough in general- and he’s so ashamed of that that he can’t even voice the concern to the protagonist pre-okumura’s palace. it made sense to me when he snapped and ran away; if you were constantly the black sheep of a group, unable to engage with anyone unless the guy you live with is always there as well, wouldn’t you yearn for autonomy too? (don’t even get me started on the haru parallels there; there’s a reason morgana snapped during the okumura arc.) if you felt expendable and there wasn’t ever an effort made to prove otherwise, purposeful or not, wouldn’t you also want to leave? to spare both yourself, and the people you’re leaving? i really liked his arc because it led to two realizations- that he was pivotal to the group, and it was fine if he ended up not being a human. (and honestly, he was pivotal to my group… who else would i use to heal everyone outside of battle…!)

anyway, his objectification of women was weird. didn’t like that. but this is a JRPG, and he’s not the only one who does strange things like that at times (why was ryuji looking at ann’s chest in the mona bus outside futaba’s palace man…). honestly, his flirting was also weird at times, but as long as it never got strangely sexual, i didn’t really mind? it’s not like it ever genuinely bothers ann either as far as i remember. it’s more just a stupid thing he does.

anyway… i dunno. i like the kitty. he’s silly, he kept me company, and he made my playthrough fun. life is so much more beautiful when you carry love in your heart rather than resentment

[openphrase123]

we never get to see the gang train their fighting styles/crafts with each other either pre-game or post-game... i think it's cute... how do you think they'd train....

QUITE honestly. i think the way they train is the same way you train in a JRPG. which is grinding random sadnesses in the forest for experience until you level up and get a new skill

i think if you put any of them in PVP there would be Problems. siffrin is allergic to hurting anyone in the rest of the team. isabeau would likely be squeamish about practicing on a teammember because his weapons are Fists and that has kind of a bad connotation when you are pointing those at People. absolutely nobody is putting a single threatening hand on bonnie. odile probably has osteoporosis and would tap out at the slightest hint of discomfort (i think she has a high pain tolerance but if there's not a Point to the pain then she thinks it's useless <3)

mirabelle i think would be the only one who would be willing to actually spar with somebody because she has a rapier. she is Fencing. fencing has rules and is more of a sport than a fighting style when you're doing it against another person and she probably is imagining having an inigo montoya style swordfight whenever she's practicing. it's enrichment for her

[theminecraftbee]

For the persona AU: have you put any thought into weapons for the cast members? Obviously less important than the personas but I feel like they still say a lot about the characters. If not I have a couple suggestions:

Joel: Axes. I just kind of associate him with axes. Alternately, he could get to use knives used for summoning personas as the protagonist.

Skizzleman: I think skizzleman should get a big bludgeoning weapon, like a hammer or mace, fitting with his physical damage role.

Scar: a bow feels like an appropriate choice given that it will mostly take second place to his magic.

Grian: if Joel doesn't get the knives, I think grian should.

Impulse: a gun. I have no reasoning for this other than it would be funny.

Gem: Swords. It feels a little weird to have the sword user come in so late, but it would also feel wrong not to give her one.

I HAVE THOUGHT ABOUT IT SOME! so, some of these match my thoughts, and some don’t! here is what I think my lineup is:

joel: knives. yeah him as an axe user would be fun but persona protagonists DO traditionally need a slash-y weapon, and I want to not give him a sword, so knives it is, starting with the one he used to summon his persona. it’s a metaphor or something.

scar: bow. yep! it’s a bow. he’s hotguy. he gets a bow. (also he’s a magic-user so giving him a bow makes perfect sense honestly.)

grian: here’s where I get weird. I think he should have a naginata/spear. they’re distance weapons, traditionally somewhat feminine but also traditional in a way that I think would say interesting things about his character, and they’re also really interesting for a strong guy with a small build. mainly, though, I fucking LOVE polearms/spears/related weapons and I think someone should have one. and that someone is grian.

skizz: I am back and forth between giving him axes (for big physical damage), hammers (same), or giving him brass knuckles, because like, I don’t know man. he has “socking his enemies in the face” energy. I am leaning towards brass knuckles.

impulse: okay look I KNOW he’s a healer but I also love the weird jrpg trope of “what if the healer had a HUGE AXE”. so this is the other reason skizz is getting brass knuckles: so impulse can have a fuck-off huge axe.

gem: yeah she gets swords we all know she gets swords lol.

so this is where I’m standing at the moment but I also REALLY LIKE YOUR TAKES HONESTLY.

[beebfreeb]

seeing your wir posts is really fun!! it's one of my favorite movies, and the additions you've made to it are really well thought out. there's no pressure to answer this since it's kind of a loaded question, but what would you have preferred the second movie be about? even just like a character you would've liked seeing more of, or a different environment than the internet setting most of the second movie took place in

I don't really know! If a sequel didn't exist already... I wouldn't really want one. I think it's perfectly fine as a standalone movie and I'm kind of just using it as a base to build off of. The kinds of things I want to explore in a setting like that are just... not Disney movie material, I guess?

Honestly, I don't even know if I watched the sequel or not... I feel like I must have, but it is entirely a blank spot in my memory. So, I'm not even sure what I'd try to "fix" about it, LOL.

My answer is competitive speedrunning and glitch-hunting communities. AND a comparison of the lives of characters from arcade games and more story based console/computer games that can be saved and reloaded at any time and the implications that has.

Anyway this is why I should draw my not at all WIR related but video game inspired setting OCs with WIR characters at some point. I think Bartholomew as an edgy JRPG-type villain would be really funny to contrast with the sort of narratively simple bad guys that appear in the movie. Also my speedrunner SRM/ACE wizards.

Do you think Pacman likes the kill screen at level 256 or does it hurt him? Much to consider.

[smalltowncryptidfucker]

I started playing Octopath Traveler the other day, and I gotta say, it fucking slaps.

The soundtrack is incredible; the battles don’t feel tedious (they do take a long ass time to get through sometimes, though lmao), and I love the weakness mechanic for the enemies; the little pixelated character sprites are adorable, the characters themselves are really good, and have a shit ton of awesome abilities, and the way their stories all connect is really interesting.

I’ve only met six of the eight characters, but I haven’t found one I dislike in any way yet. (Aside from maybe Alfyn’s hair, but that’s honestly nitpicking- it’s an anime-style game, idk what I expected lmao.) Currently going through Cyrus’ prologue (he’s the sixth one I’ve met).

Anyway, yeah, mini ramble over, I just wanted to gush about the silly little JRPG I’ve been playing lol.

[toastling]

MrBeast honestly sounds like the name of some later-but-not-quite-final-stage JRPG monster. A higher level member of some family line. Like there's your little beasts, your wild beasts, then in the capitalist metropolis area there's the Mister Beast, with a little top hat and monocle and old fashioned mustache and one of its moves involves throwing orphans into a meat grinder. It doesn't do any physical damage, but it damages your party emotionally. Your healer throws up and has to sit out for a couple turns to process their trauma.

[patchwork-crow-writes]

Thoughts on Kris x Ralsei

This is so long I had to split it up into parts - this is Part 1, which looks into how the roles that Kris and Ralsei are given contributes to the idea of their romance. As more parts are written, they'll be linked below in this handy-dandy TOC!

Part 1: And They Lived Happily Ever After <- (You Are Here!) Part 1.5: I Believe Your Choices DO Matter Part 2: A Pair of Star-Cross'd Lovers Part 2.5: In Another World, We Could Have Been (Just) Friends

Okay, so.

Wanted to elaborate a bit on my viewpoint of this ship, because I don't think it's something I've ever really discussed before and I think it's actually a very interesting dynamic (or at least has the potential to be, depending on where the rest of Deltarune goes).

So, Kralsei is cute, isn't it? It's fun to hug the fluffy boy and watch him melt into incomprehensible stuttering and blushing. All the little signs he's really, really into Kris, all the cute little snippets of dialogue you can initiate with him, all the alone time they spend together, in both chapters... honestly, the game makes it hard not to root for this pairing.

And yeah, it's cute... in a very surface-level, don't-think-about-it-too-hard kind of way. But once you start thinking about it... hoo boy. There is. A LOT to unpack here. So much more is going on just under the surface, and once you see it, it's difficult to un-see it. And in my opinion, it makes the Kralsei dynamic so much more nuanced, more compelling, and potentially quite tragic.

Now, a disclaimer: it's fine to like this ship on a surface level. No real harm is being done, these are fictional characters and it doesn't matter what reason you enjoy it for - if it provides comfort to you and gets you through, then more power to you! This is more me sorting through my thoughts on the subject and is not a judgment on how others approach it. With that said, and in the spirit of full disclosure, this will go into slightly uncomfortable territory - picking apart the idea of destined love, the deconstruction of common romance tropes, how outside manipulation might play a part, and even the potentially incest-adjacent nature of the relationship. If you don't want to deal with any of that, you can stop reading right now, and that's okay. Please continue to enjoy Deltarune in the manner that is best for you, and thank you for your attention thus far :)

If you're still with me, then please click the read more and we'll get started.

Part 1: And They Lived Happily Ever After

The first thing you have to understand is that Deltarune is utterly determined to cram the notion of Kralsei down the player's throat. The game is not subtle about this in any way, shape or form. Everything from the narration, to the dialogue, to major game events, to item interactions, and even the roles that Kris and Ralsei play both in the story and the party, serves to reinforce the notion that these two are very likely to end up romantically involved with each other in some way.

Let's look at the characters first. Kris is portrayed as the noble knight - stoic, unwavering, courageous, a natural leader - clad in medieval-inspired plate armour and wielding a sword and shield. And Ralsei is the archetypal princess - demure, dainty, kindhearted, nurturing - who uses magic to heal his allies and pacify enemies.

I did not mistype there - Ralsei is a prince, but the characteristics associated with him are more commonly found amongst female healers in JRPGs. Think Fina from Skies of Arcadia, or Marle from Chrono Trigger (minus the temperment), and you might have an idea of what I'm on about.

Think of knights and princesses for a moment. Imagine St. George slaying the dragon to save a helpless damsel. Imagine Lancelot and Gwenevere. Robin Hood and Maid Marion. Link and Zelda. Squall and Rinoa. Every single fairy tale involving an imperilled princess and a knightly rescuer. For a more modern take, imagine The Bodyguard. Ness and Paula. I could go on, but then we'd be here all day.

Suffice it to say that there is a pretty entrenched tradition surrounding these archetypes - a male-coded, phsyically-adept, courageous, stoic, action-oriented figure, is paired with a female-coded, magically-adept (depending on the medium of course), less-physically-capable by comparison, emotional, and more passive foil. The (male-coded) knight protects and rescues, the (female-coded) princess nurtures and soothes.

It is a very, VERY emotionally-charged dynamic, by its very nature. Through their acts of service to their protectee, the Knight displays their devotion and care for the Princess, and is in turn emotionally-enriched and cared-for. There is a great deal of physical and emotional vulnerability between them, and it is therefore ideal for romance stories.

Look at Kris and Ralsei again, through this lens. Kris is immediately put into the role of Knight, and Ralsei quickly establishes himself as a classic Princess. Almost instantly, before you've even become aware of it, you've made the connection - they're going to fall in love, because that's what ALWAYS happens in these stories. Ralsei supports and encourages Kris, both in dialogue and in battle, and Kris...

...Kris, uh...

...they...

...hug Ralsei sometimes...?

...they... they give him a ribbon...?

...no, that can't be right.

But it is right, for two reasons. One, Kris doesn't have to do anything. The roles are already established, and Ralsei is playing his part like a pro. And two, Kris doesn't do any of those things in the first place - you do. It's the player who hugs Ralsei, who gives him the ribbon, who picks the dialogue options, who makes the connections. You're the Knight in this scenario, not Kris.

Because Kris doesn't get to make that choice. Kris has to do what you tell them to do. And many of us have already jumped to the conlusion that this romance is happening, becuase that's what always happens. The Knight and the Princess fall in love. They get married. They live happily ever after.

So we ship them, because hey, it's cute, and it's easy. I can't stress enough how easy the game makes this. I'm fairly convinced that Ralsei was designed by comittee, like the Funzo toy in that one episode of the Simpsons. Like he was created with the sole purpose of being the most disgustingly adorable, lovable, awkward little cinnamon bun that ever existed. Like he was created to generate the maximum emotional response in players. It's the cuteness response dialled up to 11, and we are almost hard-wired to want to protect this little bundle of fluff from any and all danger, because lookit how sweet and adorable he is! The glasses make his eyes look all big, his fluffiness is reminscent of that of baby animals, he stutters and fumbles his way through dialogue, and you just want to scoop him up and put him in your pocket or something.

And so, we're more than happy to fulfil the role of the Knight to Ralsei's Princess. Whether Kris actually wants to or not. Because it does become increasingly obvious that outside of our influence, Kris is still their own person, with their own goals and desires, but no real agency with which to pursue them. Would that we could know what they truly want, but we are never presented with an opportunity to find out.

The thing is, Kris is not particularly... knightly. They play pranks on their friends, they swipe sweet treats from their mother, they seem to enjoy getting a rise out of people, and particularly from Asriel, if the story about "dropping the lizard into the pit to jump higher" is any indication. They sleep through class, yet by Berdly's grudging admission they are the "third smartest in the class". The only reason they go to church is so they can drink the "sick fruit juice". They don't seem to have any issue with prank-calling their mom, while she's taking about them with their tutor, while they're standing just out of sight, while they're balancing a trash orb on their head.

Nothing about this behaviour screams "Knight." If anything, it would make more sense for Kris to have become a Rogue-type character upon entering the dark world. So the question remains - why is Kris forced into that role? And to what extent is the seemingly "fated" romance between Kris and Ralsei part of that role?

Folks, we have barely scratched the surface here. If I keep writing here this will become a novel, so I have to stop for everyone's sanity. But I will follow up soon, looking into the ideas of Purpose and Destiny and how they relate to Kralsei in-game. If you've stuck with me up to this point, let me just say thanks, because wow I wrote a lot here, and it's probably a bit rambly and says the same things two or three times, but I just. Had to get this onto the page in some way or another, so... here it is.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one :)

[vagonca-rigo]

Ok now that I've finished Felvidek, here are my thoughts:

-It's a JRPG, but you don't have to grind at all, as there are no levels to be raised. All fights in the game matter in one way or another, and with the right equipment and skills you can win every one of them. That doesn't mean there aren't optional fights, like mutants or hussites appearing after certain events or just roaming around a small area. These you can avoid completely, but if you decide to engage and win, you get some extra crown to spend(plus items).

-The art is fucking amazing and I love the use of colors for NPCs and enemies especially. Environments can get a little busy(although not so much that things are indiscernible) at times, but paths always stand out so navigation is no issue. I also love love LOVE the buildings, they are put into space so well. There are also a few cutscenes in low poly 3D, all at more important points of the story. They are kinda reminiscent of cutscenes from games with pre-rendered graphics from around the 90's with the movement and grain.

-The music(listen to the OST here), my god I'm going insane. Usually, anything with a medieval setting will use this 'vaguely medieval sounding' type of tune that's honestly not remarkable or memorable, but most of this game's tracks really have some funky, rock-ish feel to them(and a little dread as well) that honestly really complements the artstyle.

-This was my first time going through it and I most definitely didn't get all of them, but depending on which NPCs you decide to do errands for, the epilogue gets longer and tells the future of the affected NPCs, which I think is pretty neat. There is also, apparently, a secret area, but I missed it.

Honestly I can only recommend it. It's short, but it really doesn't need to be any longer. The characters are great, the setting and story is interesting, and all in all it's just plain fun... So go and get it right now! :D

[guiding-key]

HelIo! I don't make any personal posts on this page but I really wanted to talk about this one! twitch.tv/burstbeat

I watch and donate to Jackscepticeye's Thankmas every year, but this year is something really special to me. And I. AM. STREAMING. FOR. IT.

I have always struggled with mental health but earlier this year I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer (triple positive). I am currently post-chemo and post-mastectomy and things are looking really good! I still have radiation coming up, so my journey isn't over yet. But throughout the whole process I've really struggled with my mental well being. I am eternally grateful to my medical team for supporting me every step of the way, but after losing my hair and one of my breasts, on top of everything else, I absolutely dipped into a bit of ~the despair~. So when Jackscepticeye announced that this year was focused on supporting mental health, I knew it was time for me to get more involved. I am SO ready to spread the joy and awareness this season! ❤️

Before my treatment started, I loved streaming JRPGs. I took a pretty significant break during the tougher portion of my treatment but I think I'm ready to get back into it. And what better time than Thankmas! AND with Kingdom Hearts!!

I'll be playing the first Kingdom Hearts game (because nostalgia of course) starting Friday December 6th, 2024 @ 6PM EST. And I'll be going for as long as I possibly can, especially if I have people donating to and spreading the word for such a great cause. I have so much love for this game and honestly I think I need some good ol' KH nostalgia right now. I need more Sora in my life during these trying times! I really hope all of you beautiful people join me and help spread awareness for mental health this Thankmas!

P.S. The picture I used for this post is me entirely bald; I've been wearing a wig (and probably will for stream) for weeks while I get back to work, but I'm trying to be more comfortable with my bald ass head. I'd like to bring more awareness to cancer treatments, especially in younger adults like myself, and help normalize the process from a physical and mental perspective. No matter what, thank you so much for reading this small novel I ended up writing lmao

P.P.S. There is a good chance my orange cat will hog the face cam like the attention ho he is, so if you like cats then this stream will so be for you.

[sevi007]

Tales of the abyss playthrough, part 5

Well, damn it. We are busted . Not that our disguises were any good but that’s a wooping 30 minutes of gameplay before they caught us

Interestingly enough, Jade does not seem particularly hostile towards us. It seems more like genuine intrigue to me

Yes thank you Luke. I'm honestly getting dizzy with all the exposition over here. There are so many factions within the same organisation and I still have not yet fully grasped all those score and fonon things.

So from what I gathered, the score is like a written history of everything that was, and will be. Talking to some NPCs, it also seems to server as a kind of horoscope (that's why I say it tells the future). So it's like a religion's bible in a way that they follow it's teaching, but it's also more, because it can make predicitons (or already made them).

There are two kingdoms we know of yet - Malkuth and Luke's home which's name I always forget - and they are on the brink of a war. Over what, I have not really understood yet. But despite the fact that Jade and Anise are part of Malkuth's military, they do not want any war and are on the way to help Ion (who is a neutral party not undre any kingdoms' rule) to the king for a peace treaty. Did I get most of it right? Sure hope so!

Jade, I do realize you're making fun of Luke. Bastard man XD (I'm kidding, it's funny)

Oh? See what I mean about fast-paced?! XD I was still mulling all this new info over, gimme a breather please

Yea does not look like I'm getting a breather.

Oh? Can we summon zombies now?

Is anybody on the Team already a zombie? Jade is pale like one... okay I will stop XD

Ah I see. That will explain how they nerf Jade so he can be part of the party.

Checking his stats... yeah he is on our level now. Dammit. I wanted to use him for easy farming for a bit longer. XD Curse you for seeing through my genius plan, game!

Well now, that’s interesting. I cannot recall a JRPG which actually adressed the fact that we kill the (human) enemies we face. (Disregarding Vesperia and Yuri‘s kills here, because those were outside of the battles that we as players control). I admit that I in front of the screen did not consider this either. In the back of my mind, I assumed we knock them out, rather than outright killing them

Not only is this interesting for me as the player, but also for Luke‘s character development. Remember, again, that his entire (remembered) life was a sheltered one. He barely learned how to fight- Tear points out flaws like not considering the environment, not knowing how to use arts - much less how to deal with a real battle field, or killing. Now he gets thrown into a situation where it‘s kill or be killed. How he will deal with this and what he will do from here on out might be an important milestone for him.

.....

Ah. Literally like two minutes later:

Oookay I had assumed Luke will have a bit more time to mull the whole killing thing over but alright, fast paced once more XD Poor boy.

Huh. I think I saw this guy in the opening? I‘m going by ear here, but I THINK he has the same voice actor as Luke? No don‘t tell me! I don’t want to look it up either. It’s just interesting. Jotting this down as important - especially since they are careful not to show us this man‘s face. Maybe a long-list twin? Although there‘s a lot of things that speak against that theory.

So I'm cutting this short here, this post is already long enough. I'm very intrigued so far!

@magicmetslogic