Persona 2 enjoyer here. Gotta clarify for those interested that P2 EP's PSP port has been fan translated, so both IS and EP ports can be played on a PSP/Vita or an emulator. They REALLY enhance the P2 experience. Hope that helps!
Breath of Fire is definitely one of the top classic JRPG series I would love to make a comeback these days, even remasters of the older titles would be great
I find it odd, certainly in these days of classic remasters/re releases ( chrono trigger, chrono cross, the mana series, suikoden upcoming etc) that breath of fire is not slated for a comeback.......sad
@@sterlingarcher857 If these companies aren't doing something that will make them more money, it's almost always because of copyright and IP shenanigans.
They released a new Breath of Fire game in Mobile (2016) and the reason they don't release it anymore in console is because the Breath series sales dropped over 70% when dragon quarters came out worldwide. The problem was there was too many competition at the time and Capcom didn't want to take a risk again.
The Person Duology is my favorite Megaten game. I'm glad to see it get some well-deserved love. As a kid I remember being bewitched by the original, flaws and all. It had been this American's first taste of the Megaten franchise. Just utterly otherworldly and I was obsessed. I happily surprised when Persona 2 hit the shores. Back then, RPG fans who grew up on the SNES and graduated to PSX, RPG fans had to be diligent. The internet was still infantile. You went in blind in search of treasure. Thankfully Final Fantasy 7 opened to doors truly bringing RPGs into the mainstream so Persona 2 got a proper release. Atlus had put in a lot of work to make the follow up more accessible to a universal audience. You have to realize that we, as Americans, had never encountered an RPG that really dealt with the adult, mature philosophical themes of the game's story and setting. A story that really asked something deeper of the player. This wasn't swords, magic, and evil empires. This focus of the story wasn't the setting, it was in the complex psychological make up of its characters. This was new. A story that was so well constructed and inner woven that it spanned two full games. I loved it when I was twelve even though I didn't understand it. I knew there was something more to it than a twelve year old could fathom. A higher station. Something that drew me to come back over the years. As I grew older and became educated in philosophy and psychology...and just life experience, I always took away something different. As a member of its American cult fanbase, we felt it was a grave injustice we were deprived of the entire second half of the story. The internet was further along now and we scoured fan translation/rom hacks sites whose teams delivered us previously lost SNES classics. I cant remember clearly but I think it was Aeon Genesis who took up the call. I could be wrong. I want to say the undertaking took a few years and that I would check up on its progress from time to time. And then one day there it was. I downloaded and went back down the rabbit hole,. It was well worth it. Anyway, sorry for the babble. Oh, and the reason it didn't get released here was because of good ol' American homophobia and censorship. Jun had a thing for Tatsuya and American censors were worried it would be contagious...or something. The other reason was because of Hitler. Hitler pops up and get all Hitler-ly and Hitler's around. Those two reasons have been specifically cited as to why the States didn't receive the release. Our handlers convinced the Japanese that we were dumb children who were easily confused and defenselessly sensitive. I'm sure that outlook hasnt really changed but at least they can be rest assured we like buying shit to complain about.
Fou-Lu is not even a villain bro, not until the very end of the story, the main antagonists are the Empire and Yuma, he is mostly a neutral God turned wrathful because of bad (awful, horrible) human deeds, basically biblically accurate God lol
I think about Breath of Fire IV a lot. It has the most memorable story that I've played from any jrpg. If you don't have time to play the game, there is a great manga adaptation.
Good work guys! I always love to see BoF4 get some love; although I still prefer 3 overall for the Dragon gene system, 4 is almost certainly the best of the series in every other way.
Thank you! Yeah 3 has the better dragon system for sure and I do prefers its music as well, but BoF4 is certainly a more polished game overall with a better battle system (excluding the dragon part). It’s always really hard for me to pick between the 2
I personally prefer 3 overall since the plot is also no joke... I mean, it lets you grow attached with Teepo and Rei just to kill them in the first few hours! The Peco conundrum? The dragons actually being able to destroy the world? RYU GROWS MIDGAME? That game was epic... Also, Rei best boi
Just discovered your channel and have been hooked. You make some of the best rpg videos on YT. I also love your intro, it reminds me of an early 2000s toonami edit (if you remember those montages theyd sometimes do. )
Yeah that intro is lit. I like the way they splice in vocal samples from different JRPGs over the 90s style hip hop beat. The visuals fit with the vibe the audio creates. It's really well done IMO.
Thanks for the kind words and glad to hear you’ve been enjoying the content. That was the exact inspiration for the opening, Toonami had a huge influence on my childhood
@@elizabethpower1702 @1:15 that's one of the Megaman X games. @1:17 that appears to be The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. That's what it looks like to me.
Hard to word this properly but my enjoyment of the act of watching your videos has been steadily increasing. This is a way you guys are unique and it's a strong point. Not really any more or less substantive than others doing the same type of videos but these are a better aesthetic experience
Appreciate that. We think aesthetic and the overall vibe can be big in creating an identity for the channel so we’ve tried to give the videos our own personal flair
Fou-Lu used to be one of my go to examples of a relatable villain until FFXIV gave us the even better Emet-Selch. Also some recommendations for future iterations of this if you continue: NieR:Automata, Shadow Hearts: Covenant and Suikoden (any really, but especially 2, 3 & 5).
I still need to play FFXIV, heard a lot of good things Shadow Hearts and the first Nier were featured in previous parts. The others are good picks for the future
Breath of Fire IV was definitely no joke when it came to it's mature story. I remember getting upset many times because of the villains and just how screwed up things got. However, it illustrated perfectly the contrasts between Fou-Lu and Ryu. Dragon Quarter continued with a dark story, but it never went as hard as IV did. To comment on the horror aspect, it's music in combination with visuals was surprising in how grim and disturbing it could be, especially the ones with the chanting. I laugh about it to this day, but when the last fight with Fou-Lu's dragon form started and the music in combination with his form, I turned off the game and was ready to take the rental back lol! It scared me that much and I get why, but such an extreme reaction that seemed silly. Beat it later, though.
Love Persona 4, my personal favorite in the series. They really balance out the tones well, on one hand it’s like a cozy slice of life anime then it gets super dark and deep for certain plot beats
This was a nice bday gift. Your videos always inspire me to go back and replay some of these amazing games and once in a while a few I havnt tried. Keep up the great content and keep up the awesomeness.
I think your videos are some of the best editing I've seen on RUclips. I found you with the Chrono Cross Retrospective and have watched every video you put out since. I don't have a game to add to the list just praise.
Never heard of that La Place game for the Super Famicom. Looks like something I would have loved if we were lucky enough to get it localized during the SNES era. I understand why Nintendo of America wouldn't have wanted it published here though. They were historically very picky about religious themes and had many 8 bit and 16 bit games heavily censored.
For sure, being a pretty niche game with heavier themes it’s not hard to see why they didn’t bring it over back then. Really interesting and unique game though in comparison to most of the other types of RPGs that were being released back then
@@GamingBroductions It seems reminiscent of early Megaten. Also I live in Massachusetts so it intrigues me to see how Japanese people would portray my home State.
For future consideration to fill in the SRPG slot: Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume. This underappreciated strategy game is a prequel to Valkyrie Profile and manages to mix strategic elements similar to FFT/TO while still providing access to timed button pressing attacks and PWS finishers. The core mechanic of the game is that because of "plot" Wylfred (the MC) is granted a valkyrie plume which can be used at any time in battle to massively charge up one of the party members at the cost of them permanently dying at the end of the fight. This also expands Wylfred's own moveset. This is tied in with a nice revenge driven plot, which I'm always a fan of, and it has branching paths and multiple endings all of which combine to encourage multiple playthroughs via NG+. Somehow whenever I bring this game up in conversation no one seems to have even heard of it which is really unfortunate. Keep up the great work on the videos!
Grandia 2 was one of my first JRPG games I've immersed myself into, the other one being FF9. The story, battle system, the world & characters are so casual friendly, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Man. Xenosaga came out when I was in the 9th grade and the story confused the heck out of me but I still played it because the story is engrossing, the combat is fun, and the music is AMAZING.
I really hope Xenosaga comes-back around. There's hope. SPOILER TANGENT BELOW: In the final events of Xenoblade 3's DLC, the party is transferred to .....the Hollywood Hills of California, but in some sort of pocket dimension. (A similar event happens in XS, but in a virtual mind-dive.) On a house porch there's a vintage radio branded by Vector, the megacorp Shion works under in XS. By the looks of things, it's only about a couple centuries in the future and LA more resembles a city on one of the planets colonized by humans in XS's events (thousands of years in our future.) The news report on the radio speaks about the beginning phases of humanity's reach for the stars. Giant ark ships that will send entire colonies of people to distant stars (or something.) Many XS terms are referenced, especially at the end when a "Dimitri Yuriev" is mentioned. He's a major antigonist in XS, albiet millenia later. It being the same, or a far ancestor is up for debate (alot of supernatural aspects surround him.) Lastly, in the post-credits, we see something from space about to enter Earth's atmosphere. In the final shot of XS3, KOS-MOS's body is seen floating in space torward earth. The heavy implication is that it's her. Furthermore, in the events of XS, Earth is considered "lost" by humanity. The final events of XB3 show that the two worlds separated by experiments on The Conduit (basically another Zohar from Xenogears and Xenosaga) converge back into one. So the basic inference is this: A good portion of humanity migrated from Earth before The Conduit snafu, which split the world into two dimensions, both of which became hidden until the end of XB3 when it was returned to normal. So while humanity was faring the stars and being chased by exteradimentional threats (not alien), the events of XB were taking place. In the conclusion of both events and a returned Earth, KOS-MOS's body happened to fly into it. So there you go. XB and XS are confirmed to be shared-universes, on a huge metascale. So to that, I have hope that we at least get remasters of the original XS on whatever next Nintendo console, and/or a new Xeno IP that involves KOS-MOS.
I'm playing tactics ogre at the moment! I played it as a kid but couldn't get past chapter one because I was too young too understand it's mechanics so after all these year's I thought id give it another go and boy is this game addictive! I remember the dialogue being impressive as a child and it definitely holds up, when so many jrpgs and srpgs can come across kitschy tactics ogre is as good as it gets when in it comes to its high fantasy presentation, super impressive game
You mentioned Octopath Traveler in part 2 of this series. Now that the sequel to that game has been out for a while, I'd really like to hear your opinion on it. I think it managed to improve on the original, which was already amazing, in pretty much every aspect. Even the music!
Here from OhNoItsAlex's reccomendation. Instant sub. The music yall choose goes hard and adds a completely different feel to the video. Huge fan of that.
Thanks for subbing and welcome! Yeah we’re all about setting a distinct vibe over here and the music selection is big for that I’m familiar with his channel but just curious, when/where did he recommend us? I briefly went over his page and social media and didn’t see any mention, but I think we’ve had another comment or 2 saying something similar so I just wanted to ask
Awesome video as always. I just got Breath Of Fire 4 a couple weeks back. I want to play 1-3 before I play that one though lol. I also own Persona Eternal Punishment, but thats on my back log 😆
I hope Atlus remakes Persona 2 after the big success of Persona 3 Remake. Maybe even merge both parts into one game? It has a good story, maybe even my favorite characters in the series, and I love the Joker villain. They should keep the 1990's setting and artstyle too.
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II, this should be on one of these lists at some point. That one needs some love and I don’t hear any Atlus fans talking about it. Also Shin Megami Tensei I & II, those were DARK.
Great video as per usual! Do you ever play CRPGs? When it comes to mature storytelling there are plenty of CRPGs that really hit that mark like Planescape Torment, the Baldur's Gate series, and Tyranny. While they're mechanically different from JRPGs I feel like you would like some of them!
Excellent games you mention. The first two Fallout games especially 2 are wonderful. More recently Pillars of Eternity 1-2, Pathfinder series, Divinity: Original Sin are also worth checking out if you like Western CRPGs. I haven't played it yet, but Disco Elysium is supposed to be another good isometric style RPG.
So I’ve always had a passing curiosity in CRPGs but have never really dove into them. I own Planescape, the first 2 Baldur’s Gate games and Divinity 2 but have yet to play them. I do want to check them out one of these days for sure though! The WRPGs I’ve played have been more action and MMO based so the more turn based ones do intrigue me
@@GamingBroductions The first two Baldur's Gate games aren't really turn based, rather they are real time with pause. So you issue commands, let them play out, and if things start to go wrong you can always pause and issue new commands. The first two Fallout games are turn based isometric CRPGs. Divinity: Original Sin 2 is widely regarded as one of the best games in the CRPG genre and allows you to choose between pure turn based or real time with pause. It's a super deep RPG with tons of branching choices with meaningful consequences. There's always many different ways to deal with a given situation and some of them are absolutely ingenious. It is difficult in terms of combat, but overall it's a wonderful game for fans of tactical roleplaying.
You know the problem with a lot of CRPGs is the insane difficulty curve, especially for old ones made in the 90s. A decent starting point I would recommend would be Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. It's a little iffy here and there but generally it is still quite easy to play and serves as an easy intro to the genre. If you start with the old Baldur's Gate of Planescape games you're in for a rough time!@@GamingBroductions
Sometimes I feel like a crazy person as a Xenosaga fan. "Does nobody remember these games but me!?" Xenosaga 1 is my favorite from the trilogy. It was so dark, creepy, mysterious, but still very much a space opera. The gnosis were scary man. Played BoF 1, 2, and 3 but not BoFIV. Funny how Capcom makes Monster Hunter, even bringing back Dragon's Dogma but acts like they forgot Breath of Fire is one of their IP's too. I'd settle for a remaster bundle at this point.
Did you say Maya was a teen reporter? She's 23 years old. The only teens in the game are the ones wearing school uniforms (Tatsuya exempt because in biker outfit in Innocent Sin), the rest of the cast are adults. I don't think Atlus wants to mess with Persona 2 games much because they would have to censor the heck out of them and get hate for it, rightly so. They already did remove our favorite German, but that was criticized in the past because you can't just take out something that bizarre and memorable. No better way to show the bad guys are indeed bad guys manipulated by eldritch beings. They wanted to move away from the dark tones tying it to the Shin Megami Tensei series, as it no longer is connected, as they wanted mainstream appeal with Persona. I'd also hate to see how much further they'd change the music as they turned P1's soundtrack pop from it's very Megaten vibes. Extreme contrast.
I literally clicked on this video because Ike was in the thumbnail. Path of Radiance is SO GOOD. I managed to get a copy off eBay for $140 (it's up to, like $500 now I think??) and I don't regret it in the least bit. Probably tied with Engage (yes, I LIKE Engage, it's a love letter to the series) for my absolute favorite FE game! My Soren is unkillably broken and even took out Petrine by himself in a single hit. Soren + Vantage is broken af
Great video as always! I love your aesthetic and honestly I get ''nostalgia-shivers with your '90's style intro and the whole vibe of it ! Good on you for including La place no ma ! If you ever do a video on ''funny''/Meta rpg or just obscure old school, I highly recommend G-O-D: Mezame yoto Yobu Koe ga Kikoe. It's been fan translated in 2020 and it's a very good game with a lot of quirkiness and yet some deep philosophical aspect as well. (Also so many important character dies it's weird lol) If you never played it, I recommend using the ''easy'' patch that simply cuts the encounter rate in half and 2x the exp etc to compensate, it just streamlines the whole thing and remove the grinding. Keep up the good work !
FFT to me will always be the best story In FFT, the War of the Lions took place after the 50 Year's War, a major conflict between Ivalice and Ordallia, the context for which included the fact that Ivalice's King Denamda II claimed rightful rule of Ordallia when its King Devanne III, Denmada II's nephew, died without naming an heir. In history, the War of the Roses was proceeded by the 100 Year War, fought between England and France, the context for which included the fact that the English royal family claimed the French crown by blood. There's even similarities between individuals; what little we know about the great Ivalician warrior- king Denamda IV seems to match up with the English king Henry V. Bonus point: the noble house that ruled France was the House of Valois. The guy who took over Ordallia? Varoi VI. I'm no master of Japanese, but unless I'm mistaken, Valois and Varoi would be pronounced virtually identically in that language. It's a lot of coincidences to ignore.
One word when it comes to BoF4: CARRONADE. Holy shit. And yeah, the first time I played it, I sided with Fou-Lu, I was like bring on the apocalypse brother. The only reason I redid the ending was that I disliked having to kill my companions.
Chrono Cross is just Ethereal. It probably is the greatest testament of a video game that can be considered an art form. The music and backgrounds, and different locations, is almost like playing a moving painting.
Feels like i've dropped this in every BoF4 video, but i'll drop it again here : I LOVE BOF4 so much!!! But, the most frustating thing is, WHY the hell the devs left out Yuna ? Dude is literary the real villain. I really wanted to Shadowwalk That mf so bad! Are they left him out for a unborn sequel? For God sake! It still hunting me
This really bothered me too. I think I remember reading that there was initially supposed to be a final act where you fight against him, but due to time constraints or something they had to cut that part out. A real shame as the story does feel a little incomplete because of it
It's actually not. The handle is Maya in reference to the P3 character. In the Japanese version, the handle is Y-Ko. No Persona games aside the P2 games are connected directly, only suggested to be in the same world. I have a hard to thinking that the case and a connected universe instead because of how Persona are summoned. The Velvet Room is likely the connecting fabric or possibly is the commonality.
If I think about it, most of the rpg's I grew up with involved my village getting burned down, close ones abducted or murdered & something trying to end humanity.
Hey in your thumbnail you write 熟成した(read jukusei shita) but that is used more for food (like meat, fish and wine) and makes not so much sense if it’s just written there alone with nothing coming after it. The mature you are talking about could be said like this in Japanese: 大人も楽しめるゲーム (otona mo tanoshimeru game: games adults can enjoy) :)
Bro this game is like gta with just cause 2 action , watch dog Parkour with John woo action I mean look at the pub action sequence. THIS GAME NEEDS A SEQUAL.!!!
Yeah, Persona 2 is VERY dark. Baofu and Ulala's interactions are nightmarishly depressing, with her hoping to find some way and light in life, and him knowing everything is futile and dark, and only he with a stoned heart can find some fun in living. Persona 2 part 1 was not simply "dark", it had "everyone's least favorite german guy" and swastikas in it, but - the worst offense - it had almost canon gay relationship, with main protagonist no less!
I hope yo see Sweet Home on the Famicom hit one of these lists. That game is incredibly dark and has a great story, especially for the era it was released
I imagine if someone is here looking for JRPG's that they're willing to do a little work to play them as best they can. That being said the remake of Tactics Ogre for the current gen consoles is okay but it's def got it's problems. I recommend playing the PSP version of Tactics Ogre using the One patch on a hacked PSVita, that has to be the best way to play and enjoy the fantastic JRPG Tactics Ogre.
I'm 66. I've playing games over 40 years. I lost my husband a little over 2 years ago. The games I love are fun and relaxing.
and ?
Persona 2 enjoyer here. Gotta clarify for those interested that P2 EP's PSP port has been fan translated, so both IS and EP ports can be played on a PSP/Vita or an emulator. They REALLY enhance the P2 experience. Hope that helps!
bof4 one of my all time favorite games, shame on capcom for forgetting about this great series.
Breath of Fire is definitely one of the top classic JRPG series I would love to make a comeback these days, even remasters of the older titles would be great
I find it odd, certainly in these days of classic remasters/re releases ( chrono trigger, chrono cross, the mana series, suikoden upcoming etc) that breath of fire is not slated for a comeback.......sad
@@sterlingarcher857 If these companies aren't doing something that will make them more money, it's almost always because of copyright and IP shenanigans.
They released a new Breath of Fire game in Mobile (2016) and the reason they don't release it anymore in console is because the Breath series sales dropped over 70% when dragon quarters came out worldwide. The problem was there was too many competition at the time and Capcom didn't want to take a risk again.
i actually prefer 5 for that mature feeling.
Xenosaga completely blew my mind back in the day with its music, graphics, and story. Thanks for the video!
They need to bring it to steam.
The Person Duology is my favorite Megaten game. I'm glad to see it get some well-deserved love. As a kid I remember being bewitched by the original, flaws and all. It had been this American's first taste of the Megaten franchise. Just utterly otherworldly and I was obsessed. I happily surprised when Persona 2 hit the shores. Back then, RPG fans who grew up on the SNES and graduated to PSX, RPG fans had to be diligent. The internet was still infantile. You went in blind in search of treasure.
Thankfully Final Fantasy 7 opened to doors truly bringing RPGs into the mainstream so Persona 2 got a proper release. Atlus had put in a lot of work to make the follow up more accessible to a universal audience. You have to realize that we, as Americans, had never encountered an RPG that really dealt with the adult, mature philosophical themes of the game's story and setting. A story that really asked something deeper of the player. This wasn't swords, magic, and evil empires. This focus of the story wasn't the setting, it was in the complex psychological make up of its characters.
This was new.
A story that was so well constructed and inner woven that it spanned two full games. I loved it when I was twelve even though I didn't understand it. I knew there was something more to it than a twelve year old could fathom. A higher station. Something that drew me to come back over the years. As I grew older and became educated in philosophy and psychology...and just life experience, I always took away something different.
As a member of its American cult fanbase, we felt it was a grave injustice we were deprived of the entire second half of the story. The internet was further along now and we scoured fan translation/rom hacks sites whose teams delivered us previously lost SNES classics. I cant remember clearly but I think it was Aeon Genesis who took up the call. I could be wrong. I want to say the undertaking took a few years and that I would check up on its progress from time to time.
And then one day there it was. I downloaded and went back down the rabbit hole,. It was well worth it.
Anyway, sorry for the babble. Oh, and the reason it didn't get released here was because of good ol' American homophobia and censorship. Jun had a thing for Tatsuya and American censors were worried it would be contagious...or something. The other reason was because of Hitler. Hitler pops up and get all Hitler-ly and Hitler's around. Those two reasons have been specifically cited as to why the States didn't receive the release.
Our handlers convinced the Japanese that we were dumb children who were easily confused and defenselessly sensitive. I'm sure that outlook hasnt really changed but at least they can be rest assured we like buying shit to complain about.
Fou-Lu (BoF IV) and Luca Blight (Suikoden II), both are my favorite villain of all time.
Fou-Lu is not even a villain bro, not until the very end of the story, the main antagonists are the Empire and Yuma, he is mostly a neutral God turned wrathful because of bad (awful, horrible) human deeds, basically biblically accurate God lol
Nice I’ll watch this with my cigar tonight
Indeed
And I’ll watch it as I sip a glass of 1947 Chateau Cheval Blanc
had a choice J while watching
Ok Bill Clinton.
King 🤴 like energy
I think about Breath of Fire IV a lot. It has the most memorable story that I've played from any jrpg. If you don't have time to play the game, there is a great manga adaptation.
Oooh, really? I'm gonna look that up.
Good work guys! I always love to see BoF4 get some love; although I still prefer 3 overall for the Dragon gene system, 4 is almost certainly the best of the series in every other way.
Thank you! Yeah 3 has the better dragon system for sure and I do prefers its music as well, but BoF4 is certainly a more polished game overall with a better battle system (excluding the dragon part). It’s always really hard for me to pick between the 2
I personally prefer 3 overall since the plot is also no joke... I mean, it lets you grow attached with Teepo and Rei just to kill them in the first few hours! The Peco conundrum? The dragons actually being able to destroy the world? RYU GROWS MIDGAME? That game was epic... Also, Rei best boi
Just discovered your channel and have been hooked. You make some of the best rpg videos on YT. I also love your intro, it reminds me of an early 2000s toonami edit (if you remember those montages theyd sometimes do. )
Yeah that intro is lit. I like the way they splice in vocal samples from different JRPGs over the 90s style hip hop beat. The visuals fit with the vibe the audio creates. It's really well done IMO.
Thanks for the kind words and glad to hear you’ve been enjoying the content. That was the exact inspiration for the opening, Toonami had a huge influence on my childhood
I just got on here to say how much I enjoy this channel and the intro especially and saw your comment.
What games are at 1.15, 1.17?
@@elizabethpower1702 @1:15 that's one of the Megaman X games. @1:17 that appears to be The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. That's what it looks like to me.
I still wish Fou-Lu from Breath of Fire 4 appeared in Marvel vs Capcom 3. Would have been nice to get at least 1 BoF rep in there.
Man that would have been awesome. I played the shit out of Marvel Vs Capcom 2 back in the day
Hard to word this properly but my enjoyment of the act of watching your videos has been steadily increasing. This is a way you guys are unique and it's a strong point. Not really any more or less substantive than others doing the same type of videos but these are a better aesthetic experience
Appreciate that. We think aesthetic and the overall vibe can be big in creating an identity for the channel so we’ve tried to give the videos our own personal flair
Fou-Lu used to be one of my go to examples of a relatable villain until FFXIV gave us the even better Emet-Selch.
Also some recommendations for future iterations of this if you continue: NieR:Automata, Shadow Hearts: Covenant and Suikoden (any really, but especially 2, 3 & 5).
I still need to play FFXIV, heard a lot of good things
Shadow Hearts and the first Nier were featured in previous parts. The others are good picks for the future
Breath of Fire IV was definitely no joke when it came to it's mature story. I remember getting upset many times because of the villains and just how screwed up things got. However, it illustrated perfectly the contrasts between Fou-Lu and Ryu. Dragon Quarter continued with a dark story, but it never went as hard as IV did. To comment on the horror aspect, it's music in combination with visuals was surprising in how grim and disturbing it could be, especially the ones with the chanting. I laugh about it to this day, but when the last fight with Fou-Lu's dragon form started and the music in combination with his form, I turned off the game and was ready to take the rental back lol! It scared me that much and I get why, but such an extreme reaction that seemed silly. Beat it later, though.
The BoF games' stories were all dark. I mean friggin' BoF2 robbed my childhood innocence and that game has a meme-worthy localization.
can i play it on PC? wiki says it was relased on PC, but no store have it o.O
Persona 4 is the perfect example for me of a game that’s has a mature story even with all the fun parts of the game
Love Persona 4, my personal favorite in the series. They really balance out the tones well, on one hand it’s like a cozy slice of life anime then it gets super dark and deep for certain plot beats
U have the most unique, chill vibed, nostalgic jrpg channel on yt.
the VA for ryudo was so good especially in the scene where he confronts his brother
Man, that intro is fantastic. One of the best I've seen for a YT channel.
Thank you, appreciate that!
This was a nice bday gift. Your videos always inspire me to go back and replay some of these amazing games and once in a while a few I havnt tried. Keep up the great content and keep up the awesomeness.
Happy Birthday! Smokum peace pipe.
Happy belated birthday! Thanks for the kind words as well
I think your videos are some of the best editing I've seen on RUclips. I found you with the Chrono Cross Retrospective and have watched every video you put out since. I don't have a game to add to the list just praise.
Really appreciate it, the kind words mean a lot. Thank you for watching and glad to hear you’ve been enjoying the content!
Never heard of that La Place game for the Super Famicom. Looks like something I would have loved if we were lucky enough to get it localized during the SNES era. I understand why Nintendo of America wouldn't have wanted it published here though. They were historically very picky about religious themes and had many 8 bit and 16 bit games heavily censored.
For sure, being a pretty niche game with heavier themes it’s not hard to see why they didn’t bring it over back then. Really interesting and unique game though in comparison to most of the other types of RPGs that were being released back then
@@GamingBroductions It seems reminiscent of early Megaten. Also I live in Massachusetts so it intrigues me to see how Japanese people would portray my home State.
Grandia 2 holds a special place in my gamer heart, and easily a must play
The first 2 Grandias are absolute classics and some of my all time favorites
For future consideration to fill in the SRPG slot: Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume.
This underappreciated strategy game is a prequel to Valkyrie Profile and manages to mix strategic elements similar to FFT/TO while still providing access to timed button pressing attacks and PWS finishers. The core mechanic of the game is that because of "plot" Wylfred (the MC) is granted a valkyrie plume which can be used at any time in battle to massively charge up one of the party members at the cost of them permanently dying at the end of the fight. This also expands Wylfred's own moveset. This is tied in with a nice revenge driven plot, which I'm always a fan of, and it has branching paths and multiple endings all of which combine to encourage multiple playthroughs via NG+. Somehow whenever I bring this game up in conversation no one seems to have even heard of it which is really unfortunate.
Keep up the great work on the videos!
Grandia 2 was one of my first JRPG games I've immersed myself into, the other one being FF9. The story, battle system, the world & characters are so casual friendly, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I'm crazy about the intro edit.
List like this gonna be a never ending and a really great list 🙂 keep the great work man 👍
Thanks man!
All these games are so good. God I love old JRPG's lol
The amount of classic JRPGs coming out during the SNES/PS1/PS2 eras was ridiculous in hindsight, lol we were so spoiled back then
Man. Xenosaga came out when I was in the 9th grade and the story confused the heck out of me but I still played it because the story is engrossing, the combat is fun, and the music is AMAZING.
I really hope Xenosaga comes-back around. There's hope. SPOILER TANGENT BELOW:
In the final events of Xenoblade 3's DLC, the party is transferred to .....the Hollywood Hills of California, but in some sort of pocket dimension. (A similar event happens in XS, but in a virtual mind-dive.) On a house porch there's a vintage radio branded by Vector, the megacorp Shion works under in XS. By the looks of things, it's only about a couple centuries in the future and LA more resembles a city on one of the planets colonized by humans in XS's events (thousands of years in our future.)
The news report on the radio speaks about the beginning phases of humanity's reach for the stars. Giant ark ships that will send entire colonies of people to distant stars (or something.) Many XS terms are referenced, especially at the end when a "Dimitri Yuriev" is mentioned. He's a major antigonist in XS, albiet millenia later. It being the same, or a far ancestor is up for debate (alot of supernatural aspects surround him.)
Lastly, in the post-credits, we see something from space about to enter Earth's atmosphere. In the final shot of XS3, KOS-MOS's body is seen floating in space torward earth. The heavy implication is that it's her. Furthermore, in the events of XS, Earth is considered "lost" by humanity. The final events of XB3 show that the two worlds separated by experiments on The Conduit (basically another Zohar from Xenogears and Xenosaga) converge back into one. So the basic inference is this:
A good portion of humanity migrated from Earth before The Conduit snafu, which split the world into two dimensions, both of which became hidden until the end of XB3 when it was returned to normal. So while humanity was faring the stars and being chased by exteradimentional threats (not alien), the events of XB were taking place. In the conclusion of both events and a returned Earth, KOS-MOS's body happened to fly into it.
So there you go. XB and XS are confirmed to be shared-universes, on a huge metascale. So to that, I have hope that we at least get remasters of the original XS on whatever next Nintendo console, and/or a new Xeno IP that involves KOS-MOS.
I love these vids and this channel in general and I must say the intro has really grown on me. A class.
Thank you, love to hear it!
Xenosaga has been on my top five favourites of all time and has yet to be usurped. It was so different and unique.
I'm playing tactics ogre at the moment! I played it as a kid but couldn't get past chapter one because I was too young too understand it's mechanics so after all these year's I thought id give it another go and boy is this game addictive!
I remember the dialogue being impressive as a child and it definitely holds up, when so many jrpgs and srpgs can come across kitschy tactics ogre is as good as it gets when in it comes to its high fantasy presentation, super impressive game
Bro still has one of the best RUclips intro of all time
Awesome video. As always, the intro is an absolute banger
Thanks dude!
glad to see you bros gettin paid!
Thanks! Wandering Sword is awesome so they were a no brainer to work with
You mentioned Octopath Traveler in part 2 of this series. Now that the sequel to that game has been out for a while, I'd really like to hear your opinion on it. I think it managed to improve on the original, which was already amazing, in pretty much every aspect. Even the music!
Here from OhNoItsAlex's reccomendation. Instant sub. The music yall choose goes hard and adds a completely different feel to the video. Huge fan of that.
Thanks for subbing and welcome! Yeah we’re all about setting a distinct vibe over here and the music selection is big for that
I’m familiar with his channel but just curious, when/where did he recommend us? I briefly went over his page and social media and didn’t see any mention, but I think we’ve had another comment or 2 saying something similar so I just wanted to ask
Was on last saturdays livestream.
ruclips.net/video/1qd4IBnsLMg/видео.html
3:37:10 -3:43:04
Bro just gushes over your channel!
@@GamingBroductions
Awesome video as always. I just got Breath Of Fire 4 a couple weeks back. I want to play 1-3 before I play that one though lol. I also own Persona Eternal Punishment, but thats on my back log 😆
That old school toonami bumper style is the best
We didn’t need a P3 Remake. We needed a P2 Duology remake. Those games’ stories and message-they don’t make them like that anymore.
Damn.. i loved that intro. So many memories.
Thanks for these great lists, JRPGs have always been my favorite genre and its nice to get some new recommendations
I hope Atlus remakes Persona 2 after the big success of Persona 3 Remake. Maybe even merge both parts into one game? It has a good story, maybe even my favorite characters in the series, and I love the Joker villain. They should keep the 1990's setting and artstyle too.
I'm outside of that age range but love the content. Gaming and fitness keep one young.
Love it. Gaming and fitness are my 2 biggest hobbies
13:45 I'm getting some Sweet Home vibes from this...
Definite similarities to that one
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II, this should be on one of these lists at some point. That one needs some love and I don’t hear any Atlus fans talking about it. Also Shin Megami Tensei I & II, those were DARK.
Great video as per usual! Do you ever play CRPGs? When it comes to mature storytelling there are plenty of CRPGs that really hit that mark like Planescape Torment, the Baldur's Gate series, and Tyranny. While they're mechanically different from JRPGs I feel like you would like some of them!
Excellent games you mention. The first two Fallout games especially 2 are wonderful. More recently Pillars of Eternity 1-2, Pathfinder series, Divinity: Original Sin are also worth checking out if you like Western CRPGs. I haven't played it yet, but Disco Elysium is supposed to be another good isometric style RPG.
So I’ve always had a passing curiosity in CRPGs but have never really dove into them. I own Planescape, the first 2 Baldur’s Gate games and Divinity 2 but have yet to play them. I do want to check them out one of these days for sure though! The WRPGs I’ve played have been more action and MMO based so the more turn based ones do intrigue me
@@GamingBroductions The first two Baldur's Gate games aren't really turn based, rather they are real time with pause. So you issue commands, let them play out, and if things start to go wrong you can always pause and issue new commands. The first two Fallout games are turn based isometric CRPGs. Divinity: Original Sin 2 is widely regarded as one of the best games in the CRPG genre and allows you to choose between pure turn based or real time with pause. It's a super deep RPG with tons of branching choices with meaningful consequences. There's always many different ways to deal with a given situation and some of them are absolutely ingenious. It is difficult in terms of combat, but overall it's a wonderful game for fans of tactical roleplaying.
You know the problem with a lot of CRPGs is the insane difficulty curve, especially for old ones made in the 90s. A decent starting point I would recommend would be Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. It's a little iffy here and there but generally it is still quite easy to play and serves as an easy intro to the genre. If you start with the old Baldur's Gate of Planescape games you're in for a rough time!@@GamingBroductions
Somehow have never heard of Laplace No Ma. Definitely gonna try it sooner than later.
Let us know what you think if you decide to play it!
Another awesome video! Appreciate the hard work and dedication guys!
Thank you, appreciate the continued support!
Sometimes I feel like a crazy person as a Xenosaga fan. "Does nobody remember these games but me!?" Xenosaga 1 is my favorite from the trilogy. It was so dark, creepy, mysterious, but still very much a space opera. The gnosis were scary man. Played BoF 1, 2, and 3 but not BoFIV. Funny how Capcom makes Monster Hunter, even bringing back Dragon's Dogma but acts like they forgot Breath of Fire is one of their IP's too. I'd settle for a remaster bundle at this point.
Anyone else going to fire up BoF 4 now?
Did you say Maya was a teen reporter? She's 23 years old. The only teens in the game are the ones wearing school uniforms (Tatsuya exempt because in biker outfit in Innocent Sin), the rest of the cast are adults.
I don't think Atlus wants to mess with Persona 2 games much because they would have to censor the heck out of them and get hate for it, rightly so. They already did remove our favorite German, but that was criticized in the past because you can't just take out something that bizarre and memorable. No better way to show the bad guys are indeed bad guys manipulated by eldritch beings. They wanted to move away from the dark tones tying it to the Shin Megami Tensei series, as it no longer is connected, as they wanted mainstream appeal with Persona. I'd also hate to see how much further they'd change the music as they turned P1's soundtrack pop from it's very Megaten vibes. Extreme contrast.
I literally clicked on this video because Ike was in the thumbnail. Path of Radiance is SO GOOD. I managed to get a copy off eBay for $140 (it's up to, like $500 now I think??) and I don't regret it in the least bit. Probably tied with Engage (yes, I LIKE Engage, it's a love letter to the series) for my absolute favorite FE game! My Soren is unkillably broken and even took out Petrine by himself in a single hit. Soren + Vantage is broken af
A nice addition to the list would be Valkyria Chronicles.
I actually did consider that one for this video but decided to go with some others instead, good pick for the future though
oh man, am i the only person who played Mimana Iyar Chronicle? that game deserves to be shown some love
Great video as always! I love your aesthetic and honestly I get ''nostalgia-shivers with your '90's style intro and the whole vibe of it !
Good on you for including La place no ma !
If you ever do a video on ''funny''/Meta rpg or just obscure old school, I highly recommend G-O-D: Mezame yoto Yobu Koe ga Kikoe. It's been fan translated in 2020 and it's a very good game with a lot of quirkiness and yet some deep philosophical aspect as well. (Also so many important character dies it's weird lol)
If you never played it, I recommend using the ''easy'' patch that simply cuts the encounter rate in half and 2x the exp etc to compensate, it just streamlines the whole thing and remove the grinding.
Keep up the good work !
Brigandine
Great JRPG with Deep and Mature difficulty
I have Chrono Cross and Grandia II and have yet to play either. I really need to get on it!
They’re some of my all time favorites, highly recommend them!
Thank you for sharing about our game! :D
I'm playing Grandia 2 now.
FFT to me will always be the best story
In FFT, the War of the Lions took place after the 50 Year's War, a major conflict between Ivalice and Ordallia, the context for which included the fact that Ivalice's King Denamda II claimed rightful rule of Ordallia when its King Devanne III, Denmada II's nephew, died without naming an heir.
In history, the War of the Roses was proceeded by the 100 Year War, fought between England and France, the context for which included the fact that the English royal family claimed the French crown by blood. There's even similarities between individuals; what little we know about the great Ivalician warrior- king Denamda IV seems to match up with the English king Henry V.
Bonus point: the noble house that ruled France was the House of Valois. The guy who took over Ordallia? Varoi VI. I'm no master of Japanese, but unless I'm mistaken, Valois and Varoi would be pronounced virtually identically in that language. It's a lot of coincidences to ignore.
I've never thought about religion the same way again after Radiant Dawn
One word when it comes to BoF4: CARRONADE. Holy shit. And yeah, the first time I played it, I sided with Fou-Lu, I was like bring on the apocalypse brother. The only reason I redid the ending was that I disliked having to kill my companions.
Not sure if I already commented that on another video, but I really like the overall vibe of your videos. Nice job!
Very appreciate you putting the names in the description thanks
Should add Arc the Lad 2 in a future list. Game was dark as shit.
Definitely a good recommendation
Crispin Freeman is a great voice actor.
Indeed
Chrono Cross is just Ethereal. It probably is the greatest testament of a video game that can be considered an art form. The music and backgrounds, and different locations, is almost like playing a moving painting.
I’m not sure if you’ve seen our video on PS1 pre-rendered backgrounds but if not that’s funny because that’s almost exactly what I say about it lol
Feels like i've dropped this in every BoF4 video, but i'll drop it again here :
I LOVE BOF4 so much!!! But, the most frustating thing is, WHY the hell the devs left out Yuna ? Dude is literary the real villain. I really wanted to Shadowwalk That mf so bad!
Are they left him out for a unborn sequel? For God sake! It still hunting me
This really bothered me too. I think I remember reading that there was initially supposed to be a final act where you fight against him, but due to time constraints or something they had to cut that part out. A real shame as the story does feel a little incomplete because of it
Fun fact ,in persona 2 the women Maya is the same person in Persona 3 Maya the teacher where you can bond with.
It's actually not. The handle is Maya in reference to the P3 character. In the Japanese version, the handle is Y-Ko. No Persona games aside the P2 games are connected directly, only suggested to be in the same world. I have a hard to thinking that the case and a connected universe instead because of how Persona are summoned. The Velvet Room is likely the connecting fabric or possibly is the commonality.
Breath of Fire 4!
That game is pretty good, the soundtrack is pretty solid too.
Tactics Ogre is the greatest video game story of all time, with the greatest villain of all time.
Bro that Intro 🔥
another great video. a whole list of great games.
Appreciate it 👌
If I think about it, most of the rpg's I grew up with involved my village getting burned down, close ones abducted or murdered & something trying to end humanity.
Bro your growing lil by lil🎉
We tryin!
la place no ma...wow, what an interesting title! never heard of it before. looks promising. merci for the recommandation :)
Hey in your thumbnail you write 熟成した(read jukusei shita) but that is used more for food (like meat, fish and wine) and makes not so much sense if it’s just written there alone with nothing coming after it.
The mature you are talking about could be said like this in Japanese: 大人も楽しめるゲーム (otona mo tanoshimeru game: games adults can enjoy) :)
Thank you for pointing that out!
Maybe we will get a surprise in TGS for a Persona 2 Bundle remaster?
That would be awesome. I would be really surprised if Atlus never brings back Persona 2 in some way
Breath of Fire 4 got released on PS3. I’m playing through it on their now.
Gaming Broductions, imagine the fun of Breath of Fire 3 and 4 played on the Switch😃💞
Shadow Hearts series (including Koudelka) fits this topic.
Koudelka would be great for a future video, but we did talk about Shadow Hearts in one of the previous parts
@@GamingBroductions Ah okay I did a quick check and didn't see it. Thanks for the reply.
I love Grandia 2!!!
Another banger from the brothers!
Haha thank you!
Wandering Sword looks amazing
Your videos are great.
Thank you!
I was hoping to see suikoden 2 in the list, but hey this is a good list
Bro this game is like gta with just cause 2 action , watch dog Parkour with John woo action I mean look at the pub action sequence. THIS GAME NEEDS A SEQUAL.!!!
Laplace no ma was also on the 3do and was in first person perspective. It was a very different game.
I love how the darkest Persona game - Persona 2, is not even close to how bleak and dark to the mildest Shin Megami Tensei mainline game
Great recommendations and picks! A few on here I really gotta play!
Thank you for watching as always 🙌🏼 which of the games peaked your interest the most?
I played xenosaga I, youtubed 2, then played 3 and it was a great experience
Yeah that’s not a bad way to experience the trilogy in all honesty
Yeah, Persona 2 is VERY dark. Baofu and Ulala's interactions are nightmarishly depressing, with her hoping to find some way and light in life, and him knowing everything is futile and dark, and only he with a stoned heart can find some fun in living. Persona 2 part 1 was not simply "dark", it had "everyone's least favorite german guy" and swastikas in it, but - the worst offense - it had almost canon gay relationship, with main protagonist no less!
I played BoF4 over and over. Maybe like 100 times since it came out. 😂
Alright, fine. I'll add all these games to the "to play" list. I honestly think I'm gonna die before experiencing all the games I was play through
I had a lot of curiosity for your laptop xD
I hope yo see Sweet Home on the Famicom hit one of these lists. That game is incredibly dark and has a great story, especially for the era it was released
Suikoden had cartoony anthropomorphic animals, and chemical warfare, and genocide, and civilian massacre...
I imagine if someone is here looking for JRPG's that they're willing to do a little work to play them as best they can. That being said the remake of Tactics Ogre for the current gen consoles is okay but it's def got it's problems. I recommend playing the PSP version of Tactics Ogre using the One patch on a hacked PSVita, that has to be the best way to play and enjoy the fantastic JRPG Tactics Ogre.
Cool video, I waiting for new list, for example games with best action
Focusing on action RPGs for a future video would be cool, I’m sure it’ll happen at some point
@@GamingBroductions it'll be cool. Jrpg genre has so much potential to explore 😁