Xanadu Next is one of Falcom's overlooked earlier games, but it is as good a game as the rest of Falcom's catalogue. Hexyz Force, on the PSP, is also a great JRPG experience. It really nailed the dual protagonist experience
Live A Live Remake is a true Gem. It's a masterpiece. The Story, the music, the beautiful graphics. Oersted surprised me and his story left me in shock and it's resolve in awe. It's just pure awesomness.
My hidden gem recommendation is "Reverse Collapse Code Name Bakery", a game as good as its title is long! This SRPG is in style a lot like Utawarerumono in set up with a visual novel style story and tactics game play but in a sci-fi setting. Now the story is nowhere near as long and in depth as Utawarerumono, but it is still very interesting with lots of twists and turns. But where this game shines most is its gameplay, as it reminds of tactics meets Metal Gear Solid. You have your characters that have defined roles with some customization, but you also have a batman like tool belt where you get various useful tactical gear to help you complete your missions that you can customize yourself. Pretty much all the stages feel completely unique even when they have you revisit some areas, there might be some overlap like this is a stealth mission ect. However, this does not take away with the amazing setup of the games systems to make all stages fairly challenging with surprises along the way. Also, this game has plenty of useful quality of life features you find in modern SRPGs so it doesn't make you feel like banging your head against a wall. I may hate on a lot of games but when I find one that stands above the rest to gush about it, you know it is a banger.
I really want to play Witchspring R (after many people recommended it including your videos), but unfortunately I've ordered the collector's edition (I love artbooks) and it was delayed until January ...
i'm playing Final Fantasy pixel remaster games 1 to 6 these days (only played original 1 and 6 before), and i'm loving them a lot i'm trying to get a few games these days as i've saved quite a bit for the last months, and baten kaitos 1 and 2 is definitely one of them
I remember giving Fuga a shot after the high praise you gave it way back. The gameplay loop is what hooked me. Glad to see you’re still pushing it out there for the attention it deserves.
I also highly recommend Stella Glow for the Nintendo 3ds. Stella Glow at first seems a generic harem jrpg. You explore the world to collect/recruit 4 elemental witch of wind, fire, earth, and water to defeat the evil witch. BUT at some point in the story it quickly became AWESOME!
LOVED WitchSpring R. I agree that it's SO packed with stuff to do, it felt much longer than it was but in a good way because it felt like you did so much in the game. and Fuga!
I played Noora and the Time Studio after I saw your video on it and its easily one of my favorite JRPGs ever! It was basically made for me. Especially as a Fin since the names and terms are often in funny finnish terms.
I absolutely, one hundred percent disagree that bloomtown is a “gem” in any way, shape or form. Time management is broken (no deadlines, can grind for stats endlessly during dailty life segment), combat is random (low hit rate, random “one more” system, bosses immune to most strategies), story is written by chatgpt and nearly every other game mechanic is severely underdeveloped. You couldn’t even *manualy save* until recently!
I would absolutely recommend CrossCode to everyone! It is a masterpiece of an Action-RPG with great leveldesign, fantastic dungeons with clever puzzles, very varied sidequests and a simple, but emotional story with one of the best silent protagonists ever. Although it is 60 hours long, it has more variety in its level- and puzzle-design in one hour than most of other JRPGs and that every hour! If you love 2D-Zelda as well as classic Ys, you OWE it to yourself to play this game! It is already a classic in my book!
For me it's Rise of the Third Power. Gripping story, likeable characters, solid gameplay, & decent length. Truly a shame it didn't that much attention.
My hidden gem would be Astlibra Revision and it's dlc, about 90-100 hours of amazing story, music and great side scrolling action combat for about 30 bucks, can't go wrong with it.
If I can get a recommendation for you Kiseki there is an indi game call 8-bit adventures 2. The game is surprisingly heavy on story (a bit too much for me). It has a pretty interesting universe, characters, plot, and a decent battle system that reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy X. I did play Bloomtown and it was alright for me. I just wish the main plot was more interesting.
Great, i completed 2 games from this list and 1 more i have in my collection :D Fuga is truly an emotional gem with awesome presentation and interesting gameplay, which i bought on its release. Live a Live is overall good game and interesting piece of gaming history, but it wasn't a masterpiece for me. And Baten Kaitos games are still waiting for their turn.
Besides Pieberries shit romance and the Ganon hijack bit I did enjoy that game. But yeah Fuga does not get enough love. I think a combination of the furry characters and being a pure digital game hurt it in the long run.
highly recommend it aswell, picked it up randomly because I heard it was developped for like 13 years I think ? And ended up being one of my favourite jrpg of all time
I'm surprised I've heard of two of these (and have pkayed one of them), Baten Kaitos I think I haven't tried because I feel averse to card battle systems, Live A Live I have played, just yet to finish
Might sound weird, but I avoided Live a Live because it has multiple short stories. I feel I would get attached to a character only for having them taken from me in a while just to be replaced by that western setting dude, wich I'm really not into. Maybe someday...
I understand how you feel because I felt the same way, but how can I put this without spoiling at all... you do get a chance to play as your favorite characters again. I'm afraid to say more lol. Definitely a really fun game and pretty short (took me 20 hours to finish) so it's a good palette cleanser between long games.
Baiten kaitos was only forgotten because they released it without the English dub. If they had not done that it would have been great. I know so many more than 25 people I know that hate playing games not dubbed . That alone turned them off right away . I don’t care but if you already have a dub they needed to make that N option to pick that alone is what destroyed the launch
Me when i first found trails in the sky
Still recommending it to all my friends, litterally none are and it became a meme
Us.
Ah you mean TitS!
I didn't know they were making a 3rd Fuga game, but it's great to hear. I'll definitely get it when it comes out.
Xanadu Next is one of Falcom's overlooked earlier games, but it is as good a game as the rest of Falcom's catalogue.
Hexyz Force, on the PSP, is also a great JRPG experience. It really nailed the dual protagonist experience
Live A Live Remake is a true Gem. It's a masterpiece. The Story, the music, the beautiful graphics. Oersted surprised me and his story left me in shock and it's resolve in awe. It's just pure awesomness.
Got the plat on Witchspring R can confirm its insanely good
My hidden gem recommendation is "Reverse Collapse Code Name Bakery", a game as good as its title is long! This SRPG is in style a lot like Utawarerumono in set up with a visual novel style story and tactics game play but in a sci-fi setting. Now the story is nowhere near as long and in depth as Utawarerumono, but it is still very interesting with lots of twists and turns. But where this game shines most is its gameplay, as it reminds of tactics meets Metal Gear Solid. You have your characters that have defined roles with some customization, but you also have a batman like tool belt where you get various useful tactical gear to help you complete your missions that you can customize yourself. Pretty much all the stages feel completely unique even when they have you revisit some areas, there might be some overlap like this is a stealth mission ect. However, this does not take away with the amazing setup of the games systems to make all stages fairly challenging with surprises along the way. Also, this game has plenty of useful quality of life features you find in modern SRPGs so it doesn't make you feel like banging your head against a wall. I may hate on a lot of games but when I find one that stands above the rest to gush about it, you know it is a banger.
Stella Glow gets a massive recommendation from me, very good characters with killer soundtrack.
nice that someone still remember ar tonelico. this is one of the greatest game ever made.
Speaking of Gust, do you guys think we'll ever see a new Nights of Azure?
This is the game we need.
I really want to play Witchspring R (after many people recommended it including your videos), but unfortunately I've ordered the collector's edition (I love artbooks) and it was delayed until January ...
i'm playing Final Fantasy pixel remaster games 1 to 6 these days (only played original 1 and 6 before), and i'm loving them a lot
i'm trying to get a few games these days as i've saved quite a bit for the last months, and baten kaitos 1 and 2 is definitely one of them
I remember giving Fuga a shot after the high praise you gave it way back. The gameplay loop is what hooked me. Glad to see you’re still pushing it out there for the attention it deserves.
I also highly recommend Stella Glow for the Nintendo 3ds.
Stella Glow at first seems a generic harem jrpg. You explore the world to collect/recruit 4 elemental witch of wind, fire, earth, and water to defeat the evil witch.
BUT at some point in the story it quickly became AWESOME!
LOVED WitchSpring R. I agree that it's SO packed with stuff to do, it felt much longer than it was but in a good way because it felt like you did so much in the game. and Fuga!
I played Noora and the Time Studio after I saw your video on it and its easily one of my favorite JRPGs ever! It was basically made for me. Especially as a Fin since the names and terms are often in funny finnish terms.
I absolutely, one hundred percent disagree that bloomtown is a “gem” in any way, shape or form. Time management is broken (no deadlines, can grind for stats endlessly during dailty life segment), combat is random (low hit rate, random “one more” system, bosses immune to most strategies), story is written by chatgpt and nearly every other game mechanic is severely underdeveloped. You couldn’t even *manualy save* until recently!
I would absolutely recommend CrossCode to everyone! It is a masterpiece of an Action-RPG with great leveldesign, fantastic dungeons with clever puzzles, very varied sidequests and a simple, but emotional story with one of the best silent protagonists ever. Although it is 60 hours long, it has more variety in its level- and puzzle-design in one hour than most of other JRPGs and that every hour!
If you love 2D-Zelda as well as classic Ys, you OWE it to yourself to play this game! It is already a classic in my book!
hell yeah Angie
My hidden masterpiece is Falcom "zwei'' series. In particular, "zwei II'' appears once on PC and is too hidden.
For me it's Rise of the Third Power. Gripping story, likeable characters, solid gameplay, & decent length. Truly a shame it didn't that much attention.
My hidden gem would be Astlibra Revision and it's dlc, about 90-100 hours of amazing story, music and great side scrolling action combat for about 30 bucks, can't go wrong with it.
I finished Ar Tonelico on ps2 a couple of months ago. It changed my life
Absolutely loved live a live!!
That Nora game looks super cute.
If I can get a recommendation for you Kiseki there is an indi game call 8-bit adventures 2. The game is surprisingly heavy on story (a bit too much for me). It has a pretty interesting universe, characters, plot, and a decent battle system that reminds me a lot of Final Fantasy X.
I did play Bloomtown and it was alright for me. I just wish the main plot was more interesting.
Another lesser-known game worth plaing is Terra Memoria.
I wish Witch Spring R would have an european physical release.
11:30 and also because of its artistic direction
The lack of a physical for Fuga really hamstrung it, IMO. RPG players tend to be physical collectors too, in my experience.
I just got witchspring r yesterday!!!
Great, i completed 2 games from this list and 1 more i have in my collection :D Fuga is truly an emotional gem with awesome presentation and interesting gameplay, which i bought on its release. Live a Live is overall good game and interesting piece of gaming history, but it wasn't a masterpiece for me. And Baten Kaitos games are still waiting for their turn.
Some of these games cannot be acquired anymore legally if not insanely difficult.
Ni No Kuni 1 was this for me
I will sing fu
ga to the high heavens and I am so sad its not seen enough.
Besides Pieberries shit romance and the Ganon hijack bit I did enjoy that game. But yeah Fuga does not get enough love. I think a combination of the furry characters and being a pure digital game hurt it in the long run.
Witch Spring R is pretty solid.
One i never see mentioned is Astlibra. Love that game. 2d Metroidvania sidescroller with a combat flow similar to Ys. High recommendation to anyone.
I highly recommend it too
highly recommend it aswell, picked it up randomly because I heard it was developped for like 13 years I think ? And ended up being one of my favourite jrpg of all time
@@NuageMH Same man. Was insane how good it was. Music is also very ys like too which makes it even better.
I love witch spring R its my favorite jrpg
I'm surprised I've heard of two of these (and have pkayed one of them), Baten Kaitos I think I haven't tried because I feel averse to card battle systems, Live A Live I have played, just yet to finish
Any hidden action JRPGs you'd recommend?
Might sound weird, but I avoided Live a Live because it has multiple short stories. I feel I would get attached to a character only for having them taken from me in a while just to be replaced by that western setting dude, wich I'm really not into. Maybe someday...
I understand how you feel because I felt the same way, but how can I put this without spoiling at all... you do get a chance to play as your favorite characters again. I'm afraid to say more lol. Definitely a really fun game and pretty short (took me 20 hours to finish) so it's a good palette cleanser between long games.
@mewichigo3410 Yeah, I try it eventually. You made it tasty for me. Thanks.
I was interested in Fuga but I can't get over the artstyle. I hate chibi and I dislike furries. They for some reason combined both.
Just gonna point this out, Witchspring is a Korean game.
Baiten kaitos was only forgotten because they released it without the English dub. If they had not done that it would have been great. I know so many more than 25 people I know that hate playing games not dubbed . That alone turned them off right away . I don’t care but if you already have a dub they needed to make that N option to pick that alone is what destroyed the launch
Unless those people are dyslexic, they should get over themselves. Bamco doesn't make good dubs anyway, so it's not like BK is missing much.