On Xenogears, I remember putting a rubber band over the X button on a 3rd party controller that had turbo after I would die so I wouldn't have to sit through the talking scenes. I would leave it while I ate dinner, come back, and they would still be taking.
i agree with all the listings but one huge miss that should easily take #1 is the entire end game section of Bravely Default. Such a GLORIOUS and super fun game that dives off a cliff at the end. Also you gotta say the whole bridge building section of Lufia is worse than Jerin's recruitment
I'm with you too, OP. Midgar is the best part of the game IMO. At least, storywise. You're facing off against an evil megacorp, reduced to guerilla operations, with understandable stakes, and a villain that's got more manpower than you can handle in a straight fight... And then suddenly the game turns into "chase after the insanely OP magical hair swordboi across just about the entire overworld doing random side-arcs that barely feel like they belong in that same world". :s
Not gonna lie, that's what made me interested in it (I feel like Midgar is the BEST part of FF7, at least in terms of story). Once I'm finally able to get my hands on a PS5, I'm going to grab it and love it.
I'm gonna come back to it, but I got "what did they do to my baby" vibes the entire time I played it. When I realized I was probably gonna be stuck in Midgard the whole time, I uninstalled and played some of my old games instead
Man, there's definitely potential for a whole series of "Most hated sequences in JRPGs". Almost every JRPG ever made has a sequence where the fun just decides to head out real quick.
I use to have trouble with that but if you just get the fast fish it’s much faster. The slow fish are suppose to be sick or something and the fast fish are healthy so they keep him alive if I remember correctly
That's funny, Torneko's chapter was my favorite part of DQ4. The way it influences you, a comparably average Joe, to leave your boring job (which barely pays) to explore risky dungeons for a chance of higher living and adventure is poetic to me. If I remember correctly, there were enemies which drop the required steel broadswords and iron armor semi-frequently.
@@Slappaccino at least it's more easy to have the map in the Zodiac Age version, also the two areas (ogir yensa sandsea/nam yensa sandsea) have new songs. 😁
lol i'm sure everybody and their mother has played ff7 by now but when the game first dropped and you walked into Wutai for the first time not knowing wtf to expect....... I literally spent like a few fucking hours trying to figure that shit show out as a kid, then you get the shit back and its all fcked up and materia all over the place, I WAS SO GLAD to get TF out of that place by time i did it
Actually........due to how the levelup system works in the game, how XP is split amongst all group members, if you get him a levelup or two, and get him to where he can survive battle outside of town, you can make him OP as frick because he gets 100% of all the XP, and that 600-800xp you get outside of his hometown with those easy (after a few levelups..) fights is better XP than you get until right near the end of the game. For you to get more XP at the end of the game, you'd have to kill things that give 4800-6400XP and that's.... very rare in BoF1. Only a handful of enemies (Huge Gold Slimes and the Red Beaks along with the purple pigs) give that much. So... you can quickly take Gobi up to level 30+ and he will be powerful for a short amount of time. Best of it is, doing this also makes Karn overpowered as crap because everybody's stats are factored into Karn's stats when he uses his transformation abilities. Just bring a Mrbl3 with you before you board the ship in Auria, and use it when Gobi is by himself to get to his town safely, buy him some armor, and keep lots of herbs around, and use the E-Key (or the RageHR/FlameDR if you went to that floating tower and picked the locks there early) to kill the stuff until he gets a few levelups.
The Mote part was much worse. It spins you around and around, and then the boss is a HUGE dick. I could not even make it through there the first time I played and thus my quest ended.
I liked that part the first time I played that game, because I hadn't played many rpgs where you could enter an underwater part of the game, and it was a nice change of pace (I only remember Final Fantasy Legend 2 and Ninja Boy 2 as the only games I had played so far that had underwater sections).
The first section is literally nothing but waiting in the shop and saying YES when costumers come in. No interesting bartering, no consequences for dumb sales or purchases, nothing. It's boring. The rest is all right.
Same- I loved Midgar and how much effort was put into making the city seem run down and grungy. I was actually disappointed when I was kicked out to the overworld because I wanted to stay there longer and meet more of the characters. It does help that I started the game with no expectations, so I didn't even know a world outside the city would be playable.
What made Midgard suck was they jammed so many minigames in that did not make sense in the context of what was going on storywise or just destroyed all narrative momentum. That made what should have been an intense opening sequence into a drag.
Breath of Fire 2 - The final dungeon. I will keep this short. Its difficult, deadly and doesnt feel like it ends and there is a key situation that is missable before you fight the final boss where if you do miss it you cant beat the game. David this would make a solid series! Thank you!
@@usaskjock it really is. I felt like i fought SO MUCH in that game and when i got to the final dungeon i still felt kind of underpowered. At times that game can be real tough.
SMT Nocturne: The prison mirage. Holy shit. God help you if you don’t realize you can interact with the gate controls and not only do you have to remember a 3D map of the prison, you have to flip it upside down.
FF VIII the whole section begins with Edea assassination attempt til saving the Garden from the missile attack. Every location of that got annoying parts Galbadia: Sewers and alot junction between party's Desert Prison: annoying roundabouts stairs - go down, go up, go down, go up, go down and junction, junction, junction Military Base: backtracking and boring but at least short Balamb Garden: Pro Cid - Pro Norg blah blah - run run ladder ladder
@@Terranigma23 Lunar Silver Star Story Complete's Meribia Sewers is not obnoxiously difficult or convoluted and is the first time you get the hear one of the greatest dungeon themes ever written. ruclips.net/video/qJ73AT6KIWw/видео.html
My prediction: FF9's Cid minigame in the Desert Palace is going to be on this list. EDIT: I liked the beginning of the 2nd world in FF5 after you escape Exdeath's Castle. It's just kinda fun. You're lost in the wilderness and have to find your way back, Regole is a delight to visit along with Galuf and Bartz's nighttime trip to the bar, and the Geomancer is OP AF in the swampy areas (which too bad go completely away in the 3rd world). EDIT 2: Oh yes, I completely agree with FF7's Midgar being on here! It made it so hard to even get into the game for me when it first came out. I always looked forward to finally getting out into the overworld. (And I think I commented on this before.) EDIT 3: I agree about the Earthbound one and the battle against the Department Store Spook. EDIT 4: Personally, I kinda liked the future; what I disliked was the sequences that came after, like when you're going through that water cave and then milling about trying to find the hero's medal. And I especially disliked having to go to the Prehistoric and then your Gate Key gets stolen!
I concur with your first edit; I liked the wilderness area in FF5. I'd say my least favorite sequence in it was the beginning of the third world, mainly because it was annoying not having Lenna, and because the Pyramid is a rather boring dungeon.
I don't really mind disk two of Xenogears being a visual novel that much because I dreaded the dungeon design of that game. I finally just get to kick back and relax and watch the story unfold without having to do anything. My one gripe with it is just how quickly some of it can go by where a lot of times I feel like I just missed something even though I was paying attention the whole time.
I've read that Xenogears is essentially an unfinished product. The designers had plans to create content for the entire second disc, then they literally ran out of budget and Square told them to deliver something IMMEDIATELY. The visual novel was jammed in at the last minute so that they could finish the story for the player. I've always hoped that someday we would get the Xenogears Snyder Cut, though it seems unlikely.
EarthBound is perhaps my favourite game of all time, and part of that has to do with Magicant, specifically the otherworldly atmosphere. The Sea of Eden is so beautiful and serene, and the fact that you can only visit this place once makes it all the more special. But at the same time, Magicant is also the most annoying section in the game for a couple of reasons. The enemies are just obnoxious, with the Carefree Bombs being a pain in the ass to deal with, and the Loaded Dice making me wish that Ness could equip a loaded shotgun to deal with them. And if you forgot to bring the Sea Pendant with you, the fight against Ness’s Nightmare is impossible, because the Flash attack instantly kills you without it. The Earth Pendant does protect characters from Flash attacks, but only 50% of the time, which I found out the hard way. All of this is made worse by the fact that the only save point is back at the beginning.
@@oliver4693 bolts are okay for me these days, not that challenging. There are more frustrating sigils than that one, like Wakka's and Kimahri's for example. :D
@@RuruFIN I mean you can basically break Blitzball with Cid, Biggs and Wedge and I didn’t have too much trouble with Kimari’s celestial weapon. My main problem is with Chocobo racing. Fuck Tidus’s celestial weapon, I spent more than 5 hours trying to get a time of 0.00 seconds.
Personally, you missed the other slog of FFIV - Edward and the Antlion Cave. I know it does show case Edward and his Llama Harp once received but man its just a crappy place with Rydia still low in magic/health and edward, his 60HP and his super ability to HIDE! ugh.....now I feel like that thumbnail. Off to grab a drink now.
Watching now, suikoden 5 the first 8-10 hours. The first time you play it isn’t bad because it is world building but man replaying that game and I hate the start.
Oof, the part where you lose Paula in Earthbound is a nightmare. I got it even worse because I had put the Franklin Badge in her inventory and got obliterated by the PSI Thunder-slinging guitar enemies ;~; And I totally feel you on the Midgar thing in FFVII xD fortunately, at the time a friend's brother had already played far enough in the game to get to the world map, so I knew it was in there... but it still surprised me how long that section lasted
I don't have any dreaded sequences in JRPGs I love, except for the entire concept of timing or twitchy-gameplay based mini-games that are required for story progression, because I generally feel like I am having a good time when I am playing games and have literally no taste. That being said, I could definitely see what you were getting at with your choices because your video was so well explained.
nah, Midgar was one of my fav environments. the worst part is in the first town outside when cloud tells the story. I hate battles that offer no benefit. you got not Exp, items, or anything. I would rather just text or a cut scene. the whole time in Midgar i spend dreading that part. I would put FF6, the ruined world map. the encounter rate was insane and i didn't know where to go. I took a wrong turn somewhere and all the battles gave like 2 exp and there were like every 2 steps. one of the first and only times I stopped playing a game I paid money for. Kefka really did win lol
My favorite part about the flashback fights is that is viscerally shows you just how terrifyingly powerful Sephiroth actually is. Here you are, being comfortably strong with your current equipment and magic, then you have Sephiroth using tier 3 spells and one shotting giant enemies that instantly kill you. It establishes the gap between Sephiroth and you, which adds to the fear and presence he commands. I agree that battles without reward can be annoying, but they can be effective when done right.
@@somethingsomething9006 yeah, i understood that. but it was so annoying. FF10 did that with seymor, and your get AP. it was just so long and pointless. a cutscene would have been way better. I dropped a save after it so i never had to do it again. which sucks cause i loved midgar.
Here's one that I'd like to add: Bravely Default! When you fight the final boss and have him nearly defeated, he wipes your party with an unblockable special death attack! This alone made me hate that game.
The Torneko (or Talon as we knew him as back in the day) Chapter was actually really novel for its time. By the time Dragon Warrior 4 came out, a lot of people had played RPGs but never had a chance to actually be one of the shop owners. Dragon Warrior 3 had a merchant class, but you weren't able to play that character actually running a store. I wouldn't want that game mechanic to play out for the rest of the game, but it was a cool addition for Chapter 3. The reason the second disc in Xenogears is so bland is because right in the middle of the game's development, Square moved a bunch of its resources to focus on Final Fantasy VII. So the Xenogears team had to finish the game on a shoestring budget with a looming deadline. The second disc kind of is what it is, but I think many of us wonder what it would have been like if it were an actual expansive world where your characters had some agency, like the first disc.
My top 5: 5: ff7 midgar - it takes forever 4: smrpg bowser’s keep - puzzles 3: ff8 seed mission - the bosses take forever to beat 2: ff6 beginning - it’s a drag without sprint shoes Honorable mentions: Ff6’s dayrl’s tomb - the bosses have so much hp Ff6 magitek factory - the encounter rate is so high 1: ff9 hourglass
No lie, the amount of VNs that posture or are promoted as JRPGs or SRPGs is mind boggling at times. I get that the genres share DNA and audiences but nothing is worse than investing into a title with excellent pacing only to get bogged down for hours on end reading script. Nothing against VNs but when they arn't balanced out by gameplay, why ignore or omit what they are and save many of us the trouble? Xenogears was totally a perfect example of this.
Because you can't really call them a VN either, because then you piss off the VN people with too much gameplay. Xenogears had several difficult fights during the game, and VN people are oftentimes not looking for gameplay.
Xenogears wasn't supposed to be like that though. The team couldn't finish the game in time with the resources they had and so instead of cutting it off at disc 1, they decided to create the weird storytime disc 2. I really wish Square would revisit that game in the future and do a true remake with an actual disc 2, but I doubt it will ever occur.
Every opening in Persona which takes about 2 hours to get to the first dungeon, chasing Dhoulmagus' staff in DQ, when you have to repeat all the crystals in Bravely Default
One of my most dreaded segments has to be Tales of the Abyss, post Absorption Gate . It's like 2-3 hours of "let's go to Daath! Let's go to Yulia City! Let's go to Baticul! Let's go back to Daath! etc., etc., etc."... Wish there was a skip button. Then, I'd have to say the beginning of disc 3 of FF9. An hour or two of Zidane becoming a mopey sop. Not that Final Fantasy is any stranger to moping, but it was so unbecoming of Zidane that it just hurt to go through.
Agree on both. Why did Luke have to be the messenger to everyone who mattered in person after every dungeon? We have NPCs for that sort of stuff usually.
Man...there are so many classics I'd love to replay but then I remember certain parts or god-awful forced mini-games and don't even bother starting. :(
While I love the game, I remember getting the Nei weapons in Phantasy Star II being so brutally hard due to the dungeon designs, I had to use the hint book for the last dungeon. It was included with the game, but still.
Thanks for this list, David ! I actually enjoyed Taloon’s chapter in DWIV because it felt so unique to me compared to other DW gameplay. I have to mention for 7th Saga, after getting the first 6 runes but before going to Barluca. I usually try to grind up 20-30 levels , but that is literally 2 weeks of just grinding in my free time
I thought the whole game would be Midgar too. I was extremely excited to leave....and then the whole Kalm, 45 minutes of torture came right as I had to go to sleep for school. Simafort was a spot I got stuck on during an entire rental. I spent hours before realizing I had to tell frog lady about her boyfriend, smh.
I don’t know how people hate the Xenogears sewers so much but *don’t* hate the final major dungeon. OH. MY. GOD. It’s so freaking huge and samey and you just cannot possibly hope to not get massively lost. Despised that part. (Also, Phantasy Star 1 & 2 have some real painful dungeons, but the cake really goes to my somehow still beloved Shining in the Darkness, which is nothing BUT a giant, painful dungeon!)
All three times I’ve played through Xenogears I couldn’t bring myself to slog through that last dungeon and lost interest. stopped playing. Every time. I finally picked it up again last year and made myself do it, but man is it terribly designed and not fun.
For me its rarely particular sequences, its often the mini-games as they're usually both surprisingly hard and grindy. Both triple triad and the card game in FF9 killed some of my playthroughs before, for example. They're required to 100% the game but doing that grind also completely destroys the flow of the game. Specially in FF8 where you have to win cards from specific characters that only appears during important story segments.
Talah Rama's monkey cave is one of the few points in EarthBound where I still NEED the guide....but there are 2 parts WORSE for me, despite it being my favorite game of all time: the Threed tunnel ( difficulty spike...those damn ghosts...and the Slimy Little Pile miniboss that constantly causes the party to either cry or feel strange ) and Magicant ( only Ness for the majority of it...and enemies are insanely op because of course there's a difficulty spike... ). with Chrono Trigger, I always dreaded the Tyranno Lair for some reason... I got confused when you said Cara talking about Final Fantasy V...was that Krile's name in a fan translation or something? also IMO: Cyan's dream in Final Fantasy VI Chapter 34 in The Last Story ( I always get stuck on the Mitra boss fight... ) Atlantica in Kingdom Hearts II the forced Tetra Master tournament in Final Fantasy IX ( I despise forced minigames period for the most part )
Dragon Quest II has the Path to Rhone. The search for the five Crests was bad enough, but then there is a long maze of a cave with poisonous swamps, pitfalls, and high encounter rates with tough monsters. And if you make it through, you still have to travel a long way with even tougher monsters. (including one that has Sacrifice/Kamikaze that will instantly kill your whole party) before you reach a save point.
Xenogears second disc is a slap-in-the-face because everyone knows how good the game was supposed to be. How it should have been. But since Square was running out of money, and hated the idea of Xenogears even existing, we got what we got. Now that we're this far out and it's commonly pretty high up in so many favorite jrpg lists, you think someone would want to do it justice, but I'm not holding my breath for any kind of re-release to ever happen.
Hey David, what's up with the mic/sound? Starting from the Final Fantasy 7 sequence, I start hearing a low humming noise in the background, which honestly drives me crazy :(( A fantastic video and I totally agree with you on everyting I have experienced!
10. Early game (Final Fantasy XII). Not having access to your gambits because the game hasn't given you the gambit tutorial yet. 😡 9. Lava Dome (Final Fantasy Mystic Quest). Too long for how tedius the battles are if you don't buy 99 seeds and blow through everything with your magic. Still tedious even then, though. Just less so. Also, it's the only big crystal dungeon in the game where you don't get any cool new weapons. 8. Beginning of Disc 2 (Final Fantasy VII). Losing my party members, even temporarily, is really annoying. 7. Cave of the Phoenix (Final Fantasy VI). Really long and confusing. 6. World of Continent (Final Fantasy Legend/SaGa, for the fussy ones). You have no resources and you are very weak compared to the monsters you need to fight to get even minor resources. You could use monsters, if you understand the transformation system, but you need a chart on hand to really take advantage of it and the meat and monster encounters make two different random factors for each step. 5. D-District Prison (Final Fantasy VIII). STOP MAKING ME SHIFT MY JUNCTIONS AROUND! 4. Either of the big towers (Final Fantasy IV). They killed my first run of the game. Too boring and too repetitive, couldn't keep at it. Only soldiered through them years later. 3. First half of Disc 3 (Final Fantasy IX). "Garnet can't concentrate!" 2. Krelian's laboratory (Xenogears). Been a long time, but I remember just hating how lost you can get because so many rooms look the same and there's no in-game map. 1. Silph Co. (Pokémon Red/Blue/FireRed/LeafGreen). I detest teleporter mazes, and I don't think I personally have played a game with a worse one than this.
Let's see, 10 sequences in JRPGs that I really, really hate... Hmm... 10 - Balencentine Castle - Wanderers From Ys III - It's an action RPG, and it's hard as balls. I hate the castle sequence, because it's very long with many bosses. The regular enemies are rough, you want to jump over or dodge them outright if you can. The traps practically one shot you if your timing's off. The music is cool, but man... 9 - Thamasa - FFVI - I hate being restricted to Locke and Terra. Shadow being in the mix made me excited, but he's immediately taken from you for the duration of your exploits. I don't like Relm at all, and there aren't very many good Lores to learn with Strago's intro stage, essentially. The burning house is exciting on a first playthrough, but it's literally just hallways with Bombs. Boring, samey. Especially compared to other dungeons in the game. 8 - Kid's Poisoned - Chrono Cross - I hate this sequence very much. I hate it all the more for the fact that you have to pick the puss cake dummy pants option to get Glenn. I would have never known that without a guide. One thing I can say is at least it's not a but thou must, but for the love of god. You do the right, obvious thing, and you get saddled with Korcha... At least it's not long. 7 - Gold Bar Bullshit - Breath of Fire - As a kid I did not have good money management skills in RPGs. I did not manage items well, either. You wind up needing, what, 3 Gold Bars? 1 for Gobi. One for Thief's Town elder... One for something else, I think? That's 195,000 G! Jesus christ. 6 - Sima Fort - Yeah I hate that sequence too, David. As a kid it actually got me stuck on my first two attempts of trying to play the game. I literally gave up on my favorite entry in the Breath of Fire series, twice, over that sequence. 5 - The Catacombs - Dark Souls - Reanimating skeletons with key Necromancers that you have to kill... They inflict bleed. Spike statue traps. Spiked flipping bridges. Perputal Motion skeletons riding spiked wheels... Almost more of a side area, since it doesn't loop and interconnect to the rest of the Dark Souls 1 world to boot. Ewww. 4 - Billy's Intro - Xenogears - I hate Billy, ok. I don't like him. The translation of that segment is weird too. It kinda felt like the game suddenly went off topic, but nope, it's all related and there are big plot drops. It gets ok once you get to go to Zeboim. 3 - Manaan - Knights of the Old Republic - Yeah, I strayed out of JRPG territory again. Sorry David! But I hate this planet in an otherwise stellar sequence of planets. It's original to the game, afaik, and is never seen in the movies. It's basically a bunch of annoying, strung together set pieces. A Sith base. An underwater facility where everyone's going mad. A fraction puzzle if you want light side points. I generally wind up doing it last because you get no new party members there. It really, really sucks. 2 - Shadow Temple - Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time - Action RPG again, heh. I hate this segment, though. You have to learn the Song of Storms as an adult. Go play it as a kid. Go in the well, get the Lens of Truth after a disturbing mini boss. Go back to being an adult. Make sure you've beaten the Water Temple. Sequence trigger Sheik fighting invisible monster in Kakariko. Make sure you have Din's Fire. Then, finally, you're treated to a creepy ass, unsettling music filled dungeon that's soaked with blood and illusion. 3-D Wall Masters or whatever can suck it. I hate that place, so much. 1 - Post Game - Lunar 2 - Uhh, I actually have never finished it. Opting to look it up instead. The endgame through Zophar was enough of a slog for me. As much as I love the Lunar games I do not go for grindy post game just to see the happy ending they should have already provided me with.
David, you're awesome! Love your channel! JRPGs are like my bread and butter, you could be the brother/twin that I didn't know I had! I had no idea about the second disc of Xenogears-OUCH! I Guess I have that to look forward to (or not). My first time playing through Final Fantasy IV I got stuck on Baigan. I rented the game and didn't know the pattern for defeating him, so you're not the only one. I actually enjoyed the Midgar part of Final Fantasy VII, but I would agree that the game sticks you there for too long. Here's one of my picks on this topic: the dreaded card game tournament in Final Fantasy IX. I wasn't good at cards, and I didn't really care about cards, but in this scenario the game FORCES you to participate. I would always save my game just before the tournament in case I screwed up, because I never really knew what I was doing (ditto for Final Fantasy VIII's card game). I never understood how to play blitzball in Final Fantasy X, either.
8:00 - 'The future sequence sucks'. Well, that's the point. The future in Chrono Trigger IS terrible. It's depressing, dark, dreary and hopeless. The world was completely devastated by Lavos and this was the end result. That's the purpose of this sequence, to show this to you so it kicks your ass into finding a solution.
Oh Dave! that was perfectly said! All those areas had me dreading certain parts too. When You said you cried in chrono trigger when the people had no food, or Robo got beat up..that was so fricking cute! lol! I understand tho! thats the magic of the MMORPG. Fantastic video man! keep putting out this great content handsome! :)
Midgar and Paula rescue mission didn't bother me. Frankly I found Midgar extremely compelling because it has amazing world building. Paula part is interesting because you as a player never see it coming and kind of take her for granted considering how powerful she is. Once you have you her back you never want to see her gone again. I have a theory that many gamers have a small tolerance to being inconvenienced and hearing your take on the the Paula section reminded of that. Imo sometimes being inconvenienced can make a game more interesting on the first playthrough. But I think that's a larger conversation.
There's only 2 things about getting Jean in BOF2 that's good: once you get him you can get the 2nd level dragon spell, & if you go to the restaurant before the tower you can get the chop chop spell.
I feel you on FF7, I recently tried to play it for the first time and actually found it kind of hard to get into and had to take a break from it. I plan to come back to it and I'm sure it gets much better, but I didn't have the best first experience.
Maybe it's just that I played it recently, but the upper crust segment of Tales of Destiny DC. there's some good story beats, but 8 dungeons in a row with only half of them having story stuff, and no towns or sidequests in between really make it drag
The only ones that come to mind for me right now are 1. The entire opera sequence in Final Fantasy VI and 2. The forest checkpoint before Grand Chokmah in Tales of the Abyss. I’m miserable at stealth stuff so I was at least glad they give you the option to fight your way through it but only after failing so many times. Every time I can almost hear a Japanese developer say “Oh, is this too hard for your puny American brain? That’s ok, we’ll let you fight your way through like the American brute you are.”
Surprised you didn't mention the endgame for Bravely Default. I have never seen a game so transparently copy and paste its own content without any changes for filler time
Final Fantasy III on the NES . Once you obtain the ship that allows you to leave the floating island into the overworld . It was exciting to know that the real world is much bigger than the island on which we start , but the world is flooded by the oceans and there's very little place to land , and my excitement quickly died out when I got lost trying to find where I can land and continue the game
**GASP** How dare you dunk in Midgar! That's the best part of FF7! After the plot goes from "dealing with evil megacorp in the city they own, sneaking around, doing guerilla operations, etc" to "Chase OP magical hair swordboi across the entire overworld getting into random side arcs as he's always 2 steps ahead of you" it becomes less interesting IMO. (With the exception of Cosmo Canyon which I enjoyed, although like almost every side-arc it feels stapled on for the sake of "Now this character gets their backstory/chapter" and barely feels like it belongs in the world it takes place in). As a teen it was a neat game and I really liked it. Looking back on it as an adult though, I seriously think the game's plot was at its best in Midgar. I mean, your opinion is valid, but I just happen to *COMPLETELY* disagree. 100%
I'd say the series of battles in Final Fantasy Tactics from the initial battle to the one on one with Ramza and Wiegraf to the stupid rooftop fight where chances are you'll lose instantly because Rafa/Malak will wander into instant death from the Marquis's ninja assassins in the first turn. One of the most infuriating parts of the whole game. Especially if you end up making it to that last section only to instantly lose all your progress due to your guest character's suicidal AI. Definitely not a section most people would ever want to revisit.
I was lucky enough to have a decent setup against Weigraf, but the "Save Rafa" fight afterward can eat a live porcupine (so can the other fights involving those demon assassins). I also hated the rematch with Balk; just his pet hydras would make it arguably the toughest fight of all, even without him making your life miserable with that gun.
What about the first part of Suikoden 5? It's like what 10-12 hours of running back and forth to set locations. it's like 2 minutes to walk where you need to go and then 15-20 minutes of talking. It's not until you get your castle go can go anywhere
Honorable mention for me should be the whole woren-gold plain fiasco in BoF4. It took me days to actually understand how to traverse the damn plains, and it was hours of just random encounters galore. That was painful.
FFIV The After Years: The final chapter. It is the length of the rest of the game combined, and it is ONE DUNGEON. And unless you did all of the optional content for the other characters, your party of 20-some people is nonviable, so you have to go through with a party of Paladain-alikes and one Black Mage that you desperately try to keep alive. I seriously thought that dungeon would never end, and when I beat the game, it was not a sense of accomplishment, but relief. I'd also recommend Radiant Historia, where you have to travel back through time to get all of the bad endings. Most are just a 1-minute cutscene about how your obviously bad choice ended the game.
When I beat the final boss in Radiant Historia (3DS) the game told me something along the line that I missed something. So I didn't really get a satisfying end at all... never touched it since. :/
Square has a golden opportunity in front of them if they remake Xenogears and make a properly playable second disk. They would swim in cash, as lots of people are asking for it to happen. I just hope that, if it happens someday, they don't change the visual aspect too much. That 2D-HD live-a-live style but with camera rotation and higher resolution textures would fit like a glove in this game.
Interesting choice for Chrono Trigger. For me, I dread the first visit to 65,000,000 BC. Waiting for those guys to drill those holes is jus the worst, plus you get no actual money from battles. Glad to see FFIV's Lodestone Cavern get mentioned, though. Honorable Mention - The desert in the end of Breath of Fire III.
Valak mountain in Xenoblade Chronicles. Pros: the idea of climbing down a mountain rather than up it is interesting. It looks really pretty at night. Cons: The area has a mission narrow paths that lead to nowhere, the skip travel parts are too few and far between. You have to walk to the cathedral, get a cutscene and then go all the way across the map to get the lava stone to access it. The division between levels of the mountain and how to move between them are unclear.
I memory serves, Xenogears Disc 2 issue was due to lack of complete funding for the game. They needed to trim down the game, but instead opted to finish their story but had to compromise by cutting down gameplay time at the end. I also didn't like that, but at least they got to tell the story they wanted and it was good. Too bad they never got to finish Xenosaga, which was suppose to lead into Xenogears, as Xenogears was actually the 5th story in this series. Wonder if they would have changed Xenogears if they ever got to make Episodes 4-6.
Terranigma - The part where you revive the animals and you have an escort mission with the cub of the lions. He is so unbelievably slooooooooooow. And so full of himself, that little fuzzy bastard. The jingle that plays in the background the entire time becomes so annoying, my boyfriend is getting war flashbacks whenever he hears it. Secret of Evermore - the whole section where the dog is alone in Gothika.
First thoughts were Ixa'taka from Skies of Arcadia (areas were annoying to navigate and finding the second dungeon by random discoveries) and Chapter 4 from Paper Mario and the Thousand-Year Door (going back and forth on Twilight Trail 3-5 times with party stolen).
I mean I actually loved Xenogears I was mildly annoyed with the second disc but it's was pretty story heavy to begin with. My problem was going from a normal rpg to mecha battles rpg style.....it took awhile to get use to.
Grabbed the remaster of SMT: Nocturne last night and kept remembering that I love the game, but I hate the underpass section horribly. Agree on most of there though. I do wish we could see a completed version of Xenogears in remaster format. It was a shame that it was rushed and pushed out without the second disk really being complete.
Loved this, definitely agreed with a lot of them. Mine has to be the ff6 scenario switch, ff8 time limit missions(Or any time limit in any video game), and the beginning of star ocean 3, or wild arms 1-3.
I realy want to replay breath of fire 3, but some of the dungeon puzzles just require you to have a guide open while playing the game, samples are the blackship part of the game and the lighthouse.
Strongly disagree with all your FF entries, but I would have added the entierty of the "Operation Mi'ihen" part in FFX, from the moment that Seymore lets you pass the guards until the aftermath. And the segment from between Zanarkand and Besaid in the beginning.
I think Midgar is great for new players and the drastic change from dreary run-down city to lush green open-world makes the city that much more enjoyable and appreciated. But I can see how multiple play-throughs make Midgar a drag.
When you were new to jrpgs and the first thing you played Final Fantasy 7 and you saw that that big place that you were just in for hours and hours is just a tiny bit of the world it is mind-blowing.
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On Breath of Fire 2, I thought you were going to say Wise Tree memory or the collecting a mushroom to enter the Queen's body to kill her fat.
On Xenogears, I remember putting a rubber band over the X button on a 3rd party controller that had turbo after I would die so I wouldn't have to sit through the talking scenes. I would leave it while I ate dinner, come back, and they would still be taking.
@davidvinc I didn't wanna leave midgard. granted I loved all the towns and area,but I wanted to explore all of midgard. We are different
I don't love Chrono Trigger
i agree with all the listings but one huge miss that should easily take #1 is the entire end game section of Bravely Default. Such a GLORIOUS and super fun game that dives off a cliff at the end.
Also you gotta say the whole bridge building section of Lufia is worse than Jerin's recruitment
I actually loved Midgar. I wanted that grungy, Dieselpunk feel for the whole game. I also realize I am in the minority.
I'm with you there! Not that I don't love the rest of the game (I do!) but Midgar is my favorite part.
I actually only likes midgar section only. Once the map open it starts downhill from there
I'm with you too, OP. Midgar is the best part of the game IMO. At least, storywise.
You're facing off against an evil megacorp, reduced to guerilla operations, with understandable stakes, and a villain that's got more manpower than you can handle in a straight fight...
And then suddenly the game turns into "chase after the insanely OP magical hair swordboi across just about the entire overworld doing random side-arcs that barely feel like they belong in that same world". :s
Midgar was awesome buddy
@@mochamadcorysaktitriwangsa1398 I like that it had an open world and Midgar was awesome.
"What if the entire game is in Midgard?!"
- Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 1 has left the chat -
Not gonna lie, that's what made me interested in it (I feel like Midgar is the BEST part of FF7, at least in terms of story). Once I'm finally able to get my hands on a PS5, I'm going to grab it and love it.
@Aegix Drakan me too.in ff7 original I wanted to explore more of midgard.
I'm gonna come back to it, but I got "what did they do to my baby" vibes the entire time I played it. When I realized I was probably gonna be stuck in Midgard the whole time, I uninstalled and played some of my old games instead
One of many reason I will never play that pos
@@Blastimal That means it might be possible to start with Part 2 and sequence break!
Man, there's definitely potential for a whole series of "Most hated sequences in JRPGs". Almost every JRPG ever made has a sequence where the fun just decides to head out real quick.
FF6: Begining of the World of Ruin...Cid do I have to slap you with dead fish so you can hurry up and finish building that damn raft for me!
JRPGs make you say/think the most heartless things.
100% my #1
I use to have trouble with that but if you just get the fast fish it’s much faster. The slow fish are suppose to be sick or something and the fast fish are healthy so they keep him alive if I remember correctly
I love walkthroughs.
Thats a really good one, it's really tedious
That's funny, Torneko's chapter was my favorite part of DQ4. The way it influences you, a comparably average Joe, to leave your boring job (which barely pays) to explore risky dungeons for a chance of higher living and adventure is poetic to me.
If I remember correctly, there were enemies which drop the required steel broadswords and iron armor semi-frequently.
The money grind isn't that bad if you're smart about how you do business, which _is the whole point of the chapter_ as you're playing as a merchant.
Haven't finished watching, but just gonna say it. FF12-The Great Crystal.
The fact that I beat the game and don’t know what you’re talking about tells me I need to replay it.
Haha I still haven’t finished 12 because it fizzles out so hard
The path of The Great Crystal (main quest) is quite short and easy, however it's another story for the optional path (Omega XII, Ultima). 😂😁
@@Wasjash damn tbh I thought 12 was great the whole way through except for the sandsea part.
@@Slappaccino at least it's more easy to have the map in the Zodiac Age version, also the two areas (ogir yensa sandsea/nam yensa sandsea) have new songs. 😁
lol i'm sure everybody and their mother has played ff7 by now but when the game first dropped and you walked into Wutai for the first time not knowing wtf to expect....... I literally spent like a few fucking hours trying to figure that shit show out as a kid, then you get the shit back and its all fcked up and materia all over the place, I WAS SO GLAD to get TF out of that place by time i did it
The kalm flashback in ff7. Got to the world map and now stuck in an unskippable sequence that adds backstory but kills the pace of post midgar.
Although I was entertained by Cloud's story, I totally understand your point here!
Hows it kill the pace, its the perfect place for it after the rising action and resolution of the midgar section. Plus its just really well done.
The part of the OG Breath of Fire where you have only have Gobi in your party is such a slog
Actually........due to how the levelup system works in the game, how XP is split amongst all group members, if you get him a levelup or two, and get him to where he can survive battle outside of town, you can make him OP as frick because he gets 100% of all the XP, and that 600-800xp you get outside of his hometown with those easy (after a few levelups..) fights is better XP than you get until right near the end of the game. For you to get more XP at the end of the game, you'd have to kill things that give 4800-6400XP and that's.... very rare in BoF1. Only a handful of enemies (Huge Gold Slimes and the Red Beaks along with the purple pigs) give that much. So... you can quickly take Gobi up to level 30+ and he will be powerful for a short amount of time. Best of it is, doing this also makes Karn overpowered as crap because everybody's stats are factored into Karn's stats when he uses his transformation abilities. Just bring a Mrbl3 with you before you board the ship in Auria, and use it when Gobi is by himself to get to his town safely, buy him some armor, and keep lots of herbs around, and use the E-Key (or the RageHR/FlameDR if you went to that floating tower and picked the locks there early) to kill the stuff until he gets a few levelups.
The Mote part was much worse. It spins you around and around, and then the boss is a HUGE dick. I could not even make it through there the first time I played and thus my quest ended.
I liked that part the first time I played that game, because I hadn't played many rpgs where you could enter an underwater part of the game, and it was a nice change of pace (I only remember Final Fantasy Legend 2 and Ninja Boy 2 as the only games I had played so far that had underwater sections).
The Torneko chapter is literally one of my favorite segments in a jrpg but to each his own.
The first section is literally nothing but waiting in the shop and saying YES when costumers come in. No interesting bartering, no consequences for dumb sales or purchases, nothing. It's boring. The rest is all right.
The multiple trips through Osohe Castle and the underwater section in Mother 3.
"Magus Bitches Boss" - Love it.
I disagree about Midgar. I actually really liked it, but you make valid points!
Midgar was my favorite part of 7 lol.
Same- I loved Midgar and how much effort was put into making the city seem run down and grungy. I was actually disappointed when I was kicked out to the overworld because I wanted to stay there longer and meet more of the characters. It does help that I started the game with no expectations, so I didn't even know a world outside the city would be playable.
What made Midgard suck was they jammed so many minigames in that did not make sense in the context of what was going on storywise or just destroyed all narrative momentum. That made what should have been an intense opening sequence into a drag.
@@aaronheadley6836 Jamming in random minigames is all of FF7 though.
Aerith got me through midgar 💚
Breath of Fire 2 - The final dungeon. I will keep this short. Its difficult, deadly and doesnt feel like it ends and there is a key situation that is missable before you fight the final boss where if you do miss it you cant beat the game. David this would make a solid series! Thank you!
I remember that part well. Kept me stuck for quite a while!
I missed it the first play through.
the encounter rate is insanely high in there too
@@usaskjock it really is. I felt like i fought SO MUCH in that game and when i got to the final dungeon i still felt kind of underpowered. At times that game can be real tough.
I actually really like the opening few hours in Midgard in FF7. The claustrophobic feel makes it all that much better when you finally leave.
SMT Nocturne: The prison mirage. Holy shit. God help you if you don’t realize you can interact with the gate controls and not only do you have to remember a 3D map of the prison, you have to flip it upside down.
Literally my favorite dungeon in that game haha.
I feel like I had gone up and down like 20 times by time I finished that dungeon
For me it's the pyro jack mini game... It's still suck in HD remaster.
@@kerijizo After the first few levels, I just said "Fuck that" and looked up the solutions lol
@@bandrew1442 lol i do that too after getting stuck on lvl 9 or 10...the problem with that mini game is we can not stop halfway.
FF VIII
the whole section begins with Edea assassination attempt til saving the Garden from the missile attack.
Every location of that got annoying parts
Galbadia: Sewers and alot junction between party's
Desert Prison: annoying roundabouts stairs - go down, go up, go down, go up, go down and junction, junction, junction
Military Base: backtracking and boring but at least short
Balamb Garden: Pro Cid - Pro Norg blah blah - run run ladder ladder
LOL the 2nd disc of Xenogears could’ve been an email.
Oh those fucking Nocturne sewers in Xenogears.
My least favourite lol
Fuck those sewers I've played the game 5 times and still haven't mastered those damn sewers.
Honestly I don't know one JRPG game with a good sewer dungeon ahah.
@@Terranigma23 Lunar Silver Star Story Complete's Meribia Sewers is not obnoxiously difficult or convoluted and is the first time you get the hear one of the greatest dungeon themes ever written.
ruclips.net/video/qJ73AT6KIWw/видео.html
Doesn't help this is where Citan is at his worst
I'm at this part rn and I haven't came back to the game in months, I'll just look at a guide lol
My prediction: FF9's Cid minigame in the Desert Palace is going to be on this list.
EDIT: I liked the beginning of the 2nd world in FF5 after you escape Exdeath's Castle. It's just kinda fun. You're lost in the wilderness and have to find your way back, Regole is a delight to visit along with Galuf and Bartz's nighttime trip to the bar, and the Geomancer is OP AF in the swampy areas (which too bad go completely away in the 3rd world).
EDIT 2: Oh yes, I completely agree with FF7's Midgar being on here! It made it so hard to even get into the game for me when it first came out. I always looked forward to finally getting out into the overworld. (And I think I commented on this before.)
EDIT 3: I agree about the Earthbound one and the battle against the Department Store Spook.
EDIT 4: Personally, I kinda liked the future; what I disliked was the sequences that came after, like when you're going through that water cave and then milling about trying to find the hero's medal. And I especially disliked having to go to the Prehistoric and then your Gate Key gets stolen!
I concur with your first edit; I liked the wilderness area in FF5. I'd say my least favorite sequence in it was the beginning of the third world, mainly because it was annoying not having Lenna, and because the Pyramid is a rather boring dungeon.
Those twin towers in Rogue Galaxy - the most grotesque and nauseating experience ever.
I said it one I’ll say it again xenogears needs a remake badly
Yup
Xenogears remark part 1, the entire first part of the series takes place in the sewer level!
It doesn't even need a remake it just needs to be fully made to begin with.
I don't really mind disk two of Xenogears being a visual novel that much because I dreaded the dungeon design of that game. I finally just get to kick back and relax and watch the story unfold without having to do anything. My one gripe with it is just how quickly some of it can go by where a lot of times I feel like I just missed something even though I was paying attention the whole time.
actually now that I think about it that's totally true - the dungeon design was EASILY the worst part of that entire game, utterly non descript mazes.
I've read that Xenogears is essentially an unfinished product. The designers had plans to create content for the entire second disc, then they literally ran out of budget and Square told them to deliver something IMMEDIATELY. The visual novel was jammed in at the last minute so that they could finish the story for the player. I've always hoped that someday we would get the Xenogears Snyder Cut, though it seems unlikely.
EarthBound is perhaps my favourite game of all time, and part of that has to do with Magicant, specifically the otherworldly atmosphere. The Sea of Eden is so beautiful and serene, and the fact that you can only visit this place once makes it all the more special. But at the same time, Magicant is also the most annoying section in the game for a couple of reasons.
The enemies are just obnoxious, with the Carefree Bombs being a pain in the ass to deal with, and the Loaded Dice making me wish that Ness could equip a loaded shotgun to deal with them. And if you forgot to bring the Sea Pendant with you, the fight against Ness’s Nightmare is impossible, because the Flash attack instantly kills you without it. The Earth Pendant does protect characters from Flash attacks, but only 50% of the time, which I found out the hard way. All of this is made worse by the fact that the only save point is back at the beginning.
I don't mind magicant I get bored of the desert section before fourside
Lol straight into the Xenogears sewer dungeon! Can't say I'm surprised 😂
Every Temple puzzle on FFX
The Torneko chapter from DQIV was actually my favorite. Maybe that explains why I like games like Stardew Valley.
FFX pre-Luca is hella boring... I just load a save after the blitzball tournament whenever I start a new game.
The cloister of trials and the 200 lightening bolts put me off even bothering
@@oliver4693 bolts are okay for me these days, not that challenging. There are more frustrating sigils than that one, like Wakka's and Kimahri's for example. :D
@@RuruFIN I mean you can basically break Blitzball with Cid, Biggs and Wedge and I didn’t have too much trouble with Kimari’s celestial weapon. My main problem is with Chocobo racing. Fuck Tidus’s celestial weapon, I spent more than 5 hours trying to get a time of 0.00 seconds.
@@notafbiagent473 The chocobo shit is pretty RNG, I've got it sometimes on first try, and sometimes it's hard as fuck.
Personally, you missed the other slog of FFIV - Edward and the Antlion Cave. I know it does show case Edward and his Llama Harp once received but man its just a crappy place with Rydia still low in magic/health and edward, his 60HP and his super ability to HIDE!
ugh.....now I feel like that thumbnail. Off to grab a drink now.
Really/ I don't mind that cave at all - the enemies are easier than the prev dungeon and it;'s so short - only 3 rooms
The final three dungeons in final fantasy 3. Six very hard boss fights, and no save points. It's the worst dungeon sequence I have ever played.
Agreed.
Watching now, suikoden 5 the first 8-10 hours. The first time you play it isn’t bad because it is world building but man replaying that game and I hate the start.
Oof, the part where you lose Paula in Earthbound is a nightmare. I got it even worse because I had put the Franklin Badge in her inventory and got obliterated by the PSI Thunder-slinging guitar enemies ;~;
And I totally feel you on the Midgar thing in FFVII xD fortunately, at the time a friend's brother had already played far enough in the game to get to the world map, so I knew it was in there... but it still surprised me how long that section lasted
You know it's a good video when it starts with "Hi there, this is David..."
I will add here Fort Fermata of Eternal Sonata/Trusty Bell: The Dream of Chopin. That dungeon was a slog to get through!
I don't have any dreaded sequences in JRPGs I love, except for the entire concept of timing or twitchy-gameplay based mini-games that are required for story progression, because I generally feel like I am having a good time when I am playing games and have literally no taste. That being said, I could definitely see what you were getting at with your choices because your video was so well explained.
nah, Midgar was one of my fav environments. the worst part is in the first town outside when cloud tells the story. I hate battles that offer no benefit. you got not Exp, items, or anything. I would rather just text or a cut scene. the whole time in Midgar i spend dreading that part.
I would put FF6, the ruined world map. the encounter rate was insane and i didn't know where to go. I took a wrong turn somewhere and all the battles gave like 2 exp and there were like every 2 steps. one of the first and only times I stopped playing a game I paid money for. Kefka really did win lol
My favorite part about the flashback fights is that is viscerally shows you just how terrifyingly powerful Sephiroth actually is.
Here you are, being comfortably strong with your current equipment and magic, then you have Sephiroth using tier 3 spells and one shotting giant enemies that instantly kill you.
It establishes the gap between Sephiroth and you, which adds to the fear and presence he commands.
I agree that battles without reward can be annoying, but they can be effective when done right.
@@somethingsomething9006 yeah, i understood that. but it was so annoying. FF10 did that with seymor, and your get AP. it was just so long and pointless. a cutscene would have been way better. I dropped a save after it so i never had to do it again. which sucks cause i loved midgar.
Here's one that I'd like to add: Bravely Default! When you fight the final boss and have him nearly defeated, he wipes your party with an unblockable special death attack! This alone made me hate that game.
The Torneko (or Talon as we knew him as back in the day) Chapter was actually really novel for its time. By the time Dragon Warrior 4 came out, a lot of people had played RPGs but never had a chance to actually be one of the shop owners. Dragon Warrior 3 had a merchant class, but you weren't able to play that character actually running a store. I wouldn't want that game mechanic to play out for the rest of the game, but it was a cool addition for Chapter 3.
The reason the second disc in Xenogears is so bland is because right in the middle of the game's development, Square moved a bunch of its resources to focus on Final Fantasy VII. So the Xenogears team had to finish the game on a shoestring budget with a looming deadline. The second disc kind of is what it is, but I think many of us wonder what it would have been like if it were an actual expansive world where your characters had some agency, like the first disc.
My top 5:
5: ff7 midgar - it takes forever
4: smrpg bowser’s keep - puzzles
3: ff8 seed mission - the bosses take forever to beat
2: ff6 beginning - it’s a drag without sprint shoes
Honorable mentions:
Ff6’s dayrl’s tomb - the bosses have so much hp
Ff6 magitek factory - the encounter rate is so high
1: ff9 hourglass
No lie, the amount of VNs that posture or are promoted as JRPGs or SRPGs is mind boggling at times. I get that the genres share DNA and audiences but nothing is worse than investing into a title with excellent pacing only to get bogged down for hours on end reading script.
Nothing against VNs but when they arn't balanced out by gameplay, why ignore or omit what they are and save many of us the trouble? Xenogears was totally a perfect example of this.
Because you can't really call them a VN either, because then you piss off the VN people with too much gameplay. Xenogears had several difficult fights during the game, and VN people are oftentimes not looking for gameplay.
Xenogears wasn't supposed to be like that though. The team couldn't finish the game in time with the resources they had and so instead of cutting it off at disc 1, they decided to create the weird storytime disc 2. I really wish Square would revisit that game in the future and do a true remake with an actual disc 2, but I doubt it will ever occur.
Every opening in Persona which takes about 2 hours to get to the first dungeon,
chasing Dhoulmagus' staff in DQ, when you have to repeat all the crystals in Bravely Default
One of my most dreaded segments has to be Tales of the Abyss, post Absorption Gate . It's like 2-3 hours of "let's go to Daath! Let's go to Yulia City! Let's go to Baticul! Let's go back to Daath! etc., etc., etc."... Wish there was a skip button.
Then, I'd have to say the beginning of disc 3 of FF9. An hour or two of Zidane becoming a mopey sop. Not that Final Fantasy is any stranger to moping, but it was so unbecoming of Zidane that it just hurt to go through.
Agree on both. Why did Luke have to be the messenger to everyone who mattered in person after every dungeon? We have NPCs for that sort of stuff usually.
Man...there are so many classics I'd love to replay but then I remember certain parts or god-awful forced mini-games and don't even bother starting. :(
While I love the game, I remember getting the Nei weapons in Phantasy Star II being so brutally hard due to the dungeon designs, I had to use the hint book for the last dungeon. It was included with the game, but still.
Thanks for this list, David ! I actually enjoyed Taloon’s chapter in DWIV because it felt so unique to me compared to other DW gameplay. I have to mention for 7th Saga, after getting the first 6 runes but before going to Barluca. I usually try to grind up 20-30 levels , but that is literally 2 weeks of just grinding in my free time
I thought the whole game would be Midgar too. I was extremely excited to leave....and then the whole Kalm, 45 minutes of torture came right as I had to go to sleep for school. Simafort was a spot I got stuck on during an entire rental. I spent hours before realizing I had to tell frog lady about her boyfriend, smh.
I don’t know how people hate the Xenogears sewers so much but *don’t* hate the final major dungeon. OH. MY. GOD. It’s so freaking huge and samey and you just cannot possibly hope to not get massively lost. Despised that part. (Also, Phantasy Star 1 & 2 have some real painful dungeons, but the cake really goes to my somehow still beloved Shining in the Darkness, which is nothing BUT a giant, painful dungeon!)
All three times I’ve played through Xenogears I couldn’t bring myself to slog through that last dungeon and lost interest. stopped playing. Every time. I finally picked it up again last year and made myself do it, but man is it terribly designed and not fun.
@@NiNjARaY1 THANK GOD someone else finally sees it!!! 😂 ughhhhh why is it so HUGE with almost zero landmarks!?
For me its rarely particular sequences, its often the mini-games as they're usually both surprisingly hard and grindy. Both triple triad and the card game in FF9 killed some of my playthroughs before, for example.
They're required to 100% the game but doing that grind also completely destroys the flow of the game. Specially in FF8 where you have to win cards from specific characters that only appears during important story segments.
What about that section in Tales of Vesperia right after the first visit to Myorzo?
Midgar is actually my favorite part of FF7 haha, I was glad that they expanded it into a 30+ hour game in the remake.
That text box at 7:20 wouldn't fly in this PC world we live in.
Great video
Talah Rama's monkey cave is one of the few points in EarthBound where I still NEED the guide....but there are 2 parts WORSE for me, despite it being my favorite game of all time: the Threed tunnel ( difficulty spike...those damn ghosts...and the Slimy Little Pile miniboss that constantly causes the party to either cry or feel strange ) and Magicant ( only Ness for the majority of it...and enemies are insanely op because of course there's a difficulty spike... ).
with Chrono Trigger, I always dreaded the Tyranno Lair for some reason...
I got confused when you said Cara talking about Final Fantasy V...was that Krile's name in a fan translation or something?
also IMO:
Cyan's dream in Final Fantasy VI
Chapter 34 in The Last Story ( I always get stuck on the Mitra boss fight... )
Atlantica in Kingdom Hearts II
the forced Tetra Master tournament in Final Fantasy IX ( I despise forced minigames period for the most part )
Thank you for commenting on that last one!
What version of FF4 are you playin there? It looks great!
Oh cool. I can get behind this
Xenogears sewers.... 1000 yard stare 6 seconds in
The thing i hate are the impossible fights in games. Wont let you beat rico no matter what. Or always missing Wiseman.
Dragon Quest II has the Path to Rhone. The search for the five Crests was bad enough, but then there is a long maze of a cave with poisonous swamps, pitfalls, and high encounter rates with tough monsters. And if you make it through, you still have to travel a long way with even tougher monsters. (including one that has Sacrifice/Kamikaze that will instantly kill your whole party) before you reach a save point.
Xenogears second disc is a slap-in-the-face because everyone knows how good the game was supposed to be. How it should have been. But since Square was running out of money, and hated the idea of Xenogears even existing, we got what we got.
Now that we're this far out and it's commonly pretty high up in so many favorite jrpg lists, you think someone would want to do it justice, but I'm not holding my breath for any kind of re-release to ever happen.
The flashback in kalm after leaving Midgar. You finally get out of that place and then more delays ugh
Hey David, what's up with the mic/sound? Starting from the Final Fantasy 7 sequence, I start hearing a low humming noise in the background, which honestly drives me crazy :((
A fantastic video and I totally agree with you on everyting I have experienced!
10. Early game (Final Fantasy XII). Not having access to your gambits because the game hasn't given you the gambit tutorial yet. 😡
9. Lava Dome (Final Fantasy Mystic Quest). Too long for how tedius the battles are if you don't buy 99 seeds and blow through everything with your magic. Still tedious even then, though. Just less so. Also, it's the only big crystal dungeon in the game where you don't get any cool new weapons.
8. Beginning of Disc 2 (Final Fantasy VII). Losing my party members, even temporarily, is really annoying.
7. Cave of the Phoenix (Final Fantasy VI). Really long and confusing.
6. World of Continent (Final Fantasy Legend/SaGa, for the fussy ones). You have no resources and you are very weak compared to the monsters you need to fight to get even minor resources. You could use monsters, if you understand the transformation system, but you need a chart on hand to really take advantage of it and the meat and monster encounters make two different random factors for each step.
5. D-District Prison (Final Fantasy VIII). STOP MAKING ME SHIFT MY JUNCTIONS AROUND!
4. Either of the big towers (Final Fantasy IV). They killed my first run of the game. Too boring and too repetitive, couldn't keep at it. Only soldiered through them years later.
3. First half of Disc 3 (Final Fantasy IX). "Garnet can't concentrate!"
2. Krelian's laboratory (Xenogears). Been a long time, but I remember just hating how lost you can get because so many rooms look the same and there's no in-game map.
1. Silph Co. (Pokémon Red/Blue/FireRed/LeafGreen). I detest teleporter mazes, and I don't think I personally have played a game with a worse one than this.
Dude this is a great top 10! One of a kind. Also nice thumbnail pic lol XD
Let's see, 10 sequences in JRPGs that I really, really hate... Hmm...
10 - Balencentine Castle - Wanderers From Ys III - It's an action RPG, and it's hard as balls. I hate the castle sequence, because it's very long with many bosses. The regular enemies are rough, you want to jump over or dodge them outright if you can. The traps practically one shot you if your timing's off. The music is cool, but man...
9 - Thamasa - FFVI - I hate being restricted to Locke and Terra. Shadow being in the mix made me excited, but he's immediately taken from you for the duration of your exploits. I don't like Relm at all, and there aren't very many good Lores to learn with Strago's intro stage, essentially. The burning house is exciting on a first playthrough, but it's literally just hallways with Bombs. Boring, samey. Especially compared to other dungeons in the game.
8 - Kid's Poisoned - Chrono Cross - I hate this sequence very much. I hate it all the more for the fact that you have to pick the puss cake dummy pants option to get Glenn. I would have never known that without a guide. One thing I can say is at least it's not a but thou must, but for the love of god. You do the right, obvious thing, and you get saddled with Korcha... At least it's not long.
7 - Gold Bar Bullshit - Breath of Fire - As a kid I did not have good money management skills in RPGs. I did not manage items well, either. You wind up needing, what, 3 Gold Bars? 1 for Gobi. One for Thief's Town elder... One for something else, I think? That's 195,000 G! Jesus christ.
6 - Sima Fort - Yeah I hate that sequence too, David. As a kid it actually got me stuck on my first two attempts of trying to play the game. I literally gave up on my favorite entry in the Breath of Fire series, twice, over that sequence.
5 - The Catacombs - Dark Souls - Reanimating skeletons with key Necromancers that you have to kill... They inflict bleed. Spike statue traps. Spiked flipping bridges. Perputal Motion skeletons riding spiked wheels... Almost more of a side area, since it doesn't loop and interconnect to the rest of the Dark Souls 1 world to boot. Ewww.
4 - Billy's Intro - Xenogears - I hate Billy, ok. I don't like him. The translation of that segment is weird too. It kinda felt like the game suddenly went off topic, but nope, it's all related and there are big plot drops. It gets ok once you get to go to Zeboim.
3 - Manaan - Knights of the Old Republic - Yeah, I strayed out of JRPG territory again. Sorry David! But I hate this planet in an otherwise stellar sequence of planets. It's original to the game, afaik, and is never seen in the movies. It's basically a bunch of annoying, strung together set pieces. A Sith base. An underwater facility where everyone's going mad. A fraction puzzle if you want light side points. I generally wind up doing it last because you get no new party members there. It really, really sucks.
2 - Shadow Temple - Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time - Action RPG again, heh. I hate this segment, though. You have to learn the Song of Storms as an adult. Go play it as a kid. Go in the well, get the Lens of Truth after a disturbing mini boss. Go back to being an adult. Make sure you've beaten the Water Temple. Sequence trigger Sheik fighting invisible monster in Kakariko. Make sure you have Din's Fire. Then, finally, you're treated to a creepy ass, unsettling music filled dungeon that's soaked with blood and illusion. 3-D Wall Masters or whatever can suck it. I hate that place, so much.
1 - Post Game - Lunar 2 - Uhh, I actually have never finished it. Opting to look it up instead. The endgame through Zophar was enough of a slog for me. As much as I love the Lunar games I do not go for grindy post game just to see the happy ending they should have already provided me with.
David, you're awesome! Love your channel! JRPGs are like my bread and butter, you could be the brother/twin that I didn't know I had! I had no idea about the second disc of Xenogears-OUCH! I Guess I have that to look forward to (or not). My first time playing through Final Fantasy IV I got stuck on Baigan. I rented the game and didn't know the pattern for defeating him, so you're not the only one. I actually enjoyed the Midgar part of Final Fantasy VII, but I would agree that the game sticks you there for too long. Here's one of my picks on this topic: the dreaded card game tournament in Final Fantasy IX. I wasn't good at cards, and I didn't really care about cards, but in this scenario the game FORCES you to participate. I would always save my game just before the tournament in case I screwed up, because I never really knew what I was doing (ditto for Final Fantasy VIII's card game). I never understood how to play blitzball in Final Fantasy X, either.
8:00 - 'The future sequence sucks'. Well, that's the point. The future in Chrono Trigger IS terrible. It's depressing, dark, dreary and hopeless. The world was completely devastated by Lavos and this was the end result. That's the purpose of this sequence, to show this to you so it kicks your ass into finding a solution.
Oh Dave! that was perfectly said! All those areas had me dreading certain parts too. When You said you cried in chrono trigger when the people had no food, or Robo got beat up..that was so fricking cute! lol! I understand tho! thats the magic of the MMORPG. Fantastic video man! keep putting out this great content handsome! :)
Midgar and Paula rescue mission didn't bother me. Frankly I found Midgar extremely compelling because it has amazing world building.
Paula part is interesting because you as a player never see it coming and kind of take her for granted considering how powerful she is. Once you have you her back you never want to see her gone again.
I have a theory that many gamers have a small tolerance to being inconvenienced and hearing your take on the the Paula section reminded of that. Imo sometimes being inconvenienced can make a game more interesting on the first playthrough. But I think that's a larger conversation.
There's only 2 things about getting Jean in BOF2 that's good: once you get him you can get the 2nd level dragon spell, & if you go to the restaurant before the tower you can get the chop chop spell.
I get the sense that you don’t like dark, dreary settings. IMO they are useful for plotting purposes but I agree not that fun to explore.
I've got an odd one. Being Lynx in Chrono Cross. My identity being stripped from me and someone else besmirching my good name? Fuck that.
I love that part. Playing as bad antagonist model and the villain is actually your body
DQ4 Real Ones know that Chapter 3 is the best! :p
I liked chapter 3, how about the first few hours of Dragon Warrior 7
Kingdom Hearts 1: Atlantica world...
Deep Jungle, as much as I like the world, getting the Cure spell is a lot of trouble.
But I agree that Atlantica (and Monstro) is obnoxious.
Kingdom Hearts is so janky compared to its sequel.
@@ace-trainer-aj luckily you can skip atlantica
I am now obligated to say this despite it being completely optional.
Kingdom Hearts 2 Atlantica.
Also KH1 Gummi Ship sections.
"What if the entire game was in midgar ?" 🤣 Literally laughed so hard I did I spit take
I feel you on FF7, I recently tried to play it for the first time and actually found it kind of hard to get into and had to take a break from it. I plan to come back to it and I'm sure it gets much better, but I didn't have the best first experience.
That one dislike is definitely someone from the future of chrono trigger
Maybe it's just that I played it recently, but the upper crust segment of Tales of Destiny DC. there's some good story beats, but 8 dungeons in a row with only half of them having story stuff, and no towns or sidequests in between really make it drag
The Aethersphere is so bad, remake or not. Confusing overworld and the bad maze dungeons.
The only ones that come to mind for me right now are 1. The entire opera sequence in Final Fantasy VI and 2. The forest checkpoint before Grand Chokmah in Tales of the Abyss. I’m miserable at stealth stuff so I was at least glad they give you the option to fight your way through it but only after failing so many times. Every time I can almost hear a Japanese developer say “Oh, is this too hard for your puny American brain? That’s ok, we’ll let you fight your way through like the American brute you are.”
Surprised you didn't mention the endgame for Bravely Default. I have never seen a game so transparently copy and paste its own content without any changes for filler time
Final Fantasy III on the NES . Once you obtain the ship that allows you to leave the floating island into the overworld . It was exciting to know that the real world is much bigger than the island on which we start , but the world is flooded by the oceans and there's very little place to land , and my excitement quickly died out when I got lost trying to find where I can land and continue the game
**GASP** How dare you dunk in Midgar! That's the best part of FF7!
After the plot goes from "dealing with evil megacorp in the city they own, sneaking around, doing guerilla operations, etc" to "Chase OP magical hair swordboi across the entire overworld getting into random side arcs as he's always 2 steps ahead of you" it becomes less interesting IMO. (With the exception of Cosmo Canyon which I enjoyed, although like almost every side-arc it feels stapled on for the sake of "Now this character gets their backstory/chapter" and barely feels like it belongs in the world it takes place in).
As a teen it was a neat game and I really liked it. Looking back on it as an adult though, I seriously think the game's plot was at its best in Midgar.
I mean, your opinion is valid, but I just happen to *COMPLETELY* disagree. 100%
I'd say the series of battles in Final Fantasy Tactics from the initial battle to the one on one with Ramza and Wiegraf to the stupid rooftop fight where chances are you'll lose instantly because Rafa/Malak will wander into instant death from the Marquis's ninja assassins in the first turn. One of the most infuriating parts of the whole game. Especially if you end up making it to that last section only to instantly lose all your progress due to your guest character's suicidal AI. Definitely not a section most people would ever want to revisit.
I was lucky enough to have a decent setup against Weigraf, but the "Save Rafa" fight afterward can eat a live porcupine (so can the other fights involving those demon assassins). I also hated the rematch with Balk; just his pet hydras would make it arguably the toughest fight of all, even without him making your life miserable with that gun.
What about the first part of Suikoden 5? It's like what 10-12 hours of running back and forth to set locations. it's like 2 minutes to walk where you need to go and then 15-20 minutes of talking. It's not until you get your castle go can go anywhere
Honorable mention for me should be the whole woren-gold plain fiasco in BoF4. It took me days to actually understand how to traverse the damn plains, and it was hours of just random encounters galore. That was painful.
FFIV The After Years: The final chapter. It is the length of the rest of the game combined, and it is ONE DUNGEON. And unless you did all of the optional content for the other characters, your party of 20-some people is nonviable, so you have to go through with a party of Paladain-alikes and one Black Mage that you desperately try to keep alive. I seriously thought that dungeon would never end, and when I beat the game, it was not a sense of accomplishment, but relief.
I'd also recommend Radiant Historia, where you have to travel back through time to get all of the bad endings. Most are just a 1-minute cutscene about how your obviously bad choice ended the game.
When I beat the final boss in Radiant Historia (3DS) the game told me something along the line that I missed something. So I didn't really get a satisfying end at all... never touched it since. :/
You're not wrong on the Xenogears 2nd disc, but the short explanation is that they ran out of time/money. That's why it's like that.
Square has a golden opportunity in front of them if they remake Xenogears and make a properly playable second disk. They would swim in cash, as lots of people are asking for it to happen. I just hope that, if it happens someday, they don't change the visual aspect too much. That 2D-HD live-a-live style but with camera rotation and higher resolution textures would fit like a glove in this game.
Interesting choice for Chrono Trigger. For me, I dread the first visit to 65,000,000 BC. Waiting for those guys to drill those holes is jus the worst, plus you get no actual money from battles. Glad to see FFIV's Lodestone Cavern get mentioned, though. Honorable Mention - The desert in the end of Breath of Fire III.
Valak mountain in Xenoblade Chronicles.
Pros: the idea of climbing down a mountain rather than up it is interesting. It looks really pretty at night.
Cons: The area has a mission narrow paths that lead to nowhere, the skip travel parts are too few and far between. You have to walk to the cathedral, get a cutscene and then go all the way across the map to get the lava stone to access it. The division between levels of the mountain and how to move between them are unclear.
I memory serves, Xenogears Disc 2 issue was due to lack of complete funding for the game.
They needed to trim down the game, but instead opted to finish their story but had to compromise by cutting down gameplay time at the end.
I also didn't like that, but at least they got to tell the story they wanted and it was good.
Too bad they never got to finish Xenosaga, which was suppose to lead into Xenogears, as Xenogears was actually the 5th story in this series. Wonder if they would have changed Xenogears if they ever got to make Episodes 4-6.
Terranigma - The part where you revive the animals and you have an escort mission with the cub of the lions. He is so unbelievably slooooooooooow. And so full of himself, that little fuzzy bastard. The jingle that plays in the background the entire time becomes so annoying, my boyfriend is getting war flashbacks whenever he hears it.
Secret of Evermore - the whole section where the dog is alone in Gothika.
Beyond the Beyond for the PS1. Samson being cursed almost the entire first half of the game really annoyed me.
First thoughts were Ixa'taka from Skies of Arcadia (areas were annoying to navigate and finding the second dungeon by random discoveries) and Chapter 4 from Paper Mario and the Thousand-Year Door (going back and forth on Twilight Trail 3-5 times with party stolen).
I'll riot if the tower of babel isn't on this list
Edit: Ok I'm fine with second disk actually, good pick.
I mean I actually loved Xenogears I was mildly annoyed with the second disc but it's was pretty story heavy to begin with. My problem was going from a normal rpg to mecha battles rpg style.....it took awhile to get use to.
Grabbed the remaster of SMT: Nocturne last night and kept remembering that I love the game, but I hate the underpass section horribly. Agree on most of there though. I do wish we could see a completed version of Xenogears in remaster format. It was a shame that it was rushed and pushed out without the second disk really being complete.
Loved this, definitely agreed with a lot of them. Mine has to be the ff6 scenario switch, ff8 time limit missions(Or any time limit in any video game), and the beginning of star ocean 3, or wild arms 1-3.
I realy want to replay breath of fire 3, but some of the dungeon puzzles just require you to have a guide open while playing the game, samples are the blackship part of the game and the lighthouse.
The electric and dark summon dungeon in Tales of Symphonia are such drags!
Volt's temple is annoying for sure, but nothing beats Ymir Forest for me.
I forgot about the extensive text in Xenogears second disc. I actually didn’t mind it. Xenogears was my first RPG, so I have fond memories of it.
Strongly disagree with all your FF entries, but I would have added the entierty of the "Operation Mi'ihen" part in FFX, from the moment that Seymore lets you pass the guards until the aftermath.
And the segment from between Zanarkand and Besaid in the beginning.
I think Midgar is great for new players and the drastic change from dreary run-down city to lush green open-world makes the city that much more enjoyable and appreciated. But I can see how multiple play-throughs make Midgar a drag.
When you were new to jrpgs and the first thing you played Final Fantasy 7 and you saw that that big place that you were just in for hours and hours is just a tiny bit of the world it is mind-blowing.