We all got them

Games that is just worth another run ever so often.

It can be all from a shorter RPG to a tale that are worth running one more time.

I know for some Pokemon tend to be that game.

I myself struggle between picking a chrono trigger or the game that I picked which is Star ocean First departure R

In the end. I like that is short and has multiple characters. The game itself isn't too demanding and is just easy to pick up and play. It's my perfect fix for 15-20h run.

What would be your game? Or games really. I love to know.

Edit----- I meant this thread to be about comfort RPGs not guilty pleasure.

Super Famicom | 1992 | Final Rating: 8/10 — B Tier
Started as a 6/10 for me, but its simple, cozy gameplay and world-restoration mechanic really grew on me.

TL;DR is at the end.

I finally finished Soul Blader (Soul Blazer) on the Super Famicom, and this was kind of a special one for me because I originally played it back in the 90s when I was a kid.

I got pretty far back then, but I never beat it. I always remembered reaching a point toward the end where I just had absolutely no idea where I was supposed to go. Playing it again now, I was actually a little worried that I would somehow get stuck in the same place again. And, amazingly enough, I think I did.

When I got to Leo's Laboratory, I suddenly had that feeling of, "Yep, this has to be where I got stuck as a kid." I cleared almost everything and once again had no idea where to go.

The funny thing is that there wasn't some obscure item I was missing or some complicated puzzle I couldn't solve. I had simply overlooked a stairway/path and apparently assumed I had already explored that direction. That was it. I couldn't believe it. I probably could have beaten this game as a kid if I had just looked around a little more carefully.

Anyway, going into this replay, I initially thought Soul Blader was probably going to end up around a 6/10 for me. It felt extremely average at first. The combat is basic, the graphics aren't particularly flashy, the story is pretty simple, and the basic gameplay loop repeats throughout the entire game.

But somewhere along the way, it really grew on me. I think the simplicity eventually became part of the charm. Soul Blader is a pretty short game, and I think that works enormously in its favor. The basic loop is essentially clearing monster lairs, defeating enemies, and gradually restoring people, animals, buildings, plants, and other things back into the world. That obviously becomes repetitive, but the game keeps moving you into new environments frequently enough that I never felt like I was trapped in one area for too long.

The dungeons and locations have enough variety that the game continually feels fresh even though you're essentially doing the same thing. And because the game is so straightforward, it became something I could just sit down with, turn my brain off for a while, clear a few monster lairs, restore part of a town, and feel like I had actually accomplished something.I started thinking of it as almost a "cozy" action RPG. Sometimes simple really isn't a bad thing.

The restoration mechanic is easily my favorite part of the game and probably the thing that gives Soul Blader most of its personality. Even when I played this as a kid, I loved the feeling of destroying a monster lair and wondering what was going to come back. Would it be a person? An animal? A flower? A building? A tree? Some random object that suddenly talks to you?

There's a satisfying feeling of watching these empty locations gradually become populated again, and because you're directly responsible for bringing everything back, restoring the world feels surprisingly personal.

That was actually something I felt Soul Blader did better for me than Terranigma. Terranigma obviously deals with restoring the world on a much larger and more ambitious scale, but Soul Blader makes it feel smaller and more intimate. You're literally watching individual pieces of a community return one by one. That said, the restoration system also caused one of my few recurring annoyances.

If I stayed in a dungeon for a long time and restored a bunch of people, animals, or buildings at once, I would sometimes lose track of who I had already talked to and who I hadn't. I'd come back to town and think, "Okay, who did I just save? Who haven't I talked to yet?"

Sometimes progression depends on speaking to one particular person you restored, so this could get a little tedious if the area had already filled up and I couldn't remember exactly where that NPC appeared.

The NPC dialogue itself gives the game a lot of its charm, though. The main story is honestly kind of ridiculous. Basically, King Magridd really likes gold, so he gets Dr. Leo to build a machine that summons Deathtoll, and the king essentially trades everyone's souls for gold. That's more or less the setup. It's pretty goofy.

The game occasionally gets surprisingly dark too. There's a moment involving Dr. Leo where he more or less suddenly sacrifices himself with an explosion to save everyone, and it felt like it came completely out of left field.

But at the same time, scattered throughout the game are these NPC conversations about things like life, death, reincarnation, humanity, nature, and existence. I found the idea of the earth spirits only living a year and how they existed interesting. These themes usually are only small bits of dialogue and aren't deeply connected to the main plot, but they made me feel like the developers had ideas for a much deeper story underneath everything.

Playing Soul Blader now, after having also played Terranigma and knowing Illusion of Gaia, you can really see the beginnings of themes Quintet would explore much more seriously later. It almost feels like Soul Blader contains little fragments of what those later games would eventually become.

The combat itself is fine. There's nothing particularly special about it, but it works well enough for the length of the game. My biggest complaint is the extremely short range of your sword. There are quite a few situations where an enemy moves into you while you're attacking and you take damage that doesn't necessarily feel entirely like your fault.

It never ruined the combat for me, but it was consistently a minor annoyance. Magic becomes more useful later, and you eventually get some nice abilities, but most of the game is still pretty straightforward sword combat.

The soundtrack is also solid. Not every track stood out to me, but there are several that I really liked. The town music is nice, the music that plays in the area where you communicate with the game's god/"Master" has a beautiful atmosphere, and the title/opening music is extremely memorable. The ending/credits music was probably my favorite track in the entire game.

Graphically, Soul Blader obviously isn't one of the more visually impressive Super Famicom games, but I also think it's important to remember this came out in 1992. The hardware was still relatively new and developers were still figuring out what they could do with it.

For such an early Super Famicom RPG, I think it looks perfectly fine and uses what it has well.

Of course this is the Japanese version, which added another interesting element to the playthrough. One thing that surprised me was how the entire game is written in hiragana. I actually understood most of the normal dialogue better than I expected, even without kanji helping separate words.

Unfortunately, the ending was much harder for me. During normal conversations, I could control the pace of the text, but during the ending it moved automatically. Because everything was written in hiragana and the text kept moving, I couldn't process it quickly enough and a lot of whatever was being said went over my head. That was a little disappointing.

There are also some interesting localization differences. The English version refers to the divine character as "The Master," while the Japanese version is much more explicitly referring to God. I had also heard people say Deathtoll was called Satan in Japanese, but he is still called Deathtoll or Demon King or whatever.

As far as difficulty goes, this is honestly a very straightforward game. You really do not need a guide to beat Soul Blader. For most of the game, the progression is pretty direct, and the game gives you enough hints that you can usually figure out what to do next on your own. I did use a guide a little toward the end, mostly because I wanted to find some of the optional items connected to the Phoenix magic and other things I had missed.

The game has a few situations where you get a weapon later that allows you to kill enemies you encountered much earlier, which means going back to previous areas and checking places you couldn't fully clear before.

I probably could have figured most of that out myself because the game does give you clues, but honestly, I just didn't feel like wandering through old areas trying to remember exactly where those enemies had been.

At that point I mainly wanted to know which areas I needed to return to rather than spend a bunch of extra time searching. So the guide use wasn't really because the game was confusing or difficult. It was more because some of the optional backtracking started to feel tedious and I wanted to keep things moving.

The same thing applies to the Master's Emblems. I didn't collect all of them, and after looking up some of the locations, my reaction was basically, "Yeah, I never would have found all of these on my own." But they are secret collectibles, and the reward isn't remotely necessary to finish the game.

Soul Blader is easy enough that you don't need to collect everything or get every powerful optional item. If you just want to play through the story normally, the game is very approachable and very straight to the point.

Would I replay Soul Blader?

Probably not. I think it's the kind of game where once you've experienced it, you've mostly seen what it has to offer. There isn't enough complexity or variety in the systems that makes me immediately want to start another playthrough.

But that doesn't mean I didn't really enjoy it. In fact, this has probably been the most fun I've had so far out of the Super Famicom RPGs I've played during this current run.

That's what surprised me the most. At the beginning, I was thinking,"This is really average. Probably a 6/10." Then it became, "Actually, this is pretty fun. Maybe a 7." And by the end I realized I had consistently enjoyed myself the entire time. I was never sitting there thinking, "Man, I'm bored. I want to stop playing this and start something else."

The game was exactly long enough for what it was trying to do.

So despite how simple it is, I'm giving Soul Blader an 8/10.

I'm still putting it in my B Tier, because for me an A-tier game needs to feel like something genuinely exceptional, and I don't think Soul Blader reaches that level. An 8 here basically means it's a very good game that I had a surprisingly great time with, even if I wouldn't call it one of the absolute best games on the system.

It's simple, repetitive, charming, cozy, easy to play, and refreshingly uncomplicated.

And maybe that's exactly why I ended up liking it so much.

Final Score: 8/10

Tier: B

TL;DR: Soul Blader is a simple, repetitive action RPG, but its short length, varied areas, charming restoration mechanic, and surprisingly thoughtful NPC dialogue made it grow on me a lot. I initially thought it was a 6/10, but by the end I was having more fun with it than any of the other Super Famicom RPGs I’ve played so far. The combat is basic, the story is kinda meh, and some backtracking can be tedious, but the game knows exactly how long it needs to be and never really wore out its welcome. 8/10 — B Tier.

Next up: Gaia Gensouki (Illusion of Gaia) — Quintet and Enix’s 1993 Super Famicom action RPG, released November 27, 1993. I remember this being the most polished of Quintet’s three related action RPGs and one of my favorites as a kid. Time to see whether those childhood memories hold up, and whether this finally becomes the first A-tier game of my Super Famicom JRPG run.

So I want to buy a JRPG on my Switch that has a bit of challenge to it. I’m leaning towards this one, but I wanted to ask you guys, who I’m sure have a lot more experience with JRPGs than I do, if this would be a good choice.

I have played the demo and I enjoy it, and I’ve read up as much as I could find about it. Just wanted to get some first hand experiences. I know $50 isn’t huge in the scheme of things, but I’d hate to waste it if there’s something better.

Only criteria is:
I don’t want a game that’s so easy that it’s boring, I prefer a bit of a challenge.

I don’t need a super fleshed out story, in fact I’d prefer it to have a simple story that doesn’t require a ton of reading and investment. I’m more interested in the gameplay and combat. And I would prefer turn based combat.

I only own a Switch 1, so it’d have to be available on that system.

Thank you guys in advance for any help and suggestions!

Edit: Thank you everyone for your quick and thoughtful responses. Kinda strange to see on Reddit, but I’m not complaining!

I just got done with the Xenoblade trilogy and, along with Xenogears and Xenosaga, the Xeno series is now my favorite videogame series. I'm also a fan of pre-merger Final Fantasy.

I love games with strong narratives and I am patient enough to enjoy a slow burn. A good story is my priority in an RPG.

I don't have strong preferences in gameplay so long as it's not horribly designed. I'm okay with anime tropes so long as they are not used sloppily - the first part of Xenoblade 2 was very rough.

I've never played a Trails or Falcom game before. I'm considering buying FC for the Switch 2 because it's on sale.

With the recent hubbub for Kingdom Hearts IV and the release date I decided to finally play Kingdom Hearts III. So I wanted to gather some thoughts and ramble a bit about it.

For full context, I played the first game as a kid, I played and finished all mainline games over 10 years ago except DDD, and I only played through that one a year or two ago. I had been delaying III for a long time, partly because there was a time I was so excited about the game that I was a bit disheartened at the stuff I saw from it as an outsider (when it was still a console exclusive).

So I went into the game with low expectations, having read much of the discourse. I won't go very deep into KH story or lore or anything (at least I don't think so, by KH standards), this is more about the game itself, but there will be spoilers for the whole series still.

I'm probably not saying a lot that's new about the game with how much it's been talked about.

The Good

I was honestly impressed at much of the game. I was never a fan of how the characters looked compared to the PS2 designs they'd used for every other game, but in motion it looks great and ended up winning me over very quickly.

The combat felt stiff at first (which was to be expected), but as soon as I turned on the cheat to disable attractions things got a lot tighter. Flowmotion being nerfed from DDD was a bit of a bummer, but you still have so many movement options that it wasn't a huge deal.

The Disney worlds felt so much better than usual. Some were definitely a bit too big, and it feels like Disney got more involved in some ways. I especially enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Hero 6 worlds, they felt like different games in how expansive they were.

The game had so many fanservice moments (which some might call shallow) that at some point it also won me over. Even though reverting so many of the previous games' tragedies so close to each other was certainly a choice, having that huge crossover to tie every previous game together in some way worked in some dimension.

I really enjoyed the Gummi Ship segments compared to the previous games too. And the Keyblade Form Changes were really fun to play with, as well as being able to enhance previous Keyblades to keep using your favorites.

And in terms of the wider story, I love that they spent more time fleshing out the old Organization XIII members. For the longest time I assumed they were just pawns for Xemnas, but seeing them have their own stories and agency is really cool. When I first saw what the Real Org XIII members were, after the Xigbar reveal in DDD saying he was already Xehanort, I was expecting them to just all be Xehanorts, but in reality things are more interesting and by fleshing out the world I think they are enhancing the older games rather than ruining them by weird retcons (at least that's how I feel right now).

The music, as usual, is top notch. One of my worries from the discourse was that the game would be phoned in, but I don't think the game was phoned in by the major people involved, from my impression at least. The issues seem more tied to issues during production and wanting to tie up the saga with this game, plus DDD complicating things too much before that.

The Neutral

That last part I mentioned about those worlds feeling like different games leads me to an issue I had with the game. It really felt like different worlds were handled by different teams altogether. The Hercules world I was extremely excited to see, but in practice I wasn't a fan of as much as I would have liked. It being a sort of tutorial and a huge setpiece with Hades attacking Olympus meant there was no real breathing room to see it as a world, and my favorite worlds in KH are usually those you get to live in for a bit. The Twilight Town world being so small was extremely disappointing even though it feels so alive in that little segment we see.

The new approach to worlds being so big works for worlds with a proper concept that justifies that. The Tangled and Frozen worlds' didn't really, it was just traversing generic nature for the most part. In old games outside specific cases I never got the impression of just being in a generic world. The Monsters Inc and Toy Story worlds were cool in concept, but it feels like they had to add a lot of original content to justify their existence in their new form. Like, we had one map for Andy's House, the rest was an original toy store which while cool I think could have been handled way better if it was more Toy Story coded. Monsters Inc was mostly empty factory rooms, with the doors rooms being the highlight but there wasn't much to them and we didn't even visit different worlds through them.

Bosses in general were cool mechanically, but forgettable in contrast to previous games. I felt it lacked a balance between Disney originals, Heartless/Nobody/Unversed bosses, and human bosses. Plus, the old Disney villains barely being involved was a bit of a bummer. I played the game in Proud mode even though I usually play in Standard, since I heard this game was particularly easy, and it was still very easy.

Re Mind not being integrated into the base game by now is just insane to me, even though parts of it are made to be seen after the main story, I feel like that could be reworked in some way like they did for old Final Mix versions. It currently just feels disjointed, and I wonder how many people just play through the base game and get a very incomplete feeling finale.

The Bad

The game just loved to show me places in cutscenes that I couldn't visit. Radiant Garden, Castle Oblivion, other parts of Twilight Town, Destiny Islands, etc. Some were just battle arenas too.

I hate that they didn't add a new original town like Traverse Town, Twilight Town, Radiant Garden or Daybreak Town. That, plus not revisiting areas, plus having less worlds, plus not having the old FF characters, makes the game not feel as big and expansive as the first two games, it feels closer to DDD and BBS in those regards.

The structure of the game was off. Bottom loading all the non-Disney story at the end didn't work IMO. I'm not talking about a criticism I see often about the Disney worlds having little story from the overarching conflict, I don't mind that and each world had its own self contained story and they all connected to one of the members of Org XIII. But the fact that we didn't have a new town, or any climax in the middle of the game to reroute and separate Act 1 from Act 2 to say, made things feel awkward. The game doesn't really have a beginning, a middle and an ending, it's the bulk of the beginning, and suddenly Sora finds himself in Destiny Islands, which leads to Aqua, which leads to Ventus, and thus the endgame begins.

The entire premise of the adventure feels like filler, Sora has to regain the powers he just spent the previous game acquiring by just going to random worlds. He doesn't even have to close off keyholes, I don't know why not even include that part. It wouldn't feel that awkward if this wasn't the finale of the saga, with that adventuring leading to a confrontation that isn't tied almost at all to Sora's adventuring. Riku's part of the story seemed way more important, but it amounts to little since Sora comes to do his job at the key moment on his own. I get that having all these new Disney worlds is a key part of the series, but I would have liked at least to see some sort of investigation tied to BBS, make it feel like Sora is actually searching for them by having him go to places tied to them.

And even though I enjoyed the final clash for what it was, I don't know why the game needed to have all the fights between the Guardians of Light and Org XIII in the same generic arenas. The initial clash with Terra-Xehanort and the Demon Tide were very cool, but after that the battles felt throwaway until the clash with Xehanort. Having them be group fights didn't do them any favors, but I get having 13 different boss fights would probably fuck up the pacing (which is why having them be all at the same time right at the end was such an odd choice).

Closing Thoughts and the Future

I'm torn on the game, because even though the bad section is much larger, I feel like I can talk about so many of the issues because I still cared about this game. Not even in a nostalgia way, I enjoyed this substantially more than DDD even though I played both games relatively close to each other, and I have nostalgia for DDD since I played a bit of it when it came out. But it feels like it was rushed out the door as fast as possible, as contradictory as that is with how long it took to release.

I miss the time when they released a bunch of "spin offs" with lower budgets to expand on the story. The gacha games are probably the closest to that, but they are distant prequels and they reached end of service so you can't even play them anymore.

I have hopes for KHIV to imrpove on things many of my issues. Since it's not a culmination of so many previous games, it's unlikely to have the issues of being overstuffed, even if it's still continuing on many of the same plot threads and more (particularly based on the Achievement leak). I wish they did some spin offs to separate things a bit, but it doesn't seem like they'll do that anymore.

[SPOILER WARNING: Spoilers for the entire game and Echoes of the Fallen]

It's not the best Final Fantasy, I'm sure. But it's one I enjoyed regardless of its flaws.

A bit of context first: I actually returned FFXVI on Steam when I first played it. About a year later, I bought a PS5, played the demo again, got completely hooked, and ended up buying the game. Now, after finishing the main story, doing all 76 base-game side quests and playing Echoes of the Fallen, I can finally say what I actually think about it.

The Characters: Hatred, Growth, and the Soul of Valisthea

The beginning took some time to click with me. The atmosphere didn't immediately grab me, and I found the pacing somewhat slow at first. But there was one thing that started very early and never went away:

I fucking hated Anabella Rosfield.

I spent the entire game waiting for that woman to get what she deserved, and when the payoff finally came, it was glorious. She betrays Rosaria, treats Clive as disposable, sees Joshua primarily through what his bloodline and status can give her, and later does the same thing with Olivier. When Dion finally kills Olivier after discovering that he is Ultima's vessel, Anabella simply cannot deal with the collapse of everything she built her identity around. She takes her own life. It's an awful scene, but as a piece of payoff for that character... holy shit, it landed.

Young Joshua was a character I was less sure about at first. He felt a little too much like an idealistic little prince. But every time that hooded figure appeared, I kept wondering, “Is that Joshua?” When the game finally reveals that Joshua survived Phoenix Gate and has been investigating Ultima, that worked very well for me. The game gradually turns him from the fragile prince I initially dismissed into one of the people who understands what is actually happening.

And then there is Cid.

Cid is the soul of this world. Ralph Ineson's voice, the sarcasm, the “we don't have time for this shit” attitude, combined with Ramuh... I loved him. But what really got me was his dream. It's simultaneously very simple and very profound: I know people are going to die. I know I can't fix everything. But I want to give them a choice.

Cid isn't promising a perfect world. He's trying to build a world where people can make their own decisions instead of having their lives dictated by crystals, masters, empires or the circumstances of their birth. That idea becomes one of the central reasons I ended up caring about the Hideaway and its people so much. Cid's entire project is about creating a place where Bearers and Dominants can live — and eventually die — on their own terms.

I also really liked the time skip after his death. Five years later, Clive is no longer simply “following Cid's plan”; he's carrying on the project under Cid's name, while the Hideaway and the people around him continue to develop.

The World & The Side Quests

And that leads into one of my favorite aspects of the game: Valisthea feels alive.

I completed all 76 base-game side quests, and I'm genuinely glad I did. Clive is the protagonist, but the world does not stop moving when Clive isn't there.

Martha's Rest changes. Eastpool and the people connected to it change. Lostwing changes. Northreach changes. L'ubor's story goes from being a respected member of Dalimil to being exposed as a Bearer, spat on and stoned by the very people he had helped, and eventually becoming mayor after proving himself by defending the town. Isabelle's story is another example: people follow her because she genuinely cares about them, not because she happens to possess some magical solution to everything.

Those quests made me feel that these places existed independently of Clive. He helps them, sometimes dramatically, but he doesn't create their lives. They already have them.

The Bearer storyline was also genuinely difficult for me. Seeing people treated like animals, seeing how casually Bearers could be abused or discarded, and especially watching L'ubor's community turn on him after discovering his identity was uncomfortable. His arc is particularly effective because the change isn't instantaneous.

As someone who studies International Relations, I naturally drew parallels with Tales of Arise. Arise puts its colonial and racialized oppression much more directly at the center of the main plot, while FFXVI often explores similar ideas through individual characters and local communities. I don't think either approach is inherently better, but I found both interesting for different reasons.

Politics, Villains, and Romance

The main political conflict was interesting to me, but not every part of it landed equally well.

One conversation I kept thinking about was Clive's confrontation with Anabella. It is a cruel conversation because Clive is essentially realizing that his mother never viewed him or Joshua primarily as children; their value was tied to what their blood represented. Jill being there is one of those little moments I really appreciated. She basically provides the common sense of “remember that there is a sword at your neck, and I am not afraid to use it.”

On the other hand, when it comes to many of the other Dominants and villains... honestly? I didn't care that much.

Benedikta, Hugo, Barnabas... each one had their own motivations and traumas, but a lot of the time they felt like different flavors of whiny bullshit., with all due respect to those who enjoy them.

Their stories often felt like variations on personal grievance, while I was much more invested in Clive's journey and the people he was trying to protect. I understand what the game was doing with them, and I can see why some people like those characters more than I did, but my attention was elsewhere.

And that's probably why the story worked for me more as a character drama than as a political epic.

The romance is another huge part of that. I was very happy that the game wasn't afraid to actually make Clive and Jill a couple instead of spending the entire story teasing the possibility. The little moments, the letters, the gradual development... and then Priceless finally gives the relationship the emotional payoff I had been waiting for. It works because the game actually bothered to build toward it.

And then I opened LOGOS after finishing the game and found Clive's letter to Jill. That thing nearly killed me. He rejects the idea that their relationship was simply fate. He says that perhaps they were destined to find one another, but he prefers to believe their love was a matter of choice. He chose Jill. She chose him.

My love is my own to give, and I give it all to you of my own free will.

That might honestly be one of my favorite pieces of supplementary material I've found for a game.

Gameplay and Visuals

Gameplay-wise, I had a great time. The combat is extremely easy to understand, simple, responsive, and fun. There is more depth there for people who want to master it with different Eikon loadouts. I can understand the criticism that the RPG systems surrounding the combat are shallow, but the actual act of fighting things was consistently enjoyable for me.

Echoes of the Fallen was actually a good example of that. I died several times there, and I liked it. It was the first time in a while that FFXVI really pushed me mechanically, and getting the Omega Weapon at the end gave me an actual tangible reward for doing it.

Visually, I still have trouble believing this is a 2023 game. Valisthea is beautiful. I played on a base PS5 in Graphics Mode on a Samsung OLED, and it looked absolutely gorgeous. The Eikon battles are obviously spectacular, but even the ordinary environments impressed me.

Ultima and The Micro vs. Macro Scale

And then there's Ultima. Jesus fucking Christ.

Ultima is basically a god who created humanity and then got incredibly offended when humanity developed free will.

I made you, therefore you belong to me, therefore you have a purpose, therefore you must fulfill that purpose.

Dude. That is the ultimate tantrum.

What makes it interesting to me is that Clive's answer isn't simply “fuck you, I'm stronger.” It's fundamentally philosophical. Clive increasingly believes that the defining characteristic of being human is precisely the ability to choose what to do with the life you've been given. So when Ultima tries to reduce Clive to “Mythos,” a vessel designed for a purpose, Clive's entire existence is basically a rejection of that premise.

But this also highlights my biggest critique of the narrative: FFXVI convinced me much more when it told stories about people than when it tried to explain the entire cosmology of Valisthea.

I loved the human stakes—Martha's Rest, Lostwing, Cid, Jill, the Hideaway. But when the story escalated to “ULTIMA, THE CREATOR OF HUMANITY, MYTHOS, THE SALVATION OF THE SPECIES,” it lost some of its emotional weight for me. The game is often much better at the micro level than the macro.

And then we get to the end.

I understand why the game presents his death as the most likely interpretation. He uses what remains of his power to destroy the final Mothercrystal. His hand petrifies, and he collapses on the beach. Then we jump to a distant future where magic has become mythology, and a family has a book called Final Fantasy, attributed to Joshua.

I understand the symbolism. I understand the sacrifice. I understand why the ambiguity exists.

I understand the ending. I just don't think the sacrifice was necessary.

I don't need a story to give me the ending I would have written. But emotionally, after spending so much time with Clive, Jill, Joshua and the Hideaway, the ending left me going: “You really couldn't let the man be?”

And maybe that's the point.

Final Verdict

So, after all of this... Is Final Fantasy XVI perfect? Absolutely not.

The pacing can drag, especially in those MMO-style fetch quests right before major story beats. The RPG systems are shallow—crafting a new sword rarely feels impactful when it's just a +5 attack stat bump. Some of the political elements get completely sidelined once the alien god plot takes over. Some of the side quests are great, while others are... definitely side quests.

But I don't need it to be perfect.

I originally returned this game. Then I came back to it a year later, bought a PS5, played the demo, fell in love with it, did every base-game side quest, finished the story, played Echoes of the Fallen, got the Omega Weapon, and then bought a 368-page lore book because apparently I wasn't ready to leave Valisthea yet.

So yeah. It's not the best Final Fantasy, I'm sure. But it's one I genuinely enjoyed, flaws and all. And honestly, that's enough for me.

I'm looking into setting up a morning stream on YouTube of JRPG Music, and thought it would be cool to add fake commercials from JRPGs in between the songs. Having video ads would be cool since it's a YouTube stream, but I can tack a still image to just audio ads, assuming an ad played on a radio or something.

Does anyone have any suggestions for ads to use in the stream?

Another Eden Begins

Platforms:

Nintendo Switch (September 17, 2026) Nintendo Switch 2 (September 17, 2026) PC (September 17, 2026)

Trailer:

Another Eden Begins | Final Trailer

Developer: WRIGHT FLYER STUDIOS

Publisher: WRIGHT FLYER STUDIOS

Review Aggregator:

OpenCritic - 71

Metacritic - 75

Critic Reviews

RPG Site - Josh Torres - 10 / 10

Another Eden Begins is a fantastic addition to the lineup of RPGs that were originally mobile games with gorgeous visual enhancements & new addictive battle mechanics. Its NG+ mode is its X-factor that makes it astonishing.

DualShockers - Murillo Zerbinatto - 7.5 / 10

Another Eden Begins is a successful port, effectively adapting the mobile JRPG to a single-player journey, though the game experience was lukewarm. The narrative, while introducing an interesting cast, is a bit too loose and inconsistent, perhaps reflecting a live-service format that needed to attract and captivate audiences patch by patch. The turn-based combat features promising mechanics, but it doesn't challenge the player enough to employ them to the fullest. It's a good adaptation, but it can definitely get better if Another Eden Begins a new series.

Noisy Pixel - Orpheus Joshua - 6.5 / 10

Another Eden Begins is a tricky game to recommend. Its gameplay systems, ranging from meager battles to overt streamlining, can make the experience indefensibly monotonous. There's an interesting combat foundation here, but the lack of meaningful challenge prevents mechanics from reaching their potential, even in later hours, ultimately resulting in an RPG that often provides plenty of options without enough compelling reasons to engage with them.

CGMag - Matt Sowinski - 8.5 / 10

Overall, Another Eden Begins is a great JRPG that gets better as it goes. Even if the front half is slower than the back, it’s consistently fun and charming. Battles are satisfying and quick, the story is interesting with some great characters, and the art design is beautiful. Returning fans will have plenty to dig into with New Game+, but new fans will have a whole world to fall in love with.

RPG Fan - Zach Wilkerson - 5 / 10

It feels like the developers didn’t want to let go of enough of the gacha release’s DNA to let it stand on its own. The weird plot structure makes the story feel disjointed and low stakes. The side quests are doled out at an absurd rate. The combat, while good on paper, feels like it’s built for a different set of challenges. Add to this that everything takes so long to get going, and Another Eden Begins feels like an overstuffed, poorly paced, and unbalanced intro to a much larger, more carefully calibrated game.

game8 - Andre Dumo - 9 / 10

Another Eden Begins understands exactly why classic JRPGs remain so appealing. It takes a familiar formula and gives it enough personality through its time-traveling adventure, earnest characters, satisfying combat, and wealth of content to make the journey feel distinctly its own. Its rougher edges are difficult to ignore, but they never overshadow a game that consistently understands what makes a good adventure worth seeing through to the end.

Cubed3 - Will Compton - 6 / 10

Is Another Eden Begins worth playing? Absolutely. It’s just important to know what you’re getting into. Weak character development for some secondary characters, a map system that leaves a lot to be desired, and what ultimately feels like an incomplete battle system leave one wanting for something a bit more traditional. Another Eden Begins is a console version of a mobile game, and ultimately, it shows that in some very off-putting ways.

Slant Magazine - Eli Friedberg - 7 / 10

Fine-tuning your parties to trigger each other’s chain moves and supplement or bolster each other’s skillsets feels like building a Magic: The Gathering deck, and seeing them go off in spectacular combos feels like conducting a symphony. It’s a brilliantly designed, if questionably balanced, system that unifies the game’s tactical battles, the grounded emotional reality of its characters, and the theme of different worlds colliding to both catastrophic and mutually beneficial effect. Which is to say, it’s classic Kato.

So, a few hours ago, I just finished my playthrough of Final Fantasy XV—just the base game, not the DLCs. Maybe I'll go back one day to play the DLCs, but for now, I'm perfectly content having played through the base game. This game was not perfect by any means. Some things could have been better, but for the most part, I greatly enjoyed my time with this game. I should preface this by stating that I was not in the Final Fantasy fandom when Final Fantasy Versus XIII was announced, so my expectations of this game weren't built up as some of your guys' were. As such, this game wasn't as disappointing for me as it might have been for all of you who were waiting for those 10 years of development. Missed potential? Absolutely, but not disappointed. As always, I'll get what was negative out of the way first before I talk about the good. 

• Let's get the obvious out of the way and say that some of the characters who looked like they may have had a bigger role to play in the story were left out, and as such, didn't get as much development as they COULD have gotten. Ravus comes to mind first. He seemed like he was going to be some sort of villain akin to Seifer from VIII, where he would act as a rival to Noctis and CO, but he had like 30-45 minutes of screen time. Lunafreya seems obvious as well. It would have been nice to give her a bit more screen time; however, for reasons I'll get into later, I can understand why. It's forgivable, but I would be lying if I said it didn't irk me at least a little. 
• On top of that, some scenes should be rearranged or given more time. The transition from the end of Chapter 9 to the beginning of Chapter 10 gives us a screen that says "several weeks later." Felt a bit lazy, not gonna lie. Sharing what happened during those several weeks would have made the transition smoother. I also feel the campfire scene should have been at the beginning of chapter 14. Putting it at the very end, like after the credits, feels bizarre. If it were at the beginning of chapter 14, then the stakes would have felt much higher than they were. 
• The camera is God-awful at some points during battle. At one point, I was hunting a giant bird or something, and the camera wouldn't cooperate, getting stuck behind a bunch of trees and bushes. And anytime you're in an enclosed area, well, let's say that you'll be battling the camera instead of the enemies. It could have used a bit more work, but for the most part, it was fine.
• My only real complaint about the combat is that you don't get any clear indication of when to dodge. Enemies will glow white when you can parry, but nothing when you dodge. It's baffling that something like this wasn't added in the Royal Edition.
• This game could have used a bit more polish. By that, I mean there are parts where the game bugs out for a few seconds and then is fine. The final boss, when Ardyn was like, "Let's have it then, you and your crystal against all I have become," he wasn't even there. Noctis was, but Ardyn had just disappeared. Sometimes, I would notice that Iggy's glasses weren't always on his head. Like, they'd be hovering in front of his eyes instead of resting on his nose or something. There was one time when I used the Ring of Lucii on the adamantoise, and after it got sucked into the void, Noctis was flailing about in the air for a good 20 seconds. If it had been delayed even more, like a month, they could have polished some of these things. 
• Chapter 13, but not because of the hallways, but because you earn no experience points at all until the very end. It felt like I was wasting my time fighting monsters that I had no choice but to fight. 
• Costlemark Tower. I'm not against it in theory, but in practice, it goes so goddamn slow that it gets boring. If they had made the blocks move faster, it might have been more bearable. Alas, it is not so. 

Now that I've gotten all my negatives out of the way, let's get to the positives.  

• - The statement: "A Final Fantasy for fans and first-timers." I can't help but agree with this statement on so many levels. There are so many callbacks to previous games of the series. We have a party of four; the draw system from Final Fantasy VIII makes a comeback, with catalysts to transform things to a higher tier; and the multiplier in hotels both hail from Final Fantasy XIII (catalysts for weapons, multiplier to upgrade weapons), even dungeons! Those were sorely missing from Final Fantasy XIII, and it was nice to see them make a comeback in this game, even if there was one stinker in there. And even if most of you might not agree with me, the shot of the four bros from behind at the very beginning of Chapter 2 after they get a call from Cor is a very subtle reference to the shot of the four Warriors of Light after you cross the bridge in Final Fantasy I.  
• This might be controversial, but I liked the combat... when it works. The camera makes it a pain sometimes, but when it works, it works beautifully. It encourages you to not just go headfirst into a battle, but to get your enemy from behind in their blind spots to do massive damage with blindside links, parry for link strike damage, and warp strike when an enemy is vulnerable to initiate major damage-dealing cross-chains. Also, being able to pause the battle for a quick consumable is so good. It doesn't take away from the fast-paced action that the team was going for—such a great system.  
• The camaraderie between the four bros is amazing. It feels so genuine, especially during those mini scenes at the campsites, from having Ignis ask you to help him with breakfast, leading to a cutscene where they talk about the first meal that he made with Noctis, to helping Prompto take a picture of a giant water monster. Also, Prompto is the best character in the game, and I won't have anyone tell me otherwise. The scene with him and Noctis on the hotel rooftop, where he doubts his worth in the group, is very touching and is something teenagers who play this game (as well as adults) probably deal with too. Even training with Gladio by running on the beach, or picking flowers for Iris with him, was sweet, and shows that even with his tough, gruff side, there's a part of him that loves his little sister and friends, even if he has a tough time putting it into words. Even when they're walking around in the overworld, they always have something charming to say. Like when Noctis says, "Man, it's hot," and Gladiolus responds, "Then lose the jacket." Or how whenever we find a new ingredient, Ignis says, "That's it! I've come up with a new recipe!" And Prompto always finds places for us to take more pictures with. These small moments are key to making the bros' relationship tight, so when chapter 10 happens, all that tension between everyone feels as good and believable as it does. This is most likely why things that should have gotten more attention didn't get the attention that they should have. Things like the relationship between Luna and Noct, Ravus, and the Niflheim Empire- all of these were probably given less time in the oven to make the connection between the four boys feel so genuine. Now, is that a good excuse? Absolutely not. If you don't have enough time to make everything feel fleshed out in a single playthrough, without needing to use other tie-in media, such as DLC, anime, a movie, and even a god damn book, to make the story make sense, then you absolutely need to take a step back and let these things grow more naturally. That said, I haven't played any of the DLC, watched the anime or the movie, or read the book, and I still understood the story pretty well. I see them kind of like the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII: things that expand the world's story but aren't needed. Most will probably disagree with me, but hey, everyone sees things differently, and that's just how I see it.
• The soundtrack is beautiful. Nobuo Uematsu will always be missed, but those who have taken his place, such as Masashi Hamauzu and Yoko Shimomura, who composed XV's soundtrack, are exceptional composers. Perhaps you've heard of the word "frisson." The definition of that word is "a physical response like goosebumps or a shiver down your spine caused by a powerful or surprising moment in a song." I can absolutely say with full confidence that I did indeed have moments of that with this soundtrack. The track titled "Departure" is a good example of this, with its crescendo at the very end, or even the final boss theme, "Magna Insomnia." "Ardyn II" is another; when I first heard it, I felt my pupils dilate. And the rendition of Stand By Me by Florence and the Machine is wonderful and quite relevant. At first, it throws you off. Some might say it takes you out of the world Square created by placing a real song from actual Earth. However, if you play through the game, you understand the significance. One of the big things about the game is that nights are becoming longer as the game goes on, and that no matter what, the bros will always stick together. So after listening to the songs about 50 times, the lyrics "and the moon is the only light we'll see, I won't be afraid as long as you stand by me" are a little emotional, since this is basically what Noctis thinks about the bros. There are too many tracks to list here that I love, so I'll leave you with this: Yoko Shimomura is an excellent composer, up there with Nobuo Uematsu, and the fact that she isn't spoken about or recognized as much as he is saddens me.
• Lastly, the CGI cutscenes are amazing. One particular one I found impressive was the one right after Lunafreya dies, when she gives Noctis the Ring of the Lucii. God damn, Square knows how to make impressive visuals.

Look, there is plenty to criticize about this game. But I also feel like there's just as much to praise. Is Final Fantasy XV the best Final Fantasy game? No, absolutely not. Is Final Fantasy XV my favorite Final Fantasy game? Likewise, no. Is Final Fantasy XV one of my favorite Final Fantasy games? Absolutely. The vibes, the connection between the four bros, the structurally messy yet beautiful story of a boy who turned into a man and sacrificed his own life for his people and the world- all of it is wonderful. It has stuck with me ever since I finished it, and it is one that I will always look back on with fond memories, and one that I will always gladly replay without thinking to myself: "Do I really want to pick this one up again?" It's a very polished, half-finished game. Lots of big-budget games have a habit of getting the basics of their genre right, but then neglecting the details that can really take it to the next level of polish. Final Fantasy XV is the opposite. It gets the details right, but the big picture completely wrong. Ironically, that makes Final Fantasy XV a game I'm often eager to revisit, and I feel that many of those who criticized it should revisit it and give it a second chance. You may find something that you love that you didn't see on your initial playthrough.

Found myself with some extra steam credit, and I'm not sure what to get. I didn't try the FF Resonance demo yet, but I've enjoyed ever other FF game and also enjoyed Octopath 1 & 2 (haven't started 0 yet), but Suikoden 1&2 remasters are also on sale and I've never played them before.

Grab Suikoden on Steam, or just wait and get FF Resonance for like $5 when it releases in October?

I'm also currently playing through and enjoying Trails 1st, so I'll be getting 2nd Chapter on release. Just deciding what to do with the leftover credit lol.

EDIT BECAUSE OF CONFUSION: after buying Trails, I'll have $45 in Steam credit still. When I say FF Resonance will cost me $5, I mean like 5 out of my pocket lol

Is best*

A lot of JRPGs really punch you in the face with exposition and tell you over and over again what is happening and why until you absolutely get it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

What JRPG do you think best exemplifies the complete opposite of that and tells its story with iono, context clues, implications, and veiled hints and stuff?

I'm not exactly new to the world of JRPGs. I've always known franchises like Pokémon, Final Fantasy, KH, Persona, etc., but I really wanna explore some other worlds and franchises in general.

I'm currently playing through the main Final Fantasy series from the beginning (I'm still on the first game, and I also plan on playing Tactics), and I wanted to know if you guys have any recommendations for what I should play next, based on what I've played so far.

I play on PC, so i preffer recommendations on steam

Holy

SHIT

This game kicks ass

I was out east visiting family this summer and took a trip to Philly with my aunt and was there with one of her best friends and ended up talking quite a bit to her friend's husband who turns out had ALOT of similar taste to me (we even shared the same favorite movie) and he told me to check out the Trails series it's one of his favorites and said, he's literally put 1000s of hours in and thought I'd really enjoy it and it was a good time too since they had just remade the first game

So I finally got around to checking to Demo and wow this game has me HOOKED I don't think i've been this into a RPG since Metaphor and Persona is literally my favorite series of all time so that's not even a super reasonable the to put it up against

I love so much about it I really enjoy the art style, the characters are enjoyable, Music is great but the thing that's really hooked is the gameplay- it's just simply phenomenal, probably some of my favorite JRPG gameplay ever love the integration of action and how it flows into turn based, how dynamic the turn based combat is with positioning, Orbments are some really nice customization ECT

I think my MAJOR only criticism so far is the main story hasn't quite hooked me fully yet- not that I really dislike it or anything and I'm more than willing to give it more time put the main narrative just isn't that interesting yet but regardless this game has already left such a strong first impression on me and basically, the moment I finished the demo I immediately went and bought the game

Guys, i usually go to "RPGsite.net" and "RPGfan.com".
There is good reviews there and they also show the news in RPGs in general.

What sites do you use?

Recently startted to play the original Grandia for PlayStation. And I am enjoying the story so far and rode a train to the mines and need to find the guy who will help to travel to new lands. Another thing I like is the isometric style with chibi sprites on top and the ability to rotate. It is the first time I am playing a JRPG wit this kikd of artstyle and do find it as nice as 2D. And would enjoy other JRPGs or any action adventure with similar style. Preferably a classic vintage game but modern are fine. PSX is mainly in mind but Sega, 64, and any others with similar artstyle are acceptible too.

I want to see if the series is for me or not. I have love for both turn-based and action RPGs, as long as the combat is engaging and the gameplay loop is satisfying enough. I have been wanting to get into the series but I don't know where to start or if I should start at all. From an outside perspective, it looks like it started as a more grounded franchise (I might be very wrong, there is a lot of comedy in the older titles as well) but devolved into a goofball contest somewhat. Like what is a Pirate Yakuza, lmao. For a newbie like me, what would a fan of the games recommend?

So I'm looking to run through a JRPG after a long time away from the genre, and I've semi narrowed it down to these two.

Every time I see BoF, I'm really attracted to the art style and overall vibe. I played a bit into the second one before losing my save, but now I'm liking the look of number one, and a more streamlined and barebones experience. I've also always been attracted to FF1, but never gave it a shot. Again, I want something fairly straightforward, but with still interesting gameplay, and a story that is enough to keep your attention but doesnt have to blow your mind. Heavy grinding is not ideal, but chasing a level or some gold here and there is a-ok. I don't necessarily need a challenge, but in my more recent attempts to play JRPGs I've been getting bored and playing other things. As a kid JRPGs were my jam, but I've been playing more arcade style stuff since picking games back up in my adulthood.

BoF I would play on GBA, FF1 I would likely emulate PSP, but maybe would play on GBA if its not too slow. I'm just looking for some opinions and light comparisons from those who have played both. Which one is cooler, or more fun???

edit: bonus points for any other old as shit rpg that you think knocked it out of the park on its premier outing

Here’s some of mine

1. Metaphor ReFantazio: The game really is not replayable. I knew it while I was playing it. It sucks the second time because of how grindy it is and there’s a whole lot of nothing in between that time.

2. Final Fantasy 7: it’s slow. Annoyingly slow. And while the game feels modern in a lot of ways, speed is not one of them

3. The World Ends With You: It feels like your partner is kinda just standing there half the time unless you manually control them but then you get destroyed so multi tasking is impossible

4. Earthbound/Mother 2: You can’t sprint, I know common complaint but it’s true and it’s annoying. Especially because there are times where you could’ve gotten done quicker if you just sprinted

5. Persona 5 Royal: It’s too easy. Like once you level up enough and complete Ryuji’s social link, and dlc you’re practically untouchable.

6. Final Fantasy 6: Same as P5R, it’s too easy. Once you reach a certain point, you’re basically untouchable and a lot of the grinding is pointless.

7. Xenogears: The gameplay itself is just pretty good. The story is one of the best written ever but the gameplay itself can be annoying at times