@@xelldincht4251 ALL SMT games are hard, especially when you get 1/3 in, and enemies start resisting / Voiding / and REFLECTING normal physical attacks....which is what you do the most of. You are required to have multiple types of skills and such...or you'll end up in a position where you can't defeat a boss...or a random enemy.
@@xelldincht4251 The remake has the "Mercy" difficulty included...which lowers the difficulty (but not enemy resistances). You get more XP and Macca....but the trade-off is a greatly reduced encounter rate. I had Riberoma (increase encounter rate until the next new phase)...for two whole cycles...without an encounter. That's how much lower the base encounter rate is in Mercy Difficulty. The Base difficulty is the same as the PS2 version...although there are some QoL stuff...like being able to pick what skills fused demons can have (instead of pure RNG). Honestly...in any SMT game, you CAN get screwed in the first fight. You max HP is only 30-50...and enemies can deal 12-16 damage at that point. How you can get screwed...is if enemies land crits, which increases the number of turn they have...or you miss, which takes away turns. The major issue is...if the Protag dies, it's game over...and in later areas, enemies do have insta-kill skills (which your protag does NOT have base resistance for.) That's why the SMT games are so difficult.
The Pyra/Mythra argument is invalid. The original blond/redhead duo inhabiting the same body with either kindness and chaos as their character traits belongs to Elena and Millenia from Grandia II. The difference I suppose is the kind one is blond and the chaotic one is the redhead.
I played it on vita and I also have the remake but the color contrast is kinda annoying there... in my op Neptunia VII stays the best in the series. That game is just brilliant in its refusal to make sense I truly love it... beats disgaea by a landslide... which is no easy task let's be honest as Disgaea is also over the top dada ;)
@@sonny167349 it's satire tho.. I mean the fan service is unnecessary and that is precisely why it makes u laugh... it is not a game that takes sex seriously but laughs at the tropes. This said I never had problems with fan service in my life honestly, once you make clear the game is not for kids...
@@n3r0n3 I'm using steam version with some graphics mods to improve the quality, I would like if the game had bit less dialogue overall and put like 2-3 cutscenes over some scenes. Anyway I think the remake is actually fun, also disgaea up to 5th release is in my opinion really great last two realeses were fun as well, but the 3d graphics don't give the same feeling.
I love the neptunia games and I’m not afraid to admit it. HOWEVER I love the remakes they did for the original trilogy the original ps3 versions major suck.
@@grthjryrd7552 You cannot simply use a health item during battle. There is a 50% to use one that heals for 50% HP when under 50% of your max health. You can upgrade it as you progress in the game but you often end up wiping because there is nothing you can do about the dumb RNG. Soo, if you want to play the first game, get the Rebirth 1 and stay away from the original. It is a very painful game.
Time and Eternity shouldnt be included on these kinds of lists, I agree. It's not awesome, but it's really unique, especially visually. I'd love to see another try at the style!
have u finished it? I mean I still have to find anyone who dared finishing it.. it is visually interesting sure but in terms of gameplay is the worst of the bunch hands down... anyway this list I suppose is based on metacritic's results...it's the usual titles everybody says are terrible. Are they really the worse? I don't know... Awaken fate and the other one in the series I can't remember the title are in my op much worse than Neptunia, Cross Edge or Agarest that are all quite ok in reality.
I really had fun with Time and Eternity. Yes, it is not perfect, but on a sale it is a fun experience. About the switching mechanic- its main point it for the affinity system. You see, as bosses gives way more affinity, the point is to do bosses with the girl who you want to marry. I wanted to marry Toki, so I did bosses exclusively with her.
I actually really liked Time and Eternity and I remember back when it released everyone I knew asking why I was playing it because they heard it was bad. I feel like I was one of the few people who played on launch after not buying into hype and went in with zero expectation because I liked the artstyle and it worked out for me. I very rarely get hyped for games though so that most likely played into it.
Compile Hearts games tend to recycle their battlesystems a lot, but Agarest Zero is a game I'm very fond of, it has the best version of this particular battlesystem imo, story was very average but there was a charm to the characters. Going for overkills on every boss can be a fun challenge to do. I wouldn't say it's super hard for newcomers, but if the player doesn't wanna take a little time to learn, then they will also have a hard time.
@@sannice Try a game like Eternal Saga.... I've played most, if not all, RPG's on the PS2/PS3 and of all of them I think the ones listed here weren't half bad over a RPG where you can literally encounter 100's of enemies in the same random encounter (making those encounters take HOURS) only to go level DOWN, break your gear PERMANENTLY and all of it because the leveling system is heavily tied to RNG with battle and field mechanics that are never explained, not even in the manual... how's that for a bad RPG ?
I think Time & Eternity could do with a remake that keeps the artstyle but overhauls the battle system, mazes and story elements. Not a remaster, but a full-fledged remake.
Yeah, I really wanted to like this game because of the art style (2D character in 3D third person) but as stated in the video, the combat got repetitive very fast.
Low budget JRPG's tend to have a charm you don't get from the big budget blockbusters. I think that's a big part of why there are so many of them and a lot of people seem to have a fondness for them. Personally I grab one on a sale or something every few years or so just to try something different and I find I usually enjoy them since I go in without any lofty expectations.
There's a difference between great low-budget jrpgs like Soma Union or Blackout hospital and soulless slop from compile heart or kemco though. Latter is not charming in the slightest.
@@-bold5999 Right. There has to be some passion behind it because that passion usually shines through whatever jankiness or lack of polish there is. I can spot a Kemco game just by looking at the title logo at this point. Mass produced garbage.
@@Greeny83 nah, mass produced garbade is mobile and browser shit That is literally 0-2/10 Compile Heart games, at least have memorable characters, so they're way better
I have a soft spot for Compile Heart jank because they always put out games that in one way or another really swing for the fences, and I can appreciate a cool idea even when they didn't quite have the ability to execute it. That being said, there's no reason to go back to the first Neptunia now that it's seen two remakes. They're still junk food but it's much more competently presented than the PS3 original.
If you think you'd like the art style and general tone of the humor then yeah. The gameplay is serviceable but nothing to write home about, at worst a bit grindy at times@@mountainmgtow5421
I'm hoping that Compile Heart's quality begins to increase, because it seems the company has undergone a bit of a re-structure internally, like having a new Director/Producer. I thought Neptunia Sisters Vs Sisters was one of the best Nep games in a long time, so I got some faith.
There's a reason they straight up remade "Hyperdimension Neptunia" with an entirely different game engine and combat system for the PS Vita called "Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth", and then based its sequels and the PC versions on that, which is probably the version most people today know. The original PS3 version is a relic that nobody knows and really isn't worth the time compared to its far better remake. Also yes, "Time and Eternity" is SO underrated. I loved that game when I played it back in the day.
Should be mentioned to the actual first game's credit that they might as well not have had a budget at all with how little they were actually given. Props to the devs for making due with what they had and managing to pull off getting a sequel okayed that turned into a full-blown mascot franchise.
It wasn't a new engine. It was one they recycled from the 3rd Neptunia game. Honestly, the 3rd Neptunia game is the best in the franchise. Just the fact that they are still using the same system to this day since that game came out shows how good that game was for the franchise.
They remade them simply to relicence them to Idea Factory International. If they didn't fall out with NIS and NIS America, they wouldn't exist and they would have just moved straight on with the next game.
@@Shadowespeon17 Not entirely true, though that was part of it. The franchise was the one Idea Factory IP that actually took off somewhat, and then further with the second game and even much more with the third. They had something that put their name on the map but with their falling out with NIS, coupled with how terribad the first game was, they had plenty of incentive to remake them and do them right this time.
I like the concept of the Agarest War with the whole "The story goes through generations from your main character" Cross Edge is my favorite, sure the whole battle system could use some work and I completely agree that the scanning to progress the story is horrendous, but the actual interactions with the cutscenes were hilarious and kept me playing, including the post game interactions with the former boss characters now that they don't have to play as bosses. Also the intermission being gags like in the disgaea games was a plus for me.
yeah, Cross Edge is not user friendly at all and that learning curve is steep. the combo system isn't explained well (though it works great once you figure out its quirks), the area scanning is painful (you have to go back to WHERE to recruit Lilith?!), and especially item crafting needs a guide to use... but I loved it anyway. It all sort of comes together and works when you get into it. and yes, the story actually comes together too. they made a good version of what is usually the worst way to end a story in the world. "It was all a dream..." is terrible. "You are trapped in a dream and have to break out" is great.
Record of Agarest War's gameplay system are actually very deep, because in the second section of the game, you need to choose which stats you want to raise and your heroine wisely. because your next MC is your child with that heroine, and your stats will be affected by the stats you've raised and heroine you chose for the the first MC. And their Appearance changed too, so if you choose the bird lady as your wife, you'll have a boy with wings as your MC.
Good old neptunia. It's a guilty pleasure thing. The games are low effort in so many ways, and they always have a battle system that COULD be good, but is balanced to be quite mindless . It's this weird series where I never seem to want to play it because they aren't good. But whenever I tie myself to a chair and actually do play it, I'm like 'I'm actually kinda enjoying myself'. it's just dumb fun lol.
20:04 And the whole Blade and Driver thing from XC2 is also suspiciously similar to the Furies and Fencers from Fairy Fencer F. Turns out Monolith Soft has been ripping off the creative geniuses at Compile Heart and Imageepoch all along.
Time and Eternity having the main girl be someone who can switch between being a sweet redhead and a tsundere blonde reminds me of Xenoblade Chronicles 2
wow all 5 of those games are some of the ones i enjoyed the most in that era, so much nostalgia. neptunia and crossxedge were games i replayed more than a few times.
I've played all of them, unfortunately, and the only one I managed to finish was Neptunia. However, I'm a huge Noire simp, so that got me through the game. As for how IF and CH are still alive, some of the Neptunia games are actually good. The remakes of Neptunia 1-3 are playable junk food rpgs, and the some of the action games like 4 Goddesses online and the Senran Kagura crossover were quite fun.
I think saying that Compile Heart and Idea Factory make nothing but bad games is kind of a diminishing way of looking at them. They obviously work on a low budget and a lot of their games feel kinda middling, but they don't make "nothing but bad games"; hell sometimes I feel like they're the only dev willing to try anything different, because on such a low budget what do you have to lose? Death end re:Quest is a legit hidden gem as far as I'm concerned, no doubt due to the writing of Makoto Kedouin who wrote the *good* Corpse Party entries, and Mary Skelter is full of interesting mechanics and ideas, and makes for a fun little dungeon crawler. You really don't get too many weird experimental titles like that anymore, which just makes me appreciate them all the more when they do make something genuinely interesting.
Death end Re:Quest is good. For some reason Compile Heart and Idea Factory is using the same formula but they did something brilliant in Death End Re:Quest.
Time and eternity is one of those games that's good but at the same time I'm glad it exists because if nothing else it could act as the groundwork for a much better game in the future.
i have thought about a game looking like time and eternity, and i can't believe nobody has tried this style again. it doesn't look perfect, but with a bigger budget and graphics of today it would look awesome.
I honestly don't think Time and Eternity ever deserved a low score. There are definitely issues, but most of the reviews I see online complain about things that even good games have (mostly palette swapping and reusing sprites). I don't know why they got so butthurt about it for Time and Eternity but with other JRPGs they didn't care. I love the game and it has a lot of charm. Most of the critical reviews are just completely unfair on it compared to other JRPGs
to be fair, "original" hyperdimension neptunia is like failed attempt of a good concept. even the fans hated this one but rebirth fixed that. rebirth is basically a remake. based on the 3rd installment style. Just pretend the original never existed and you are fine
I had some fun with Time and Eternity, despite it's many many many many flaws and...oddities. Neptunia too, though I only got into it with the PS Vita versions, it seems compa has gotten better with their newer games like Death End Request and Fairy Fencer, but I've yet to check those out.
From what I hear, the PS3 version is broken and the Vita version is a full-on remake that fixes a lot of the problems and is considered the definitive version.
Only play Neptunia at Rebirth or Reverse levels the remakes all use Victory's engine and Battle system and replace the recycled art from other CH rpg games and update the score so the music is less recycled.
I'm gonna call malarky here - Time and Eternity to this day remains one of the most visually stunning and accurate anime games of all time. Not one indie, AA, or AAA studio has been able to do a straight 1:1 game that is literally playing through an anime from start to finish. This aesthetic is RARE and deserves respect. ... Gameplay is an acquired taste though.
Yeah, I definitely think that critics were way too harsh on the game. A lot of complaints I see about the visuals are things that can happen even in fantastic games, but with those games they didn't complain. Gameplay is a bit weird but once you get used to it, it's easy to remember (or at least it was for me). Also the soundtrack is amazing, my copy of the game actually came with a separate CD for the soundtrack and it's awesome. Time and Eternity definitely deserved better
The combat systems for Record of Agarest War Zero and Crossedge are very deep. You won't have access to the best spells/attacks/combos until you get deep into the games, have party members with synergy and gear with the slots to place the spells/attacks into. The character creator in RoAW:Zero determines everything from the weapon type, stats, movement range, ability points and the elements determine the skill slots he starts with. Crossedge has by far the hardest and most in-depth path to reach the "True End". There are so many factors ranging from viewing events in a limited time, winning battle in a certin amount of turns and not damaging certain enemies. I liked the game, but the scanning for events was annoying, even when you max out the range of the scanner. RoAW and RoAw:Zero were my favorite PS3 JRPGs. They are hard to get into though, they have a very high skill requirement. They get better/easier the more you play and the more playthroughs completed, when you can carry over resources, spells, abilities and gear.
Damn, I feel nostalgic with Neptunia. Sure it wasn't great but I really enjoyed its quirkiness and the satire. Definitely felt more lighthearted than the sequel and its Conquest ending! Last Rebellion honestly had an interesting combat system that...kinda screws up on making it too random. On the other hand, if you do it right you can practically overlevel and beat the game in no time - which is already short anyway. Also I hated how I was forced to constantly seal the enemies after they died...also the plot kinda sucked so meh. And Time and Eternity...urgh, great concept, really bad execution, and EXTREMELY cringy dialogue that often ruin the moment. Combat is also easy to break with magic but I remember really getting bored and just not liking how it felt. That's too bad because I even tried to go for the true ending (which requires a second playthrough), and it was so underwhelming...yeah that's the best word I can describe this game: underwhelming.
I have to say that I wouldn't trust the critic score on metacritic for JRPGs. Even in the best conditions, JRPGs tend to be longer games and most reviewers tend to favor shorter games since they tend to have to rush out reviews a lot of the time. It doesn't help that JRPGs tend to have the problem where they can take a while to click for people (even some of the most popular JRPGs have been called slow in the beginning". Lastly, a lot of lower budget JRPGs can have a jank that is offputting to many but also charming to those who really like JRPGs. As such even in the best conditions, a JRPG might end up reviewed by somebody who either doesn't really like JRPGs, and even if they did, they might not have enough time to give it a fair chance. But another reason is that the media has frequently been shown to have an anti-Japanese bias in their reviews, especially in the 2000's. Take for instance, Adam Sessler. Back when G4 was a thing, whenever they would do reviews of JRPGs they would often just basically mock it. An example is their Baten kaitos Origins review where it basically mocked the game for being a JRPG game on the Gamecube. What I am getting at is that whatever the quality of these games, you are better off not looking at the critic score and instead using the user score as they are far more likely to be people who have given the game a fair chance as they tend to be people who play these sort of games.
I would agree, but I can’t find another objective way to pick “the worst” games. User reviews are useless because often times the actual best games get review-bombed.
I bought my ps3 for Cross Edge and I didn't regret it. I remember nothing of the story but the battle system was really fun and it's nice to see a crossover with all those niche characters.
Yeah I had a lot of fun with it too though I was a teenager at the time nowadays I'd say that overall the game is kinda mediocre like it's metacritic rating shows but I think it's battle system is really fun if you get how it works. The only thing I think is exceedingly bad about it is it's utterly inane requirements to get the true ending like the game just expects you to know to leave certain enemy characters alive in certain battles and defeat certain bosses when they normally would retreat with absolutely no hints in the story that doing so would actually do anything or to even attempt to do so in the first place.
I'm actually happy I stumbled on this video. I recently unpacked and found my copy of Project Xzone 2, and vaguely remembered a divisive console game that was similar but I couldn't recall what. Like the only thing that came to mind was Namco x Capcom. Cross Edge completely slipped my memory.
Shining Force was supposedly going to get a reboot with a genshin style game (Gacha+Multiplat) that had combat animations that looked a lot like T&E with their cartoony cell shading. Then the studio fell apart, I think.
@@Stavekoff I suppose I begrudgingly agree. I tried Marvel Puzzle quest for a couple of months at the beginning of the pandemic and while I did like the game, I grew increasingly annoyed with how the game wanted me to play it at certain times on THEIR schedule rather when I wanted to play. That said if you get the chance to check out the 3 minute or so long trailer they did for the Shining Force gacha game, the animation WAS very good.
Agarest Ware Zero is probably my favorite of the games. It wasn't anywhere near as long as the first, nor was there that sudden difficulty spike like the first one had as well. Cross Edge was just my guilty pleasure as I loved it crossing over with some of my favorite rpg series
Time and Eternity is probably the tackiest game I've ever played. Nearly every creative choice makes the game viscerally unappealing to experience. And yet it's a functional video game, and not a completely broken mess. It's like dating a girl covered in the worst tattoos and piercings you've ever seen, but she has a steady job at the Better Business Bureau.
So i have a huge problem with this list. One alot of the score are different between critics and users. Where the user is mostly higher that the critics.Another is that the size of how many people ranked it. Where i appreciate your video and your point of view. I feel that some of these games look interesting and that games are mostly subjective. I have notice is the couple of reviews that you have done that i have watched. When you describe something as boring you hardly say why. What makes the parts in the game boring. Just so you know i just found your channel today but i appreciate the quality of your videos.
User scores are unreliable IMO. They’ll give a solid game all 0s for no reason. Thanks for the feedback on the boring bits though! I’ll strive to do a better job explaining my thoughts.
True about the user scores. You got a new subscriber. That is why I watch channels like yours to see game play and your point of view on games. Thank you for the work you put in to the videos . I will definitely send my friends to your channel.
@@TheGamingShelf also it is... kinda wrong that 5 is considered bad and not mediocre Yeah, that is the most correct word to say about these games They're not bad, they simply don't have much that makes them stand out
I finished the first Neptunia game and you missed the most egregious thing in it you cannot manually heal. Healing is tied to a stat which randomly happens at the end of a combat phase. You can increase the chance of it happening, but even at 100% it’s still not guaranteed.
At least Neptunia got a LOT better as the games went on. Mk2 is a huge step up from the first game, Victory refines what Mk2 did and that battle system was in my opinion perfected in V2. Now if only we could get another mainline game instead of remakes and spinoffs :/
Neptunia came in clutch when there were less JRPGs on PC but... Yeah, they're very repetitive, recycle assets constantly and eventually even the characters and humor can't get you through another one.
Last Rebellion one kusoge of the year and created the Japanese meme "Just level up and smack them with a physical (attack)," as pretty much that's all you needed to do to beat enemies in the game.
I really liked Cross Edge. The biggest issue was trying to get the true ending so you could unlock all the characters. You had to get certain events in the correct order and if you messed anything up you wouldn't get it. I'll admit the story wasn't the best and some of the characters were kind of dumb but I really liked the combat system.
yeah, I liked that game a lot too. but holy crap do you need a guide. one thing that sticks out in my memory is how, to get Lilith and Demitri (and thus the true ending) you... need to backtrack from world 5-2 to world like 2-2 (and, while you don't go to the worlds in order, that's still like halfway in the game) to use area search in a very specific spot that didn't do anything if you did so beforehand with no indication that anything at all was different. and you had to do it within like three story events or you would lose the window. that's crazy, nobody will find that on their own. I love the game regardless.
@@someguy1ification I remember copying down about 2 or 3 pages from Gamefaqs (didn't have access to a printer). Think I got about half way, messed it up and thought eff it.
I don't really agree with this list. I really love both Cross Edge and the entire Neptunia franchise. I'm surprised Resonance of Fate isn't in the Top 5, that was easily the worst JRPG I've ever played on PS3 and I've played many.
does the description button shows what the cards say in agarest zero? i played last rebellion i dont know where that 11 hour completion came from, i finished the game in less then 6 hours plus 1 or 2 hours for endgame content, i didnt finded that game bad but it was way too short, its basically a game of mastermind as the battle system, each enemy once you figure out their patterns you can just save them so you dont have to do it again every single time, also the correct solutions get marker on the balls on the right, took me less then 2 fights if i even did more then 1 for each enemy to figure out their attack pattern same for bosses
Compile Heart/Idea Factory has 3 types games. 1. Absolute crap. 2. Surprisingly decent. 3. Bad game but it checks enough of your favorite tropes and fetishes that you give it a pass.
I don't trust auto saves I've had them courrpt beforeor save someplace a bug happened and stuck in that bug, so I always save in a few slots to make sure of things. I've been playing rpgs for over 30 years
Nowadays these s..ts can't appreciate video games like we used too 20-25 years ago. You don't deserve to play these "bad" games only those cash grab money indie RPGs from Steam. Then you you will learn to appreciate even a modest game. These will become masterpieces in you eye.
I've been playing JRPGs for 30 years. I remember playing Persona when no one cared about it and now it's a practically a household name. These games are NOT good. They're the lowest reviewed JRPGs on the console for a reason. I've just played so many JRPGs that I have no tolerance for crap like this. Although Time and Eternity is pretty decent.
@@TheGamingShelf Agarest and Neptunia series are awesome too in my opinion. How many kids nowadays do you think will still play Final Fantasy 1-3 and Dragon Quest 1-4 on the NES for example? They are simple, not flashy, no modern graphics, etc. Give a try to Bloody Warriors: Shan-Go no Gyakushuu. The game is translated. That's one boring JRPG. Imagine you play you favorite JRPG without a single spell or tech/special attacks. One good think about the game is the music which is repetitive but you can always take a pause from the game if it's too much for you ears. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Pool of Radiance for the NES has the most misleading map in the entire history of videogames. This thing alone makes the game very frustrating to play and even with a map/guide it's still hard to understand/decipher where you are. And there are some other boring or simple JRPG where you can risk falling asleep on your keyboard playing them. After playing Bloody Warriors: Shan-Go no Gyakushuu every JRPG has become a masterpiece for me. Plus someone put their hearts, sweat and mind into these games even Bloody Warriors (at least is a finished product compared to Pool of Radiance) so i still appreciate their work as long as the games are playable/finished products without bugs/glitches. My first games where Tetris and Circus as a kid. We appreciated more video games back then and every new game was a new treasure. Even Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six for the NES was a good game back then and i still like the game. (the nostalgia factor doesn't work on me same as seduction. I only had this powerful emotion only once when i saw Castlevania: Circle of the Moon after many years.) Imagine if you had an idea and make a game and you see on youtube your game in the section DON'T BUY THESE JRPGS!. What you will fell like? Maybe your ideas failed or the game isn't recognized by many as a good game until later. The only games which i can't stand are the COD and similar games (games that ruined mechanics like Halo with weapon limits, regeneration. First Halo was boring af with long walking like you where in an ARPG but nothing else, just boring walking. After more than 15 years and i still remember how bored i was playing Halo: "Combat Evolved" or more like "Walking Evolved") where the consumer is at fault not the developer. I stopped playing after Modern Warfare 3. The same sh.t over and over again from point A to point B and i was F bored. No exploration, nothing fascinating... only war, mindless shooting/war for the zombie masses. I replayed Mafia after 15 years and i was bored plus the game had the jazz music radio stations removed due to copyright reasons (Django, Lonnie, etc). I downloaded the music fix and put it into game. Everything changed. It's incredible how much a music can change a boring car simulator game with some shooting sections from time to time. I couldn't wait to finish my objective to get back into the car to listen to Belleville by Django Reinhardt. At least this is how i see the Mafia series: car simulator, cutscenes and shooting from time to time with amazing jazz music. At least JRPG (and not only in this genre) developers are coming with new ideas/mechanics. They like to experience with new things... creativity. You start judging a game from heart (developer) to heart (consumer) not only from pocket (brainwashed/fanatics) to pocket (EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Bethesda, etc). Japanese publishers/developers are more serious when it comes to videogames compared to the american ones who are destroying franchises one after another. (Heroes of Might and Magic, Dead Space 3, Duke Nukem... Forever?, Duel Masters, etc.)
Great job on the video. I know most of those games are not great but it did feel like you spent so little time on each. Just would have been nice to try and at least understand the nuances of the games mechanics to try and explain to us why it's bad and not just being like I'm dying alot and I don't know why. Still appreciate seeing stuff about obscure games like this.
Idea factory's Neptunia series is probably why they're still alive. They have a dedicated following. I have a love hate relationship with them because that one series is actually worth your time if you're into fan service.
I actually own every one of these games, because I can't pass up trying an RPG, but I honestly don't think I paid more than $10 for any of them, and haven't beaten any of them.
12:17 Bro... what the hell are you talking about 💀, 2010 released some of the best games of the genre such as: Metal Max 3, Fire Emblem New Mystery, Solatorobo, Etrian Odyssey 3, ZHP: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman, Pokemon Black & White, Nier, Xenoblade Chronicle...
Ngl I always enjoyed the Agarest Trilogy, though zero - the prequel- is the worst of the three. I’d have put Trinity:Souls of Zilol(?) on here. What a shite action rpg. I can’t even.
I like Cross Edge and Neptunia. Both games are strangely addictive once you get to a certain point. - Though Cross Edge takes some work to get to that point. Right off the bat, it expects mastery from the player in building and comboing with your team. And, that is not an easy thing to pick up, much less pick up so early in the game.
Cross Edge is hilarious to me because you get your short tutorial section of the game and then it immediately throws you into the deep end. Turn based games at the time were generally fairly easy so having one where the enemies can actually hand your ass to you on a silver platter was pretty fun.
neptunia is so cute and i can ignore the fan service (i admit im not the target demographic but the characters are SO CUTE lmao) if the game wasnt SO BORING i couldnt pick up another neptunia game after the first and cant understand how it could possibly still be going on.
From what I can recall the PS3 was when most Japanese devs had to step into the HD era and most were NOT making the jump with grace. Not even the big budget dev-houses had it easy due to the increased demands in quality, the sheer amount of work you had to put into making a game look as good as it "should" look was a massive shift i how much work and money went into making the games- and how much money you had to make BACK in order to make it worth it. I also think I read that most game dev houses went for the Unreal Engine to save themselves time and money, but the then current version had very poor documentation in Japanese so it was extra tough for them to adapt to new development demands. A-ny-way: I heard of all these games but not played any of them, but I was interested in finding out you liked Time and Eternity so much what with that games reputation. Reading up on it's reception I wonder if it might come from the fact it had more hype than any other game on this list, so I think a lot more people played it... aaaand a lot more people subsequently means "a lot fewer people who are also JRPG fans and thus likely to be forgiving of the genres quirks if it gets them something they want." In short- I think JRPG-fans at the time built up an unfair mental image of what it tried to do and let that disappointment color their views, but I think a larger portion of people who were just curious gamers saw it, went "huh cool cartoon"; and were then subjected to a JRPG that from what I have heard is... like, let's be real here- as JRPG fans we have a certain _tolerance_ built up towards the genres peculiarities, both in terms of gameplay and storytelling. To an audience that thought this might be a more action-filled game than it was AND who might have expected a different sort of storytelling and characters, being surprised with what the game REALLY was might have been a shock that made them bust out the banhammer. For instance, and this is just anecodtal since I haven't played it- I have heard that the male lead in this game is just AWFUL. Just an abysmal piece of shit with zero redeeming qualities. That the further in you play, the more you wish to see him in pain, or at least removed from the game enitrely. I have no way of knowing whether this is true or not, but it seemed to be such a common thread with most reviews I read at the time- they just HATED the dude, some even admitting that they thought the game was mediocre, but pulled into outright bad territory because they could just not STAND the male lead. Perhaps if I had played it I'd be able to say one way or another, but I can see where people who want to paint a rosier picture of it are coming from. In comparison to every other game on this list you are right that it not just looks better, it also looks DIFFERENT. Whereas every other game here is obviously a mini-budget production where they give you the very minimum "battlefields -> dialoge scenes -> static screens portraying different environemnts AND ALL OVER AGAIN", this at least builds a world to explore that is presented to you in a different way than just status screens and visual novel-style. There is ambition here, and in hindsight many are willing to forgive a lot for the sake of ambition. As for whether the game ACTUALLY deserves such concern... well. I'd have to actually play it to find out, wouldn't I?
I have played every game on this list and I enjoyed them all. I think in context of the time they were released, they were not that bad. I remember Last Rebellion as the game I got my first ever Platinum Trophy (because it was very easy). Time and Eternity was an interesting idea but I remember it being really unbalanced in the combat and I was sad there wasn't a more polished 2nd game. I actually think there were games that were much worse than these from this time. I would say the worst games I played from this time are Mugen Souls, Trinity Universe and the original White Knights Chronicle.
Same here. I take these kinds of videos with a grain of salt. I could give a care about other peoples ratings and opinions. I mean they are playing them today and you really needed to play them when they released. I am not sure why people say the PS3 sucked and was devoid for JRPGs. I sure liked most of them at the time. Yeah we have amazing stuff in the PS4 and PS5 generation but the PS3 wasn't that bad.
Funny you mention that because Mugen Souls was primarily by Idea Factory, and Trinity Universe was a collab between iF, Gust and NIS. White Knights Chronicle was by Level-5, however.
I loved the White Knight Chronicles games and they are head and shoulders above the Neptunia games and last rebellion for me, spent a lot of time playing the online mode too. I thought Cross Edge, Time and Eternity and the Agarest games were great though.
I actually enjoyed Last Rebellion and didnt die as much as you did. It seems you die a lot in these games and lose interest. I didn't really find the art that bad.
Whoa I completely forgot about time and eternity! What a cool and unique game. I agree gameplay is a bit shallow but I miss these types of new risky/inmovative type games. You can find some indies but I feel like most big studios don't want to take much risks.
it would be unfair to call Cross Edge a "Spiritual Prequel" (being from 2008/2009) to Project X Zone when Namco X Capcom (2005) on the PS2 is its actual and canon prequel to PxZ.
1/ Loved Cross Edge since I played after Namco X Capcom, but it was rough yes. 2/ Record of agarest war was a guilty pleasure, but it is bad, honestly it is. 3/ I played Neptunia mk2 first and I liked it, so I was honor-bound to play the original, not great, but, funny. 4/ Never played Last Rebellion, never will. 5/ Yeah, Time and Eternity is actually fine, but on my Ps3 it was.. lagged? sluggish? it was frustrating to lose hp or mis a dodge not on timing but on a massive fps drop, but the idea was really good as you say :D I have the Platinum for all those games, that much I liked them honestly.
@@TheGamingShelf Neptunia is a breeze, just the shares thingy is a mess. Cross Edge definitely with a step by step guide. Record of agarest war i kinda cheated with PP dlcs, becauee the endgane bosses are quite something. Time and eternity is quite a breeze, it reminded me of Thousand Arms in a wat and I enjoyed it.
Mad respect for actually saying something positive about Time & Eternity! I consider it both a terrible game and an absolute must play for its ambition! I remember when it came out in Japan they were saying weird stuff like "there are no sprites or polygons in this screenshot", which was a lie but as a connoisseur of Laserdisc games I get what they mean. A lot of this is FMV clips strung together, they were trying to use modern technology to do a more advanced FMV game! BUT that kind of thing costs WAAAY too much money to pull off and they had to cut corners real hard to make it work, which is why no one else has really attempted this (thanks for the tip off about that one game though). I'd say the closest is Don Quixote on LaserActive and maybe Tengai Maikyo IV on SEGA Saturn. That said, I think you stopped just before the game got REAL bad. See, I like the combat because I totally get what they were doing: It's Punch Out!! It plays REALLY similar to Punch Out!!...but fighting an endless stream of Glass Joes only works for so long and when Bald Bull becomes the normal enemy, it gets frustrating. But where it falls apart is when you go back in time again and can no longer go back? There's a sudden MASSIVE difficulty spike and the amount of EXP you get versus the length and challenge of the fights just does not pan out! You have to fight too many Bald Bulls to level up! This drives me NUTS because EVERY professional reviewer claimed the combat was too easy and all you had to do was mash buttons and my progress is COMPLETELY blocked by obscene fight difficulty and length versus EXP earned! I do, sadly, own all of these games but my Last Rebellion is still in its shrinkwrap...maybe I'll keep it there.
Neptunia's gameplay might have been ass, but the characters and humor more than made up for it. I get a huge nostalgia boner whenever i see anything related to the OG Neptunia.
I still have my copy of Time and Eternity and haven't touched it in years since I got bored with it. HDN also surprisingly grew from being a bad game, if I hadn't received Mk2 first I probably wouldve shunned it forever
In Defense of Neptunia... they are stupid but the first game actually tried a bit more to take its story a bit more "serious". All the other games play a lot better, though. The biggest problem is probably the fact Neptunia recycled dungeons between games...
I thought that was quite funny, and I do like it when games give the player more choices even if it may not have long lasting effect to the story. Just a small acknowledgement can be enough. Although, it would have been quite funny if the scene had gone completely differently: The girl says she doesn't care about you anymore and leaves the building screaming in frustration, and the game ends there.
I think I rented time and eternity for a weekend, I don't remember how I felt about it, but It was at least fun enough to know it was a game I played seeing that style again
Really fun video! Can't wait to see the other systems covered lol. Monolith Soft must be a huge fan of Time and Eternity. That's crazy! 🤯🤣 Sui-chan wa kyou mo kawaii~
hyperdimension neptunia the original is how i got into the series I had a lot of fun playing it there were some pretty funny joke/reference in it that were not in rebirth 1 that made me sad its the Pokémon one if anyone fully played the original, if not here it is we get stuck inside a disk and compa says I wonder if Mr. heretic would ever throw the disk at someone and say i choose you compiffytune, and since all the characters are named after companies that help in someway making the game so they may not show up in later games like nisa
I must be the only one that enjoyed the original Neptunia and I thought that it was really harsh to be put here over some other stuff, like OG Neptunia at least felt like Trinity Universe done right in terms of combat mechanics and Dungeon Exploration. I'd actually argue that Mugen Souls, as much as I find some stuff really fun, is worse than Neptunia in the long run because you're not really suppose to fight the enemies unless you accidentally Frenzy the Large crystal and because only your main protagonist can peon enemies or crystals, battles will start dragging out.
The “time loop” of Time and Eternity could be the set up for a pretty cool Roguelike. Like the game always starts with you getting married, the wedding gets stopped and you travel back in time to prevent what just happened, gaining power along the way and ending the run as the wedding. Since there is some variation in powers and actions (girl red, girl blond, dragon, meele, gun, magic) there can be a ton of build variety. Like maybe one where you focus on switching between girls, one where the dragon spams fireballs and so on. The Metanarrative could then be about how the thing that stops them from getting married isn’t all the people Crashing the wedding, but their own insecurity about the finality of marriage, which somehow creates those time loops. But over the loops the two banter and realize why they always loved each other and by the end, getting killed and stopping the murderers, becomes their way of bonding in the relationship
Idea Factory must be kept afloat by the Neptunia games. Most of the neptunia games are okay to pretty good and that series has a very dedicated fanbase. I've tried a few of their other games (Mei Q, Omega Quintet, Dark Rose Valkyrie) and they were very boring. That being said, they have some really solid titles like Death End Request and Mary Skelter trilogy.
Neptunia has overstayed its welcome TBH. Also Their other games are more unique. OQ and FFF: ADF were both better than most Neptunia games, both Prior to and after their releases.
Technically Namco x Capcom is the predecessor to Project X Zone. But Cross edge is now gonna be on my wishlist since i didnt know Ar Tonelico was in it. Damn Taylor blowing my mind
In the walking sections of Time and Eternity, the placement of the character in the frame really bugs me. Like, something, something, rule of thirds, she needs a bit more clearance above her head.
Oh wow 2 out of 5 of the list I played (Cross Edge and Agarest Zero) and it hurts seeing them because you are right how bad they are especially in the long run. To think I remember SO much DLC I bought just to Pay to Win through the games mechanics. It helped but it pretty much double the base Price of the game. Fun Fact: would you believe Cross Edge ENG Dub Work is Minor in comparison to the JPN Dub?
I bought Tactica for cheap and realized it´s basically a sequel to Persona 5, so I´m now 50 hours into that just so I can finish and play Tactica funny how things work
From this list I have played Neptunia out of pure curiosity since I played Victory, the 3rd one of the original trilogy before the retconning. Hyperdimension Neptunia 1 is an odd ball for me because the story is great for how far I played but the gameplay is really rough especially the dungeon crawling aspect of it since the encounters are not random chance but distance based... I am a fool to try and 100% dungeons because of how uninspired most of the areas look and feel, if the task isn't to defeat a certain number of enemies, you bet your ass I would abuse Compa's skill to disable the distance encounters. funny, recently I wanted to continue this game and came across this knowing HDN 1 would be mentioned
About the 5 place: 1st of all, this is the 1st time i heard about this game. Never heard it about it up until now. I don't think is a precuel of PXZ persay because there is one key factor. It isn't made by Namco at all. As you said, is made by IF and Compa while NIS distribute it (hence why Disgaea is in the game). They try their own version of .... Namco x Capcom . YES!! if you want the true precuel of PxZ, you had Namco x Capcom, since both games are connected not only because some character knows each other but the fact the 2 original characters (Reiji and Xiaomu) as well the Shinra organization is involved somehow in BOTH games. And even between those 2 games are also another 2 games who are canon to a lot of other games: The Frontier Saga (who is a spin off of the Super Robot Wars games. And also canon to their universe too). There is an entire time line of events for who game is canon to who game if is made by Namco. Cross Edge seems to try to do the same thing, with only JRPGs, only done poorly. Also the difficulty curve is awful from what i heard. But it make sense once you remember NIS was involved on this. But in Disgaea it makes sense, here they try the same and turn out into a meat grinded of trying to grind as much as possible. Also the artist is the same who work on Neptunia.
Is it bad I could tell number one was time and eternity just from the censorship and its reputation alone? Also sponsored by catlus themselves, congrats! I played through all of the first Hypderdimension Nep Nep game. Was really intrigued by the combo system. Game is bad but it felt like a rite of passage. I own most of these games but never played them. 😅
Eh, i played hyperdimension neptunia after playing mk2. Got to say, it has no place on this list. while i has it flaws it was still not a bad rpg xS That said, theres a reason why it's the only game in the series with these kind of controls and stuff XD
🎮Order YOUR copy of Persona 5 Tactica TODAY: i.try.games/persona-5-tactica/20wjoz
Bad idea 💡 😕 factory 🏭 🤣
@@chriscangelosi9438😉
No, I bought Last Rebellion instead
I did get Persona 5 Tatica and I love it, persona can do a lot of genres well despite being JRPG games
Sorry, I don't give my money to homophobes/transphobes/misogynists etc
“No one should be dying to the first random enemy in an RPG”
*Laughs in SMT Nocturne*
"Oh, youre softlocked on the first enemy?
Too bad, welcome to your cbt session"
I started playing the remaster on normal and finished the tutorial without dying once. Is the PS2 version really that hard?
@@xelldincht4251 ALL SMT games are hard, especially when you get 1/3 in, and enemies start resisting / Voiding / and REFLECTING normal physical attacks....which is what you do the most of. You are required to have multiple types of skills and such...or you'll end up in a position where you can't defeat a boss...or a random enemy.
@@johnhanzelyjr
Ok, my mistake. I should have asked if the remake had the same difficulty as the PS2 version or if the PS2 version was harder.
@@xelldincht4251 The remake has the "Mercy" difficulty included...which lowers the difficulty (but not enemy resistances). You get more XP and Macca....but the trade-off is a greatly reduced encounter rate. I had Riberoma (increase encounter rate until the next new phase)...for two whole cycles...without an encounter. That's how much lower the base encounter rate is in Mercy Difficulty. The Base difficulty is the same as the PS2 version...although there are some QoL stuff...like being able to pick what skills fused demons can have (instead of pure RNG).
Honestly...in any SMT game, you CAN get screwed in the first fight. You max HP is only 30-50...and enemies can deal 12-16 damage at that point. How you can get screwed...is if enemies land crits, which increases the number of turn they have...or you miss, which takes away turns. The major issue is...if the Protag dies, it's game over...and in later areas, enemies do have insta-kill skills (which your protag does NOT have base resistance for.) That's why the SMT games are so difficult.
The Pyra/Mythra argument is invalid. The original blond/redhead duo inhabiting the same body with either kindness and chaos as their character traits belongs to Elena and Millenia from Grandia II.
The difference I suppose is the kind one is blond and the chaotic one is the redhead.
Funny enough I'm actually playing the remake for Neptunia right now. Rebirth is a huge improvment over the original.
It's a fun game to play through, the fanservice gets a bit obnoxius after awhile but the series itself has a certain charm to it.
@@sonny167349 I love fanservice so it's not an issue
I played it on vita and I also have the remake but the color contrast is kinda annoying there... in my op Neptunia VII stays the best in the series. That game is just brilliant in its refusal to make sense I truly love it... beats disgaea by a landslide... which is no easy task let's be honest as Disgaea is also over the top dada ;)
@@sonny167349 it's satire tho.. I mean the fan service is unnecessary and that is precisely why it makes u laugh... it is not a game that takes sex seriously but laughs at the tropes. This said I never had problems with fan service in my life honestly, once you make clear the game is not for kids...
@@n3r0n3 I'm using steam version with some graphics mods to improve the quality, I would like if the game had bit less dialogue overall and put like 2-3 cutscenes over some scenes. Anyway I think the remake is actually fun, also disgaea up to 5th release is in my opinion really great last two realeses were fun as well, but the 3d graphics don't give the same feeling.
I love the neptunia games and I’m not afraid to admit it. HOWEVER I love the remakes they did for the original trilogy the original ps3 versions major suck.
only the first game really. mk2 and especially victory play just like the rebirth games.
Who thought it was a good idea to have consumables be used at random?
@@foufoufun?
@@grthjryrd7552 You cannot simply use a health item during battle. There is a 50% to use one that heals for 50% HP when under 50% of your max health. You can upgrade it as you progress in the game but you often end up wiping because there is nothing you can do about the dumb RNG.
Soo, if you want to play the first game, get the Rebirth 1 and stay away from the original. It is a very painful game.
@@foufoufun I've played the rebirth games years ago
Time and Eternity shouldnt be included on these kinds of lists, I agree. It's not awesome, but it's really unique, especially visually. I'd love to see another try at the style!
I recently bought a copy. Really like the art style and the music is amazing.
It has the lowest metacritic score of any of the games, I had to include it 😆
have u finished it? I mean I still have to find anyone who dared finishing it.. it is visually interesting sure but in terms of gameplay is the worst of the bunch hands down... anyway this list I suppose is based on metacritic's results...it's the usual titles everybody says are terrible. Are they really the worse? I don't know... Awaken fate and the other one in the series I can't remember the title are in my op much worse than Neptunia, Cross Edge or Agarest that are all quite ok in reality.
@@n3r0n3 beat it once. Kill me I guess?
I didn't do other than that though.
@@n3r0n3 I finished it and plan on replaying it soon. :) Love the game!
I really had fun with Time and Eternity. Yes, it is not perfect, but on a sale it is a fun experience. About the switching mechanic- its main point it for the affinity system. You see, as bosses gives way more affinity, the point is to do bosses with the girl who you want to marry. I wanted to marry Toki, so I did bosses exclusively with her.
Oh interesting! I didn’t think of that.
I actually really liked Time and Eternity and I remember back when it released everyone I knew asking why I was playing it because they heard it was bad. I feel like I was one of the few people who played on launch after not buying into hype and went in with zero expectation because I liked the artstyle and it worked out for me. I very rarely get hyped for games though so that most likely played into it.
@@FalcusSTG
Same. A lot of people didn't like it but once you look past the flaws, it's honestly a pretty okay game.
I have fond memories of time and eternity actually finished it and enjoyed my time with it.
Compile Hearts games tend to recycle their battlesystems a lot, but Agarest Zero is a game I'm very fond of, it has the best version of this particular battlesystem imo, story was very average but there was a charm to the characters.
Going for overkills on every boss can be a fun challenge to do. I wouldn't say it's super hard for newcomers, but if the player doesn't wanna take a little time to learn, then they will also have a hard time.
Yeah the combat is solid! To bad the rest of the game isn’t lol.
Agarest has unique battle system. It is quite interesting even though im not rly gd at it
I actually like most of the these game that he mentioned,there actually more worst jrpg game out there
@@donisehatsitanggang4389 any example you can give for the one you think is worst?
@@sannice Try a game like Eternal Saga.... I've played most, if not all, RPG's on the PS2/PS3 and of all of them I think the ones listed here weren't half bad over a RPG where you can literally encounter 100's of enemies in the same random encounter (making those encounters take HOURS) only to go level DOWN, break your gear PERMANENTLY and all of it because the leveling system is heavily tied to RNG with battle and field mechanics that are never explained, not even in the manual... how's that for a bad RPG ?
I think Time & Eternity could do with a remake that keeps the artstyle but overhauls the battle system, mazes and story elements. Not a remaster, but a full-fledged remake.
Damn, they should really try something like Time and Eternity again. Maybe someone will try this style in the future if were lucky.
Check out Star ocean 2 R, if i got u right.
i would love a tales of with this style
@@mikhailnikolaev9927 not the pixelated one
Yeah, I really wanted to like this game because of the art style (2D character in 3D third person) but as stated in the video, the combat got repetitive very fast.
Shame it has one of the worst scripts I've ever seen in a video game.
The "Better Business Bureau" line haunts my nightmares.
Low budget JRPG's tend to have a charm you don't get from the big budget blockbusters. I think that's a big part of why there are so many of them and a lot of people seem to have a fondness for them. Personally I grab one on a sale or something every few years or so just to try something different and I find I usually enjoy them since I go in without any lofty expectations.
There's a difference between great low-budget jrpgs like Soma Union or Blackout hospital and soulless slop from compile heart or kemco though. Latter is not charming in the slightest.
@@-bold5999 Right. There has to be some passion behind it because that passion usually shines through whatever jankiness or lack of polish there is. I can spot a Kemco game just by looking at the title logo at this point. Mass produced garbage.
@@Greeny83 nah, mass produced garbade is mobile and browser shit
That is literally 0-2/10
Compile Heart games, at least have memorable characters, so they're way better
I have a soft spot for Compile Heart jank because they always put out games that in one way or another really swing for the fences, and I can appreciate a cool idea even when they didn't quite have the ability to execute it. That being said, there's no reason to go back to the first Neptunia now that it's seen two remakes. They're still junk food but it's much more competently presented than the PS3 original.
Is the PS5 ReVerse worth my time if I haven't played the first one yet?
If you think you'd like the art style and general tone of the humor then yeah. The gameplay is serviceable but nothing to write home about, at worst a bit grindy at times@@mountainmgtow5421
@@mountainmgtow5421 100%, tho there are characters who are exclusive on rebirth
@@dreamydreams2694 Don't say Chika Hakozaki. I fucken love her.
I'm hoping that Compile Heart's quality begins to increase, because it seems the company has undergone a bit of a re-structure internally, like having a new Director/Producer. I thought Neptunia Sisters Vs Sisters was one of the best Nep games in a long time, so I got some faith.
“nobody should have to die against the first enemy in a rpg”
One more God rejected
There's a reason they straight up remade "Hyperdimension Neptunia" with an entirely different game engine and combat system for the PS Vita called "Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth", and then based its sequels and the PC versions on that, which is probably the version most people today know. The original PS3 version is a relic that nobody knows and really isn't worth the time compared to its far better remake.
Also yes, "Time and Eternity" is SO underrated. I loved that game when I played it back in the day.
Should be mentioned to the actual first game's credit that they might as well not have had a budget at all with how little they were actually given. Props to the devs for making due with what they had and managing to pull off getting a sequel okayed that turned into a full-blown mascot franchise.
I really don't know why reviewers were so hard on Time & Eternity. Like, they absolutely dog-piled on it to destroy it! I never understood that.
It wasn't a new engine. It was one they recycled from the 3rd Neptunia game. Honestly, the 3rd Neptunia game is the best in the franchise. Just the fact that they are still using the same system to this day since that game came out shows how good that game was for the franchise.
They remade them simply to relicence them to Idea Factory International. If they didn't fall out with NIS and NIS America, they wouldn't exist and they would have just moved straight on with the next game.
@@Shadowespeon17 Not entirely true, though that was part of it. The franchise was the one Idea Factory IP that actually took off somewhat, and then further with the second game and even much more with the third. They had something that put their name on the map but with their falling out with NIS, coupled with how terribad the first game was, they had plenty of incentive to remake them and do them right this time.
I like the concept of the Agarest War with the whole "The story goes through generations from your main character" Cross Edge is my favorite, sure the whole battle system could use some work and I completely agree that the scanning to progress the story is horrendous, but the actual interactions with the cutscenes were hilarious and kept me playing, including the post game interactions with the former boss characters now that they don't have to play as bosses.
Also the intermission being gags like in the disgaea games was a plus for me.
yeah, Cross Edge is not user friendly at all and that learning curve is steep. the combo system isn't explained well (though it works great once you figure out its quirks), the area scanning is painful (you have to go back to WHERE to recruit Lilith?!), and especially item crafting needs a guide to use... but I loved it anyway. It all sort of comes together and works when you get into it.
and yes, the story actually comes together too. they made a good version of what is usually the worst way to end a story in the world. "It was all a dream..." is terrible. "You are trapped in a dream and have to break out" is great.
Record of Agarest War's gameplay system are actually very deep, because in the second section of the game, you need to choose which stats you want to raise and your heroine wisely. because your next MC is your child with that heroine, and your stats will be affected by the stats you've raised and heroine you chose for the the first MC. And their Appearance changed too, so if you choose the bird lady as your wife, you'll have a boy with wings as your MC.
Mans did not play Namco X capcom to be calling the first game a "spiritual prequel"
Good old neptunia. It's a guilty pleasure thing. The games are low effort in so many ways, and they always have a battle system that COULD be good, but is balanced to be quite mindless . It's this weird series where I never seem to want to play it because they aren't good. But whenever I tie myself to a chair and actually do play it, I'm like 'I'm actually kinda enjoying myself'. it's just dumb fun lol.
20:04 And the whole Blade and Driver thing from XC2 is also suspiciously similar to the Furies and Fencers from Fairy Fencer F. Turns out Monolith Soft has been ripping off the creative geniuses at Compile Heart and Imageepoch all along.
>No one should be dying to the 1st random encounter in a game
SMT Nocturne on hard difficulty would like a word with you on that.
Time and Eternity having the main girl be someone who can switch between being a sweet redhead and a tsundere blonde reminds me of Xenoblade Chronicles 2
I literally said the exact same thing if you watched the whole video 😆
@@TheGamingShelf Oh I must’ve missed that, haha
wow all 5 of those games are some of the ones i enjoyed the most in that era, so much nostalgia. neptunia and crossxedge were games i replayed more than a few times.
This guy is crazy man, Last Rebellion is the only bad game
@@matheusmarx5994 Neptunia is bad, and you should feel ashamed.
@@JayceCH. Neptunia is fun and a creative game, and I feel whatever I want, shame on you!
@@JayceCH. You should feel ashamed for shaming people for what they like. Neptunia is nowhere near as bad as games like The Last Of Us 2.
@@MyShiroyuki Agreed Bro
14:17
"when you die on the first random ecounter in the game thats a bad design"
SMT3 enter the chat
I've played all of them, unfortunately, and the only one I managed to finish was Neptunia. However, I'm a huge Noire simp, so that got me through the game.
As for how IF and CH are still alive, some of the Neptunia games are actually good. The remakes of Neptunia 1-3 are playable junk food rpgs, and the some of the action games like 4 Goddesses online and the Senran Kagura crossover were quite fun.
Neptunia is just really popular in general.
Not junk food, just junk
I think saying that Compile Heart and Idea Factory make nothing but bad games is kind of a diminishing way of looking at them. They obviously work on a low budget and a lot of their games feel kinda middling, but they don't make "nothing but bad games"; hell sometimes I feel like they're the only dev willing to try anything different, because on such a low budget what do you have to lose? Death end re:Quest is a legit hidden gem as far as I'm concerned, no doubt due to the writing of Makoto Kedouin who wrote the *good* Corpse Party entries, and Mary Skelter is full of interesting mechanics and ideas, and makes for a fun little dungeon crawler. You really don't get too many weird experimental titles like that anymore, which just makes me appreciate them all the more when they do make something genuinely interesting.
Death end Re:Quest is good. For some reason Compile Heart and Idea Factory is using the same formula but they did something brilliant in Death End Re:Quest.
Time and eternity is one of those games that's good but at the same time I'm glad it exists because if nothing else it could act as the groundwork for a much better game in the future.
It's like that game Scott Cawthon made that was so bad it inspired him to make FNAF.
i have thought about a game looking like time and eternity, and i can't believe nobody has tried this style again. it doesn't look perfect, but with a bigger budget and graphics of today it would look awesome.
I honestly don't think Time and Eternity ever deserved a low score. There are definitely issues, but most of the reviews I see online complain about things that even good games have (mostly palette swapping and reusing sprites). I don't know why they got so butthurt about it for Time and Eternity but with other JRPGs they didn't care. I love the game and it has a lot of charm. Most of the critical reviews are just completely unfair on it compared to other JRPGs
to be fair, "original" hyperdimension neptunia is like failed attempt of a good concept.
even the fans hated this one
but rebirth fixed that. rebirth is basically a remake. based on the 3rd installment style.
Just pretend the original never existed and you are fine
"When you die in the first encounter thats bad design" Ummmmm excuse me ill have you know SMT nocturne has done nothing wrong and is perfect
I had some fun with Time and Eternity, despite it's many many many many flaws and...oddities.
Neptunia too, though I only got into it with the PS Vita versions, it seems compa has gotten better with their newer games like Death End Request and Fairy Fencer, but I've yet to check those out.
From what I hear, the PS3 version is broken and the Vita version is a full-on remake that fixes a lot of the problems and is considered the definitive version.
Not gonna lie, I kind of wanna play some of these games, including Neptunia and Time & Eternity. Loved the video, Taylor.
Thanks! Play at your own risk 😉
Only play Neptunia at Rebirth or Reverse levels the remakes all use Victory's engine and Battle system and replace the recycled art from other CH rpg games and update the score so the music is less recycled.
I'm gonna call malarky here - Time and Eternity to this day remains one of the most visually stunning and accurate anime games of all time. Not one indie, AA, or AAA studio has been able to do a straight 1:1 game that is literally playing through an anime from start to finish. This aesthetic is RARE and deserves respect. ... Gameplay is an acquired taste though.
Yeah, I definitely think that critics were way too harsh on the game. A lot of complaints I see about the visuals are things that can happen even in fantastic games, but with those games they didn't complain. Gameplay is a bit weird but once you get used to it, it's easy to remember (or at least it was for me). Also the soundtrack is amazing, my copy of the game actually came with a separate CD for the soundtrack and it's awesome. Time and Eternity definitely deserved better
The combat systems for Record of Agarest War Zero and Crossedge are very deep. You won't have access to the best spells/attacks/combos until you get deep into the games, have party members with synergy and gear with the slots to place the spells/attacks into. The character creator in RoAW:Zero determines everything from the weapon type, stats, movement range, ability points and the elements determine the skill slots he starts with.
Crossedge has by far the hardest and most in-depth path to reach the "True End". There are so many factors ranging from viewing events in a limited time, winning battle in a certin amount of turns and not damaging certain enemies. I liked the game, but the scanning for events was annoying, even when you max out the range of the scanner.
RoAW and RoAw:Zero were my favorite PS3 JRPGs. They are hard to get into though, they have a very high skill requirement. They get better/easier the more you play and the more playthroughs completed, when you can carry over resources, spells, abilities and gear.
Damn, I feel nostalgic with Neptunia. Sure it wasn't great but I really enjoyed its quirkiness and the satire. Definitely felt more lighthearted than the sequel and its Conquest ending!
Last Rebellion honestly had an interesting combat system that...kinda screws up on making it too random. On the other hand, if you do it right you can practically overlevel and beat the game in no time - which is already short anyway. Also I hated how I was forced to constantly seal the enemies after they died...also the plot kinda sucked so meh.
And Time and Eternity...urgh, great concept, really bad execution, and EXTREMELY cringy dialogue that often ruin the moment. Combat is also easy to break with magic but I remember really getting bored and just not liking how it felt. That's too bad because I even tried to go for the true ending (which requires a second playthrough), and it was so underwhelming...yeah that's the best word I can describe this game: underwhelming.
I have to say that I wouldn't trust the critic score on metacritic for JRPGs. Even in the best conditions, JRPGs tend to be longer games and most reviewers tend to favor shorter games since they tend to have to rush out reviews a lot of the time. It doesn't help that JRPGs tend to have the problem where they can take a while to click for people (even some of the most popular JRPGs have been called slow in the beginning". Lastly, a lot of lower budget JRPGs can have a jank that is offputting to many but also charming to those who really like JRPGs.
As such even in the best conditions, a JRPG might end up reviewed by somebody who either doesn't really like JRPGs, and even if they did, they might not have enough time to give it a fair chance. But another reason is that the media has frequently been shown to have an anti-Japanese bias in their reviews, especially in the 2000's. Take for instance, Adam Sessler. Back when G4 was a thing, whenever they would do reviews of JRPGs they would often just basically mock it. An example is their Baten kaitos Origins review where it basically mocked the game for being a JRPG game on the Gamecube.
What I am getting at is that whatever the quality of these games, you are better off not looking at the critic score and instead using the user score as they are far more likely to be people who have given the game a fair chance as they tend to be people who play these sort of games.
I would agree, but I can’t find another objective way to pick “the worst” games. User reviews are useless because often times the actual best games get review-bombed.
I bought my ps3 for Cross Edge and I didn't regret it. I remember nothing of the story but the battle system was really fun and it's nice to see a crossover with all those niche characters.
Yeah I had a lot of fun with it too though I was a teenager at the time nowadays I'd say that overall the game is kinda mediocre like it's metacritic rating shows but I think it's battle system is really fun if you get how it works. The only thing I think is exceedingly bad about it is it's utterly inane requirements to get the true ending like the game just expects you to know to leave certain enemy characters alive in certain battles and defeat certain bosses when they normally would retreat with absolutely no hints in the story that doing so would actually do anything or to even attempt to do so in the first place.
I'm actually happy I stumbled on this video. I recently unpacked and found my copy of Project Xzone 2, and vaguely remembered a divisive console game that was similar but I couldn't recall what. Like the only thing that came to mind was Namco x Capcom. Cross Edge completely slipped my memory.
Shining Force was supposedly going to get a reboot with a genshin style game (Gacha+Multiplat) that had combat animations that looked a lot like T&E with their cartoony cell shading. Then the studio fell apart, I think.
Bummer, that sounds cool!
good, I'd rather have nothing than a fucking gacha
@@Stavekoff I suppose I begrudgingly agree. I tried Marvel Puzzle quest for a couple of months at the beginning of the pandemic and while I did like the game, I grew increasingly annoyed with how the game wanted me to play it at certain times on THEIR schedule rather when I wanted to play. That said if you get the chance to check out the 3 minute or so long trailer they did for the Shining Force gacha game, the animation WAS very good.
Agarest Ware Zero is probably my favorite of the games. It wasn't anywhere near as long as the first, nor was there that sudden difficulty spike like the first one had as well. Cross Edge was just my guilty pleasure as I loved it crossing over with some of my favorite rpg series
Time and Eternity is probably the tackiest game I've ever played. Nearly every creative choice makes the game viscerally unappealing to experience. And yet it's a functional video game, and not a completely broken mess. It's like dating a girl covered in the worst tattoos and piercings you've ever seen, but she has a steady job at the Better Business Bureau.
So i have a huge problem with this list. One alot of the score are different between critics and users. Where the user is mostly higher that the critics.Another is that the size of how many people ranked it. Where i appreciate your video and your point of view. I feel that some of these games look interesting and that games are mostly subjective. I have notice is the couple of reviews that you have done that i have watched. When you describe something as boring you hardly say why. What makes the parts in the game boring. Just so you know i just found your channel today but i appreciate the quality of your videos.
User scores are unreliable IMO. They’ll give a solid game all 0s for no reason.
Thanks for the feedback on the boring bits though! I’ll strive to do a better job explaining my thoughts.
True about the user scores. You got a new subscriber. That is why I watch channels like yours to see game play and your point of view on games. Thank you for the work you put in to the videos . I will definitely send my friends to your channel.
@@TheGamingShelf also it is... kinda wrong that 5 is considered bad and not mediocre
Yeah, that is the most correct word to say about these games
They're not bad, they simply don't have much that makes them stand out
I finished the first Neptunia game and you missed the most egregious thing in it you cannot manually heal.
Healing is tied to a stat which randomly happens at the end of a combat phase.
You can increase the chance of it happening, but even at 100% it’s still not guaranteed.
That's insane lol.
@@TheGamingShelf it gets worse all healing is done with consumables at these random end of combat points.
wait how is it not guaranteed at 100%? is there a fail percentage too?
At least Neptunia got a LOT better as the games went on. Mk2 is a huge step up from the first game, Victory refines what Mk2 did and that battle system was in my opinion perfected in V2.
Now if only we could get another mainline game instead of remakes and spinoffs :/
the universe demands more Plutia.
@@JeffreyPiattMore NepGear!
@@mountainmgtow5421 at least Xbox is getting some hot Sister on Sister action as decreed by it's CPU Vert.
Funnily enough Compile Heart recently said they're working on a 5th Mainline Neptunia currently
I think VIIR's version of the battle system is better
3:53 ok i can't be the only one who prefer 2D VN cutscenes over janky canned animations and mouthflaps.
Nope, I totally agree with u here.
"and that is all the game offers: cutscene > battle > upgrade"
So, like ANY jrpg?.
... exploration and dialogue is also usually a thing, yeah?
Nah
Neptunia came in clutch when there were less JRPGs on PC but... Yeah, they're very repetitive, recycle assets constantly and eventually even the characters and humor can't get you through another one.
Last Rebellion one kusoge of the year and created the Japanese meme "Just level up and smack them with a physical (attack)," as pretty much that's all you needed to do to beat enemies in the game.
I really liked Cross Edge. The biggest issue was trying to get the true ending so you could unlock all the characters. You had to get certain events in the correct order and if you messed anything up you wouldn't get it. I'll admit the story wasn't the best and some of the characters were kind of dumb but I really liked the combat system.
yeah, I liked that game a lot too. but holy crap do you need a guide. one thing that sticks out in my memory is how, to get Lilith and Demitri (and thus the true ending) you... need to backtrack from world 5-2 to world like 2-2 (and, while you don't go to the worlds in order, that's still like halfway in the game) to use area search in a very specific spot that didn't do anything if you did so beforehand with no indication that anything at all was different. and you had to do it within like three story events or you would lose the window. that's crazy, nobody will find that on their own.
I love the game regardless.
@@someguy1ification I remember copying down about 2 or 3 pages from Gamefaqs (didn't have access to a printer). Think I got about half way, messed it up and thought eff it.
I don't really agree with this list. I really love both Cross Edge and the entire Neptunia franchise. I'm surprised Resonance of Fate isn't in the Top 5, that was easily the worst JRPG I've ever played on PS3 and I've played many.
I built the list based off the lowest 5 JRPG metacritic scores. I think RoF was like high 60s?
does the description button shows what the cards say in agarest zero?
i played last rebellion i dont know where that 11 hour completion came from, i finished the game in less then 6 hours plus 1 or 2 hours for endgame content, i didnt finded that game bad but it was way too short, its basically a game of mastermind as the battle system, each enemy once you figure out their patterns you can just save them so you dont have to do it again every single time, also the correct solutions get marker on the balls on the right, took me less then 2 fights if i even did more then 1 for each enemy to figure out their attack pattern same for bosses
Compile Heart/Idea Factory has 3 types games.
1. Absolute crap.
2. Surprisingly decent.
3. Bad game but it checks enough of your favorite tropes and fetishes that you give it a pass.
Say it with me, Number one rule of rpgs save offten and save once moreafter you save just in case
Thankfully auto save is becoming more common! But yes, this too.
I don't trust auto saves I've had them courrpt beforeor save someplace a bug happened and stuck in that bug, so I always save in a few slots to make sure of things. I've been playing rpgs for over 30 years
Nowadays these s..ts can't appreciate video games like we used too 20-25 years ago. You don't deserve to play these "bad" games only those cash grab money indie RPGs from Steam. Then you you will learn to appreciate even a modest game. These will become masterpieces in you eye.
I've been playing JRPGs for 30 years. I remember playing Persona when no one cared about it and now it's a practically a household name. These games are NOT good. They're the lowest reviewed JRPGs on the console for a reason. I've just played so many JRPGs that I have no tolerance for crap like this. Although Time and Eternity is pretty decent.
@@TheGamingShelf Agarest and Neptunia series are awesome too in my opinion. How many kids nowadays do you think will still play Final Fantasy 1-3 and Dragon Quest 1-4 on the NES for example? They are simple, not flashy, no modern graphics, etc. Give a try to Bloody Warriors: Shan-Go no Gyakushuu. The game is translated. That's one boring JRPG. Imagine you play you favorite JRPG without a single spell or tech/special attacks. One good think about the game is the music which is repetitive but you can always take a pause from the game if it's too much for you ears. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Pool of Radiance for the NES has the most misleading map in the entire history of videogames. This thing alone makes the game very frustrating to play and even with a map/guide it's still hard to understand/decipher where you are. And there are some other boring or simple JRPG where you can risk falling asleep on your keyboard playing them. After playing Bloody Warriors: Shan-Go no Gyakushuu every JRPG has become a masterpiece for me. Plus someone put their hearts, sweat and mind into these games even Bloody Warriors (at least is a finished product compared to Pool of Radiance) so i still appreciate their work as long as the games are playable/finished products without bugs/glitches. My first games where Tetris and Circus as a kid. We appreciated more video games back then and every new game was a new treasure. Even Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six for the NES was a good game back then and i still like the game. (the nostalgia factor doesn't work on me same as seduction. I only had this powerful emotion only once when i saw Castlevania: Circle of the Moon after many years.) Imagine if you had an idea and make a game and you see on youtube your game in the section DON'T BUY THESE JRPGS!. What you will fell like? Maybe your ideas failed or the game isn't recognized by many as a good game until later. The only games which i can't stand are the COD and similar games (games that ruined mechanics like Halo with weapon limits, regeneration. First Halo was boring af with long walking like you where in an ARPG but nothing else, just boring walking. After more than 15 years and i still remember how bored i was playing Halo: "Combat Evolved" or more like "Walking Evolved") where the consumer is at fault not the developer. I stopped playing after Modern Warfare 3. The same sh.t over and over again from point A to point B and i was F bored. No exploration, nothing fascinating... only war, mindless shooting/war for the zombie masses. I replayed Mafia after 15 years and i was bored plus the game had the jazz music radio stations removed due to copyright reasons (Django, Lonnie, etc). I downloaded the music fix and put it into game. Everything changed. It's incredible how much a music can change a boring car simulator game with some shooting sections from time to time. I couldn't wait to finish my objective to get back into the car to listen to Belleville by Django Reinhardt. At least this is how i see the Mafia series: car simulator, cutscenes and shooting from time to time with amazing jazz music. At least JRPG (and not only in this genre) developers are coming with new ideas/mechanics. They like to experience with new things... creativity. You start judging a game from heart (developer) to heart (consumer) not only from pocket (brainwashed/fanatics) to pocket (EA, Activision, Ubisoft, Bethesda, etc). Japanese publishers/developers are more serious when it comes to videogames compared to the american ones who are destroying franchises one after another. (Heroes of Might and Magic, Dead Space 3, Duke Nukem... Forever?, Duel Masters, etc.)
Great job on the video. I know most of those games are not great but it did feel like you spent so little time on each. Just would have been nice to try and at least understand the nuances of the games mechanics to try and explain to us why it's bad and not just being like I'm dying alot and I don't know why.
Still appreciate seeing stuff about obscure games like this.
Fair feedback! For the next episode in this series I’ll make an effort to better explain my thoughts.
Idea factory's Neptunia series is probably why they're still alive. They have a dedicated following. I have a love hate relationship with them because that one series is actually worth your time if you're into fan service.
I actually own every one of these games, because I can't pass up trying an RPG, but I honestly don't think I paid more than $10 for any of them, and haven't beaten any of them.
Idea Factorys strength is within its Otome games tbh. Theyre not amazing at regular games but the Visual Novels are usually really good
Are you kidding me?
The entire neptunia series is a hidden gem and I loved it.
12:17 Bro... what the hell are you talking about 💀, 2010 released some of the best games of the genre such as: Metal Max 3, Fire Emblem New Mystery, Solatorobo, Etrian Odyssey 3, ZHP: Unlosing Ranger vs. Darkdeath Evilman, Pokemon Black & White, Nier, Xenoblade Chronicle...
Ngl I always enjoyed the Agarest Trilogy, though zero - the prequel- is the worst of the three. I’d have put Trinity:Souls of Zilol(?) on here. What a shite action rpg. I can’t even.
That game was horrible. But my biggest PS3 disappointment was White Knight Chronicles.
"no one should be dying on the first encounter of an rpg"
fear and hunger:
I like Cross Edge and Neptunia. Both games are strangely addictive once you get to a certain point. - Though Cross Edge takes some work to get to that point. Right off the bat, it expects mastery from the player in building and comboing with your team. And, that is not an easy thing to pick up, much less pick up so early in the game.
Crossedge endgame is a grinder's dream
Cross Edge is hilarious to me because you get your short tutorial section of the game and then it immediately throws you into the deep end. Turn based games at the time were generally fairly easy so having one where the enemies can actually hand your ass to you on a silver platter was pretty fun.
Would love to see the worst Vita JRPGs!
I’ll get there eventually 😉
The irony of Tactica being the sponsor... woof is that game dull.
Nah, love me some Neptunia lol
You do you 🙂
neptunia is so cute and i can ignore the fan service (i admit im not the target demographic but the characters are SO CUTE lmao) if the game wasnt SO BORING i couldnt pick up another neptunia game after the first and cant understand how it could possibly still be going on.
From what I can recall the PS3 was when most Japanese devs had to step into the HD era and most were NOT making the jump with grace. Not even the big budget dev-houses had it easy due to the increased demands in quality, the sheer amount of work you had to put into making a game look as good as it "should" look was a massive shift i how much work and money went into making the games- and how much money you had to make BACK in order to make it worth it. I also think I read that most game dev houses went for the Unreal Engine to save themselves time and money, but the then current version had very poor documentation in Japanese so it was extra tough for them to adapt to new development demands.
A-ny-way: I heard of all these games but not played any of them, but I was interested in finding out you liked Time and Eternity so much what with that games reputation. Reading up on it's reception I wonder if it might come from the fact it had more hype than any other game on this list, so I think a lot more people played it... aaaand a lot more people subsequently means "a lot fewer people who are also JRPG fans and thus likely to be forgiving of the genres quirks if it gets them something they want."
In short- I think JRPG-fans at the time built up an unfair mental image of what it tried to do and let that disappointment color their views, but I think a larger portion of people who were just curious gamers saw it, went "huh cool cartoon"; and were then subjected to a JRPG that from what I have heard is... like, let's be real here- as JRPG fans we have a certain _tolerance_ built up towards the genres peculiarities, both in terms of gameplay and storytelling. To an audience that thought this might be a more action-filled game than it was AND who might have expected a different sort of storytelling and characters, being surprised with what the game REALLY was might have been a shock that made them bust out the banhammer.
For instance, and this is just anecodtal since I haven't played it- I have heard that the male lead in this game is just AWFUL. Just an abysmal piece of shit with zero redeeming qualities. That the further in you play, the more you wish to see him in pain, or at least removed from the game enitrely. I have no way of knowing whether this is true or not, but it seemed to be such a common thread with most reviews I read at the time- they just HATED the dude, some even admitting that they thought the game was mediocre, but pulled into outright bad territory because they could just not STAND the male lead.
Perhaps if I had played it I'd be able to say one way or another, but I can see where people who want to paint a rosier picture of it are coming from. In comparison to every other game on this list you are right that it not just looks better, it also looks DIFFERENT. Whereas every other game here is obviously a mini-budget production where they give you the very minimum "battlefields -> dialoge scenes -> static screens portraying different environemnts AND ALL OVER AGAIN", this at least builds a world to explore that is presented to you in a different way than just status screens and visual novel-style. There is ambition here, and in hindsight many are willing to forgive a lot for the sake of ambition. As for whether the game ACTUALLY deserves such concern... well. I'd have to actually play it to find out, wouldn't I?
if i could do it all over again , i'd do it all over again , i'd do it all over again it's do it 15 times over again so i can do it all over again
@@iamLI3 referencing a particular game here, or something else?
@@goranisacson2502 [YTP] No one needs foundation repair
"No one should be dying on the first random encounter in an rpg"
SMT Nocturne in the corner, hoping no one sees it
I have played every game on this list and I enjoyed them all. I think in context of the time they were released, they were not that bad. I remember Last Rebellion as the game I got my first ever Platinum Trophy (because it was very easy). Time and Eternity was an interesting idea but I remember it being really unbalanced in the combat and I was sad there wasn't a more polished 2nd game. I actually think there were games that were much worse than these from this time. I would say the worst games I played from this time are Mugen Souls, Trinity Universe and the original White Knights Chronicle.
Same here. I take these kinds of videos with a grain of salt. I could give a care about other peoples ratings and opinions. I mean they are playing them today and you really needed to play them when they released. I am not sure why people say the PS3 sucked and was devoid for JRPGs. I sure liked most of them at the time. Yeah we have amazing stuff in the PS4 and PS5 generation but the PS3 wasn't that bad.
Glad you found some enjoyment out of them 🙂
Funny you mention that because Mugen Souls was primarily by Idea Factory, and Trinity Universe was a collab between iF, Gust and NIS. White Knights Chronicle was by Level-5, however.
I remember White Chronicles. That game was great. The 1st online game I played. I'm still bummed about the servers being shut down.
I loved the White Knight Chronicles games and they are head and shoulders above the Neptunia games and last rebellion for me, spent a lot of time playing the online mode too.
I thought Cross Edge, Time and Eternity and the Agarest games were great though.
I actually enjoyed Last Rebellion and didnt die as much as you did. It seems you die a lot in these games and lose interest. I didn't really find the art that bad.
What was I missing with the combat? It felt like if I didn't get the pattern down it was basically hard mode.
Whoa I completely forgot about time and eternity! What a cool and unique game. I agree gameplay is a bit shallow but I miss these types of new risky/inmovative type games. You can find some indies but I feel like most big studios don't want to take much risks.
it would be unfair to call Cross Edge a "Spiritual Prequel" (being from 2008/2009) to Project X Zone when Namco X Capcom (2005) on the PS2 is its actual and canon prequel to PxZ.
NXC was actually pretty good too.
1/ Loved Cross Edge since I played after Namco X Capcom, but it was rough yes.
2/ Record of agarest war was a guilty pleasure, but it is bad, honestly it is.
3/ I played Neptunia mk2 first and I liked it, so I was honor-bound to play the original, not great, but, funny.
4/ Never played Last Rebellion, never will.
5/ Yeah, Time and Eternity is actually fine, but on my Ps3 it was.. lagged? sluggish? it was frustrating to lose hp or mis a dodge not on timing but on a massive fps drop, but the idea was really good as you say :D
I have the Platinum for all those games, that much I liked them honestly.
Wow a platinum for all of them? That’s dedication!
@@TheGamingShelf Neptunia is a breeze, just the shares thingy is a mess.
Cross Edge definitely with a step by step guide.
Record of agarest war i kinda cheated with PP dlcs, becauee the endgane bosses are quite something.
Time and eternity is quite a breeze, it reminded me of Thousand Arms in a wat and I enjoyed it.
I liked Neptunia and it's spin offs. Also the funny thing about the character designs is that it's done by a woman.
Mad respect for actually saying something positive about Time & Eternity! I consider it both a terrible game and an absolute must play for its ambition! I remember when it came out in Japan they were saying weird stuff like "there are no sprites or polygons in this screenshot", which was a lie but as a connoisseur of Laserdisc games I get what they mean. A lot of this is FMV clips strung together, they were trying to use modern technology to do a more advanced FMV game! BUT that kind of thing costs WAAAY too much money to pull off and they had to cut corners real hard to make it work, which is why no one else has really attempted this (thanks for the tip off about that one game though). I'd say the closest is Don Quixote on LaserActive and maybe Tengai Maikyo IV on SEGA Saturn. That said, I think you stopped just before the game got REAL bad.
See, I like the combat because I totally get what they were doing: It's Punch Out!! It plays REALLY similar to Punch Out!!...but fighting an endless stream of Glass Joes only works for so long and when Bald Bull becomes the normal enemy, it gets frustrating. But where it falls apart is when you go back in time again and can no longer go back? There's a sudden MASSIVE difficulty spike and the amount of EXP you get versus the length and challenge of the fights just does not pan out! You have to fight too many Bald Bulls to level up! This drives me NUTS because EVERY professional reviewer claimed the combat was too easy and all you had to do was mash buttons and my progress is COMPLETELY blocked by obscene fight difficulty and length versus EXP earned!
I do, sadly, own all of these games but my Last Rebellion is still in its shrinkwrap...maybe I'll keep it there.
Yeah I wouldn’t open last rebellion lol
interesting , thanks for the info , im gonna try playing eternity
Neptunia's gameplay might have been ass, but the characters and humor more than made up for it. I get a huge nostalgia boner whenever i see anything related to the OG Neptunia.
I still have my copy of Time and Eternity and haven't touched it in years since I got bored with it. HDN also surprisingly grew from being a bad game, if I hadn't received Mk2 first I probably wouldve shunned it forever
In Defense of Neptunia... they are stupid but the first game actually tried a bit more to take its story a bit more "serious". All the other games play a lot better, though. The biggest problem is probably the fact Neptunia recycled dungeons between games...
17:36
This killed me. Lmao. I like bad games that don't take themselves too seriously.
Same! Games don’t do it enough 😂
I thought that was quite funny, and I do like it when games give the player more choices even if it may not have long lasting effect to the story. Just a small acknowledgement can be enough. Although, it would have been quite funny if the scene had gone completely differently: The girl says she doesn't care about you anymore and leaves the building screaming in frustration, and the game ends there.
I swear I heard Wendee Lee twice in this video alone
I think I rented time and eternity for a weekend, I don't remember how I felt about it, but It was at least fun enough to know it was a game I played seeing that style again
Really fun video! Can't wait to see the other systems covered lol. Monolith Soft must be a huge fan of Time and Eternity. That's crazy! 🤯🤣
Sui-chan wa kyou mo kawaii~
hyperdimension neptunia the original is how i got into the series I had a lot of fun playing it there were some pretty funny joke/reference in it that were not in rebirth 1 that made me sad its the Pokémon one if anyone fully played the original, if not here it is we get stuck inside a disk and compa says I wonder if Mr. heretic would ever throw the disk at someone and say i choose you compiffytune, and since all the characters are named after companies that help in someway making the game so they may not show up in later games like nisa
Considering all the fawning over the new very bad Persona tactics game I'm not so sure half of these reviews can be trusted.
I quite like P5 Tactica 🤷🏻♂️
To me "Time and Eternity" looks really good...And since I play mostly for story rather than challenge, I'd really like to try it...
Take that up with the Better Business Bureau.
The story is crap too
I must be the only one that enjoyed the original Neptunia and I thought that it was really harsh to be put here over some other stuff, like OG Neptunia at least felt like Trinity Universe done right in terms of combat mechanics and Dungeon Exploration.
I'd actually argue that Mugen Souls, as much as I find some stuff really fun, is worse than Neptunia in the long run because you're not really suppose to fight the enemies unless you accidentally Frenzy the Large crystal and because only your main protagonist can peon enemies or crystals, battles will start dragging out.
Yeah the combat in Mugen Souls was bizarre. I never understood how the emotion stuff worked.
I can't hate on Compile Heart too much. Their heyday as an almost exclusive shmup developer gave us some of the greatest games ever.
The “time loop” of Time and Eternity could be the set up for a pretty cool Roguelike.
Like the game always starts with you getting married, the wedding gets stopped and you travel back in time to prevent what just happened, gaining power along the way and ending the run as the wedding.
Since there is some variation in powers and actions (girl red, girl blond, dragon, meele, gun, magic) there can be a ton of build variety. Like maybe one where you focus on switching between girls, one where the dragon spams fireballs and so on.
The Metanarrative could then be about how the thing that stops them from getting married isn’t all the people
Crashing the wedding, but their own insecurity about the finality of marriage, which somehow creates those time loops. But over the loops the two banter and realize why they always loved each other and by the end, getting killed and stopping the murderers, becomes their way of bonding in the relationship
Idea Factory must be kept afloat by the Neptunia games. Most of the neptunia games are okay to pretty good and that series has a very dedicated fanbase. I've tried a few of their other games (Mei Q, Omega Quintet, Dark Rose Valkyrie) and they were very boring. That being said, they have some really solid titles like Death End Request and Mary Skelter trilogy.
I have heard decent things from DER, but yeah Neptunia keeps things going it seems like.
Neptunia has overstayed its welcome TBH.
Also Their other games are more unique. OQ and FFF: ADF were both better than most Neptunia games, both Prior to and after their releases.
@@Shadowespeon17 Agreed, I really like their “darker” themed RPG’s. Death End was fantastic, imo.
Technically Namco x Capcom is the predecessor to Project X Zone. But Cross edge is now gonna be on my wishlist since i didnt know Ar Tonelico was in it. Damn Taylor blowing my mind
lol happy to blow minds!
@@TheGamingShelf better than blowing anything else
🤣
But some of them awesome...
In the walking sections of Time and Eternity, the placement of the character in the frame really bugs me. Like, something, something, rule of thirds, she needs a bit more clearance above her head.
These games look interesting, I'm going to play them
Don’t say I didn’t warn you 😆
“I wish we could do it right now. You feel the same way too right?”
Me: “No sugar, I just met you.”
Oh wow 2 out of 5 of the list I played (Cross Edge and Agarest Zero) and it hurts seeing them because you are right how bad they are especially in the long run.
To think I remember SO much DLC I bought just to Pay to Win through the games mechanics. It helped but it pretty much double the base Price of the game.
Fun Fact: would you believe Cross Edge ENG Dub Work is Minor in comparison to the JPN Dub?
I bought Tactica for cheap and realized it´s basically a sequel to Persona 5, so I´m now 50 hours into that just so I can finish and play Tactica
funny how things work
From this list I have played Neptunia out of pure curiosity since I played Victory, the 3rd one of the original trilogy before the retconning. Hyperdimension Neptunia 1 is an odd ball for me because the story is great for how far I played but the gameplay is really rough especially the dungeon crawling aspect of it since the encounters are not random chance but distance based... I am a fool to try and 100% dungeons because of how uninspired most of the areas look and feel, if the task isn't to defeat a certain number of enemies, you bet your ass I would abuse Compa's skill to disable the distance encounters.
funny, recently I wanted to continue this game and came across this knowing HDN 1 would be mentioned
About the 5 place: 1st of all, this is the 1st time i heard about this game. Never heard it about it up until now.
I don't think is a precuel of PXZ persay because there is one key factor. It isn't made by Namco at all. As you said, is made by IF and Compa while NIS distribute it (hence why Disgaea is in the game). They try their own version of .... Namco x Capcom . YES!! if you want the true precuel of PxZ, you had Namco x Capcom, since both games are connected not only because some character knows each other but the fact the 2 original characters (Reiji and Xiaomu) as well the Shinra organization is involved somehow in BOTH games. And even between those 2 games are also another 2 games who are canon to a lot of other games: The Frontier Saga (who is a spin off of the Super Robot Wars games. And also canon to their universe too). There is an entire time line of events for who game is canon to who game if is made by Namco.
Cross Edge seems to try to do the same thing, with only JRPGs, only done poorly. Also the difficulty curve is awful from what i heard. But it make sense once you remember NIS was involved on this. But in Disgaea it makes sense, here they try the same and turn out into a meat grinded of trying to grind as much as possible.
Also the artist is the same who work on Neptunia.
Is it bad I could tell number one was time and eternity just from the censorship and its reputation alone?
Also sponsored by catlus themselves, congrats!
I played through all of the first Hypderdimension Nep Nep game. Was really intrigued by the combo system. Game is bad but it felt like a rite of passage.
I own most of these games but never played them. 😅
Eh, i played hyperdimension neptunia after playing mk2. Got to say, it has no place on this list. while i has it flaws it was still not a bad rpg xS That said, theres a reason why it's the only game in the series with these kind of controls and stuff XD