"You can beat Genshin with starter characters, but that's not a fun Genshin" PREACH KING I AM SO SICK OF PEOPLE SAYING YOU CAN BEAT THE GAME WITH FREE CHARACTERS! Free characters don't have quick exploration like Wanderer or Yelan, free characters can't kill waves of enemies in 3 seconds, free characters have lackluster kits and are NOT fast enough when exploring, fighting AND DOING PUZZLES. If I had to play this game without Wanderer or Yelan I'd uninstall this godforsaken game immediately.
@@regalseagull Yeah but that would require farming artifacts. And if you're grinding the harder bosses with just the starter characters without a build already for them then you're asking to get hurt.
Free characters are not us bad as you may think . They are very serviceable and some have actually gotten better through the progression of the game . Also the game sometimes would give free four stars on events and you really don't need to pull a 5star to beat the game comfortably.
BD has traumatized me so much that I have reflex anger and distrust towards fairies. So as a Genshin player, Paimon is in the middle ground as my best friend while simultaneously awaiting the day she stabs me in the back.
Well considering there's only 6 playable characters, there's only 2 characters at any given time not participating in battle, but I used everyone almost equally, half the skills in the game can't even be unlocked without actually using the characters, and I feel Bandai Namco did such a great job with each character I figured it would be a sin to not use all of them, especially considering how few characters there are, what annoys me are the ppl who only play with alphen just because he's the main protagonist, it's kind of a silly reason to ignore the majority of content over such a weird mindset, why limit yourself and handicap yourself like that, your just making the game more repetitive than it actually is
Finally I found another Bravely Second believer, don't get me wrong I liked Default but Second improves and fixes what made the former repetitive and let's not even start with the new jobs, Exorcist, Wizzard, Guardian and Catmancer, it was so much fun to experiment and make strategies with these.
@@Super_HamboneCatmancer and Blue Mage classes in general have always been goated whenever they show up in squeenix games Still can't believe they did them dirty like that in FFXIV.
9:45 "The amount of frustration i felt when i realized just how padded out Bravely Default was is comparable to... Pfff, idk, chemical castration maybe? Painful and depressing, no doubt, but in a very strange way i think everyone should try it at least once" Wait, what? 💀
I'd also recommend these anime that also greatly inspired Xenogears... -Armored Trooper VOTOMS -Five Star Stories -Detonator Orgun -Panzer World Galient -Aura Battler Dunbine -Tekkaman Blade
@@LeooSaGoh Dunbine STARTS GREAT, but oh , Ohh man, it gets bad after a while, they forget their rules, Armors just pop up everywhere... and when they go back to the real world on the third act? You just want it to end Already... because is So bad, is a completely Different Anime...and in Classic Tomino Fashion he just wipes everybody out... LOL. I can understand why... Others you mentioned are great, but I Think Xenogears is like a General homage to SR and RR mecha Genre, from Mazinger , Macross, Yusha Series, and others Like you said Votooms, Orgun , MS Stardust Memories, and many more...
@@migovas1483 I recommend Back Arrow as a MODERN tribute to Xenogears. Those above are good prototipes. I mention Dunbine because of Tomino-san(UC Gundam, Ideon, Dunbine) who also inpired Hideaki Anno(Evangelion). Thanks to all those great writers we got the best JRPG-Visual Novel: Xenogears.
Tales of Arise was great. One of my favorite games that I never finished. The combat became such a chore by the second half of the game that I just couldn’t do it anymore.
bruh the game was soo perfect and the later half just threw everything away, i didnt even bother clearing the final dungeon. also story went to sht as there's too much talking going on on later half.
Did you actually use all the characters?, just making sure your not one of those weird ppl who only play with alphen just because he's the main protagonist, extremely silly reason to handicap yourself and ignore the majority of content, I would give up to if I could only play as 1 of 6 characters, the point of tales games is mastering each character and building them from the ground up with equipment and skills
I agree completely on BD's second half, still my favorite game of all time that I've played from start to finish about 5 times and from 0 to 100% twice. The story drags, but at least most of the repeat dialogues are skippable and it's fun to find the subtle differences between the worlds, plus it gave a chance to test new and broken job combinations for the Endgame Nemesi, Ba'al and Adventurer. Still I think the game would've been leagues better if Airy's counter started at 3 at most and not at 5, sparing us two loops that could've been implemented into the others and the twist with both endings would've been the same. Bravely Second and Bravely Default 2 easily did the 4th wall breaking ways to continue the game better, but BD's characters are what puts it over the sequel and next gameb❤️
I preferred Bravely Second: End Layer. The time loops in BD really weren't that bad. People complain about a few repetitive bosses. Try playing a game like WoW where you grind everything hundreds of times.
as much that I love bravely second for the gameplay being so much better I have to agree that the story in Bravely default is better on the end game plot twist alone, too bad that it ends up ruining the gameplay as a result. Bravely second's gameplay is much nicer but I found that the story was kind of a confusing mess , its like they kept introducing lots of plot points that would get nowhere and didnt know what to do, but the gameplay makes up for it since it much more fun than the other two games. Bravely default 2 ended up being middle ground to me, the story is better than Second but its a bit generic compared to Default, and the gameplay I found to be worse because it lacked lots of the quality of life improvements from the other two games.
@@Black_merchant IMO FF7's story was great but it was not as deep as Xenogears...and its only 1 of 6 parts of a bigger universe. You can check Xenogears Perfect Works for the bigger story.
It's not that hard to be better than xenogears story, ff7 original for example manage to do that just by having a better focus in term of ambition and what he want to achieve while xenogears is all over the place and shoot in his foot with underdevelopped plot point, plot conveniences, underdevelopped cast of characters, and obviously poorly delivered narrative in the second disk who just ruin the flow of pacing, entirely skip extremely important events in 4 lines etc... shit like that Yeah i'm kinda pissed off after enjoying the first disk and then the game throw this shitty disk and just ruin what i've been invested for more than 50 hours and straight up shit on a lot of good things from the first disk too if that was not enough
To be fair, Genshin would not have so much content or a hardcore 6-week update schedule with only an upfront cost, it's a give and take, the greedy ass gacha allowed the company to reinvest in the game with a decade long update planning. Its been 3 years, Genshin is still popular not because it's a quality game - after all ppl lose interest in most quality games just weeks after release, ppl are still playing because it gets regular updates.
I completed the story so far, have many characters, and still going to keep playing when they add more story. I never payed for anything, seems like a quality game to me.
@@dez87 indeed. Could it be that genshin impact is actually a good game? 🤣Lol some people like the ones in these comments just like to complain. This poster was incorrect
A game that I feel this way about is Octopath Traveler (The first one at least, I haven't played the second). At first, I thought that it was really fun, getting all of the characters was fun, but I felt like after that, it dropped the ball hard, because I always felt like I had to grind after finishing each chapter for my batch of characters. Then, once I completed everyone's story, my main team were each around level 50 or so, with the other 4 being around 45, only to find out that the recommended level for the final story dungeon was LEVEL 65! I ended up grinding for so long until everyone was around that level, but at that point, the grinding had just left me feeling so soured on the game that I just did not want to finish it, and so I just ended up looking the true ending up on TH-cam.
I have good news for you, then. Octopath 2 deals with it's post game content MUCH better. Endgame content is recommended level 51, which you'll very easily get to by the time you hit that point, with maybe a couple over leveled party members.
Octopath 2 is much better in that regards but I wish they would just use the chained echoes, all characters level up simultaneously, can change characters before starting so you have the optimal ones to beat the shield, and all characters are always healed after battle
Glad I'm not the only one. I hated that each time I'd switch to a character to do their story line I'd have to start grinding, or I run through a character's story with a lower leveled character. I never finished it because I got bored of grinding.
My problem is that the WHOLE GAME is just boring as sin. The dialogue is dull dull dull.. it's not building to anything exciting, it's just these small unimportant stories randomly happening around. EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER is just "go to town. learn problem is right next to town. dungeon next to town.". Like... is that even a GAME? There's nothing to do, nothing to search for, nothing except following the linear story that barely matters. I like the combat system. I finished the story for 2-3 characters, and I haven't been able to make myself pick it up again, it's just boring. They definitely have something there, and maybe the sequel fixed it, I don't know, but I'm playing lots of other stuff before trying again.
Oh my god, another unironic Bravely Second fan! BS was the game that actually got me into JRPGs after years of Pokémon as a kid. It holds up so well it’s insane
Final Fantast 15's second half (as long as you never time travel, what a cop out just adjust) is by far my favorite part of the game perhaps one of my favorite parts of any game. the way the game only ever gets more restrictive as noctis' fate is revealed and it turns out there was no other road to go down but this one i think is a pretty great marriage of story and gameplay. The only agency Noctis ever has in his life is that short road trip with his friends and i feel like that's why the fugitive prince is going around doing the most inane and meaningless tasks for literally anyone who asks because its either that of face his own predetermined fate. First he goes by car, he can chose where to go what to do everyday it's complete freedom especially in the americana inspired world. Next he travels by boat, less distractions than on the road and noctis isn't behind the wheel but still there's that sense that Noctis is still in control. Finally they are put on a rail, once they get on that train control is entirely relinquished and Noctis is delivered to his fate with no choice. once at the end of the track the car is symbolically destroyed and now Noctis is trapped in the tightest corridors with no option but to keep moving forward until the finale.
About the Genshin take, I partially agree, but there are some disagreements: I don't think the game is a a gem, starting point is quite low, but, I'd argue the game just gets better with each update, the problem is that the content downtimes are so... weak, that is borderline unplayable and gives this impression of the game getting worse... on top of how you feel shitty to quit because the story is not even done yet. As for the character take, is more nuanced: TLDR: The game does a terrible job with balancing character strength, would still have this problem even if it wasn't a gacha. Rarities are misleading, is usually to show accessibility rather than actual quality (ehem Dehya), you usually need to check external sources because you might have a great unit benched, which is kind of shitty. * 5 stars are a placebo effect *, they only feel strong early on, but gear has so much weight that rarity stops mattering, Even if you whale you still have to gear your units. For comparison, Enchanted Netherite vs no gear in Minecraft is a smaller difference than built vs unbuilt Genshin units. (I don't consider constellations nor having premium weapons "building" since that is entirely behind a paywall//separate from your building process)
Labyrinth of Refrain and its sequel Labyrinth of Galleria get loads of praise as hidden gems. However, one may notice that most of those reviews are first impressions. The full games have plenty of unique and shared flaws that makes the story absolutely carry the gameplay. For common annoyances, there's the karma meter. Refrain's central theme was that evil was hard to explain and the people who believe themselves to be incapable of doing wrong to be the most monstrous of all, so they made a completely arbitrary karma meter that could only decrease by scapegoating to further emphasize the point. Unfortunately, they still made it increase the chances of you getting hit by critical hits and Gore Hits even in the sequel that *did not* tackle this theme. Speaking of which, Gore Hits are critical hits on steroids that reduce your Max HP, make it so that the equipment associated with that body part does nothing and can only be reversed at your base (don't trust Jitter Bug's item description, "repairing a puppet" does not substitute for Puppet Repair). On top of that, these games made the worst thing they could do to make players care about item farming: making it mandatory. Not for the true ending, for the *normal ending* and beyond. For things exclusive to Refrain, there's the "Hide incident" where interacting with a marker explicitly labeled "Hide" railroads you into a Black Page holder and doesn't let you run away. Speaking of which, all Black Page holders must be defeated for accessing the final dungeon and by extension the true ending. Their battles range from ok to painful. Galleria's early dungeons become more forgettable because they're all ancient ruins. Then the second half adds randomly generated dungeons that don't have too much variety between seeds. To add insult to injury, the real final dungeon takes place in one of these only with constant penalties like decreasing your stats by 95% and healing by 90% as if being 3651 floors long wasn't enough.
After hating on it and then getting into Genshin, it definitely has a lot to offer a patient player that doesn't want to part with their money and I definitely stress "patient". The formula of the game is that you're constantly timegated for essential resources so its a sprint rather than a marathon but eventually your account will start looking good (with some research into best use of those timegated resources and care - investing in the right units and weapons), you will eventually get the standout 4 stars, you will end up with some of the games best 5 stars (pull wisely), you will inevitably get the right weapons and you will be able to consistently clear the hardest content the game has to offer without spending a single cent if that's what your intention is. If you can afford it though the Welkin Pass makes the game a lot easier by giving you passive wishing currency every day.
As a "big fan of all "Xeno" franchises since 2004, I must say, although Monolithsoft wasn't able to realise their vision for the "Xenosaga" series, they still managed to create an amazing series that all JRPG fans should at least try. It really pains me to see it being victim of a massive middle-child syndrome. It's overall ignored by "Xenoblade" fans and looked down upon by "Xenogears" fans, and it really doesn't deserve either. Heck, I'd go as far as to say that "Xenosaga" is better than its siblings in some aspects, specially characters (well, at least up until "Xenoblade 2", I haven't played "Xenoblade 3" yet). Yeah, I know a big reason for this is the fact that the games are very difficult to come by nowadays, but honestly, even with that in mind, I think more could be done to bring "Xenosaga" back to gaming community's awareness.
Xenosaga is absolutely leagues ahead of Xenoblade, though X is a good outing there. If Gears had been finished I think it would have at least competed with Saga 1 or 3 but as it stands that second 'half' just kills it.
@@palladiamorsdeus gears got scuffed in disc 2 yeah but I'm pretty sure majority of people who have delved into the whole xeno series count gears as the greatest of them all when it comes to story and themes
4:37 Xenoblade 2 has a version of this problem where in order to get all the Blades they only resource you waste is time, not money, and half the story-guaranteed Blades are busted AF and it boosts replayability but it feels unfair to not be allowed to build the team you want throughout the adventure at your leisure. You have to get lucky or use rare Blade/Driver transfer items to get good setups because yeah, DIFFERENT BLADES HAVE DIFFERENT MOVESETS ON DIFFERENT DRIVERS. This is a luck-based combat balancing factor that just sucks and shouldn’t be there and was fixed in Torna and especially 3, where you can always get all possible combat options onto every party member in more or less the same order no matter the save file.
All the Genshin 4* I could get assed to level and get some artifact sets for suck massive amounts of ass compared to a no constellation Ganyu equipped with literally whatever artifacts I figured would work and a purple bow I had lying around. Had I not gotten that lucky pull I'd have uninstalled a month earlier than I did. Yet I still sometimes get the urge to reinstall, like some sort of gambler being compelled by the sunk cost fallacy, if I already have some 5* maybe I'll pull a second Hu Tao and the staff of homa... Right?
The part of Bravely Defualt where you have to fight the crystal bosses over and over is actually my favorite part of the game. It has the best sub quests in the form of the multi-Asterisk boss fights, that also give you more insight into their characters. And if you don't wanna do that, fighting the crystal bosses in all the loops doesn't take *that* long. Maybe an hour and a half or 2 hours with a good setup by that point, since you can break the game over your knee by then. It's still one of my favorite games.
I disagree with you, but it is really refreshing to see another take on that part of the story and it's really cool seeing the strengths of it highlighted in a positive way. Glad you liked that part!
I agree with this; I understand why people didn’t like this section but it just didn’t bother me. I thought the twist was great and I already loved the bosses so I genuinely didn’t mind fighting them multiple times over.
I mean yes, Xenogears could have been so much more and the second disc completely changes the game's presentation, but I think it still works out. The underlying religious and psychological themes are fantastically integrated into story and offer much more depth than any other story told at that time
@@Salciin Wait why does it have to be jrpgs? I wouldve said Planescape Torment, The longest Journey, John Saul's Blackstone Chronicles, Gabriel knight series, and I have no mouth and I must scream.
@@mistertagomago7974 Because I was specifically talking about PS1 Jrpgs in my comment :D Otherwise I would fully agree with yours. I don't know the games you have listed, but they look like really immersive games with interesting concepts and stories.
@@Salciin Honestly from what I know of it Linda Cubed might fit the bill. It was never released in English though. The playstation port is being fan translated though and the patch should hopefully be out in like 10 days. And that is the trend when I try to think of older games like that, no English translation.
When I first saw the thumbnail I thought you were gonna call Bravely Second a worse Bravely Default. Not only did you happily prove me wrong but you're also a Magnolia Arch enjoyer. Sub earned.
@@Super_Hambone Bravely 2nd was the original creators taking the criticism towards bravely default seriously. Namely that people liked the game it just had issues and well they did exactly what the sequel was supposed to do fix the issues while still keeping what made the 1st good. And at least embravely default too they didn't make you have to redo sequences when you had To see all the endings.
You will loathe Bravely Second too if you import the very 1st Japanese version of it. It's one of the rare case where it's better outside of Japan with the newer version If you want an (idea) how different it was, Red Nova Tyrant made a video about that
Honestly, I never had too much of an issue with Bravely Default's second half. The side quest bosses are varied enough to make the repeat story bosses bearable imo (spreading them out makes them way less obnoxious). It also provides a great opportunity to try new builds and learn more about the lore and characters. Ironically, Bravely Second is the game I gave up on part way through. I really wasn't digging the story, and it reached the point where a minor boss setback was enough to get me to give up. Still looking forward to trying BD2 eventually.
the part with BS that annoyed me was the end boss phase two broke my strat 3 mages with the ghost condition from Confectioner (can't melee attack but can use magic) and the passive that gives free spell casts if low on hp since the condition counts as low/dead allowing for endless casting. Last party member was a knight with the passive to auto restore to their earlier condition so never had to worry about healing them the second phase took away the ghost condition even though I entered the final boss with it already on them
The issue is that the sidequest-mixups are the only good part of that second half. And the real fight remixes only start several worlds in.(And by that point, I couldn't be bothered anymore)
TH-cam keeps recommending me so many smaller channels with banger content! nice! Also, you humor is very on point and reminds me of the more irreverent and down-to-earth style of the early 2000s.
Definitely feel like the last half of Bravely could've been cut down a bit. I'm actually surprised getting the true ending doesn't involve going against what they want you to do since that would be the logical thing to do by that point. Still, I can't really hate it since it let's you get more mileage out of the battle system and I do genuinely like seeing the different interactions you get after the first cycle.
@@paulman34340 I never actually did play Bravely Second since i'll admit i'm one of those people that initially passed it up because I didn't find the soundtrack as good lol, but I haven't really touched the series outside of the first one so I really want to give it and 2 a proper crack now.
@InspireTheLiars 2nd is a good game. And honestly the 2nd game the official 2nd game on the switch I've really been enjoying that. I remember the complaints word that they moved it to more of a atb system And I found the complaints against that kind of ridiculous I can understand because of the weight system. But seriously the game was always basically final Fantasy 5 inspired. Which had that system so yeah it's still good Regardless and of course didn't have the problems the 1st game had namely if they had cut out some of the reduce then yeah I would have not been p***** off about doing s*** again. Or at least fast forward it was annoying having it at the same thing over and over before the characters were like finally realizing something wasn't right. I was thankful when the final dungeon was opened up seriously. I will replay BS And BD2 Any day but I will never do BD1 ever Again that's the reason I 100% it in my 1st run
@@paulman34340 Yeah, I played a bit of 2's demo and I honestly kind of liked some of the new things they've done with the battle system even though it was kind of confusing due to how much they give you to start off with.
Didn't mind Xenogears' graphic novel. Lots of spots in teh game had poor pacing, giving you little as far as story goes. I don't think traversing 20 more hours worth of Labyrinths would enrich the game. Xenogears is beloved because of the story.
Haven't played a TON of JRPGs but something I've noticed with Bandai Namco games is that some high-level executive definitely has a hard-on for long and drawn-out final dungeons. But it may be a thing with all JRPGs,, lol.
Its a thing that's carried over from a lot of oldschool JRPGs which would often have extremely long final dungeons. For my pick of absurdly long final dungeon sequences I'd go with Final Fantasy 3. It has you run through 3 dungeons(4 if you count the optional one) back to back with your only chance to save being a roughly 3 step segment of the overworld between dungeons 1 and 2.
I haven't payed a single dime triple crowning Xiangling, Noelle, Kuki and Collei. Meanwhile I spend 40€ and all my 100+ wishes to get ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for Deyha. Lesson learned. I won't be spending any money on building characters anymore because appearently I get better shit for free.
On the topics of jrpg's, there's one jrpg that's grossly underated that I highly recommend you (or anybody reading this) play called Scarlet Nexus. That's a game I feel you'd like. One word of advice tho, when you first play the game, pick Yuito's route first. Ik the blue haired serious waifu is tempting, but your just gonna have to trust me when I say the story flows better when you pick Yuito's story first.
It cost $100m to develop what came out in 2020, they were nearly broke, have spent over $500m on it since and the game has nearly tripled in size while being at best halfway done. Where do you want Mihoyo to have pulled the billion dollars and five years to finish it from? Eastern devs do gacha because it makes them more, it's just smart business.
@@disgaealikerasapOG Yeah so they are forced to work on shitty nintendo hardware that can't keep a stable framerate and the game gets locked in console exclusivity for a device that will stop being relevant in the next 5 years and never get ported to other consoles, that'd be incredible
Persona 5 is like this for me, especially on a repeat playthrough in NG+ or Royal. Replaying the starting arc I was hyped and like hell yes this is amazing why did this bother me so much? Then the rest of the game comes like oh right, the rest of it -_- it just doesn't hold up to mild scrutiny and has god awful pacing (the plot is always "on" so the pulse of the pacing flatlines. Hard)
Honestly, I completely understand. I felt like I was going crazy for having the same opinion. Like, i'm not trying to be an elitist when I say this, but SMT nocturne. Is genuinely the best RPG I have ever played gameplay wise.
So I wanted to give everyone a tip to somewhat ease the monetization of genshin. As someone who has been playing since 1.0, the best value is the welkins. Its about 5 dollars a month, and lets you get a 5 star every patch, not every banner but every second patch if not more depending on your luck. Seeing how we have lots of reruns now as well, and characters to skip I own most 5 stars with doing welkins only. Treating genshin as a cheap subscription works more for this particular gatcha, not other ones.
Since it's not monetised I wasn't too against it. My big issue with the blade pulling was that it allowed for luck to dictate a crucial part of the gameplay and cause some players to have a lot more fun with the blade system than others.
It was a gacha system without all the things that make gachas bearable. Limited inventory space, no protection from dupes or incentives for dupes, no way to collect draws en masse using regular money thus further worsening the awful drop rates on rares, no way to mass pull, the already limited inventory space is further limited by a need to do side quests that don't open up until a decent way into the game, world events requiring rare pulls, said side quests requiring blades with specific skills...I hate the blade system with a passion and overall really dislike Xenoblade 2.
@@palladiamorsdeusXB2 was a game I wanted to like despite almthe design choices for certain characters. I really tried and finished the game after 120 hours. XB2 showed me what I disdain in modern JRPGs. The entire blade system from the Gacha mechanics, to these stupid environmental blockages, to the UI to simply interact with them. XB2 felt like an insult to my time that I was too stubborn to put down. I spent my money on this game and I wad going to finish it. But all these stupid little design choices that made any kind of grinding into a tedious task. I'm getting frustration flashbacks from all the times I had to play this annoying salvage minigame, watch the animation just to press one button three times at different intervals. All for some blades that I wouldn't use anyways.
@@palladiamorsdeusNah fr. This is why DE is still the best to this day. Call me an annoying fanboy but yeah I could go on a tall tale on my own complaints regarding 2. Never played 3 though but I have heard mixed things about it.
I somehow did not expect you to take the Gacha system angle on Genshin. Just because you need the patience of a saint to get to the good story beats. Also hell yeah Bravely Second is great :D
What got me with tales of arise is the dialogue. I grew up on jrpgs, a lot of talking isnt the issue. The issue is they spend a tremendous amount of time not actually saying anything despite the huge amount of words that come out of them. Its becoming an issue with jrpgs lately imo. Ffxvi is the first jrpg ive played in awhile that didnt feel like it had circular dialogue to me.
I just wanna say that you earned my subscription instantly for calling Bravely Second a masterpiece. That game blows Default out of the water in pretty much every way, and I'm saying that as a Bravely fan.
You have more patience for Breath of Fire 1 than I did and I'm a decade older than you. I was 8 when i played it on the GBA and found it archaic in 2001.
While a drop in the quality does not mean it's straight up bad, I would say The Witcher 3's last third, specially the hole island area, felt less polished than the rest of the game, and the main villains ended up being one dimensional and rushed. Breath of The Wild would be here, but the bosses, dungeons and story are lackluster. Elden Ring, unlike Bloodborne or DS1, at least has the best bosses of the game in the last third, not to mention two of the best dungeons. Mountaintops is simply eh, thought.
Seriously though, I wish Genshin is full released game, even though I just playing through first half of the game and never touch it again, from what I experienced it's pretty fun.
I discovered that Genshin Impact was a Gacha game 3 days after playing it. That’s where it kinda broke the Camel’s back for me because I just found it unfair how I’m dependent on a Lootbox to get the character I want to play like Diluc. I would be perfectly fine if they want to hide it behind a paywall. But a Gacha is worse.
@@shiroufan5401He's still a lot more easier to get compared to someone like say, Albedo or Eula who rarely get any banner re-runs. I would also add Itto although he's apparently getting a re-run in 4.5
I hate to hear the Xeno bashing. The end of Gears is awesome in its own way, and honestly my favorite part. The Saga games are fantastic and deserve a remaster.
I feel you on all accounts, I still love Tales of Arise to death but I can understand when someone says it went down hill at full tilt. I won't agree and say I felt the same way, because I definitely didn't (I might have been too hyped and happy with the game to personally notice the faults other people could help but be negatively affected by). I generally don't have many criticisms with what I experience whether it's video games, anime and manga or cartoons. For every comment I see of "it's all bad and nothing about it is a redeeming quality" and "it's not worth anyone's time and effort, it should never have been made". I typically think to myself (because trying to be reasonable or neutral is met with toxicity or just complete silence), "It doesn't matter to me" or, "I think it is still awesome despite it's flaws". I prefer to draw my own conclusions before agreeing or dis agreeing with someone.
@@dustingonzalez8080 I have only played Vesperia and Arise to be fair, and from those two, that's the feeling I got Vesperia similarly dropped the ball HARD in the third arc, but both games were still more than worth it
No matter what I cannot for the life of me NOT recommend Bravely Default. But yes, I believe the process to get to the true ending could be shortened despite having side stories that expand upon some of the previously fought bosses and give them some much needed background and personalities and I always found those interesting and worth exploring. But still, I’ll go ahead and recommend Bravely Default 2 which has none of the padding and is fantastic and you should play it and it’s even on PC if you don’t own a Switch.
Tales of arise's ending is quite emotinal for me and I had rewatched it in youtube for a week. That ending is like the punch straight to the face of people who look forward to some bad ending or sad ending like some previous games of the franchise and I love it, maybe because I kind of hate those people who always think "the darker, the sadder, the better" and shit on almost everything popular because "it is not as dark as my favorite" so that punch makes me feel so satisfy :))
Genshin is that one game that I only return to once they have added new story contents. The open world aspect is only good if you're someone with a lot of time, otherwise it's very tiring and time-consuming (especially collecting materials that are only found in the wild).
I was going to ask why your thumbnail used Magnolia as to represent your problems with Bravely Default instead of someone like Agnes or Airy, but then you called her a 'sexy French alien', and I was all 'same'.
as a genshin day 1 player, the mindset that get me through isnt " im willing to pay to get what i want, please give me the char i want", its "yeah, this is pretty good for a f2p game , i can drop 5$ for this month." there are also times i just dropped genshin for 6 months, let my resin overflow, completing spiral abyss with characters not fully built and artifact with shit substats. if it burns me out, i leave it. if the content i find its fun, i come back to it.
Yeah Xenogears needs a remaster, but not just a simple remaster, but like add and restored lost contents/director's cut the game remaster, and some modern rpg optional features. But I doubt it ever gonna happen.
I played Breath of Fire for the first time recently! It was... very simplistic, I thought. Walking slowly is one thing, but the combat felt as if virtually every enemy fought the same way. By the end of the game, my foolproof strategy was "Two members attack, Nina heals, fourth member uses Acorns to keep Nina's AP up." Rinse and repeat. There wasn't even strategy involved in gear setup, because almost none of the items have descriptions about their special effects. And I didn't know about fishing in wells with Rod5, so I missed every dragon transformation past the first three until after I beat the fake final boss.
Disc 2 is like barely 15% of the game, not half. Disc 1 is a legit 60 hours and some of the best scenes you'll ever see in any game. It's not half/half.
About Bravely second. While it did greatly ease BD's greatest issue, it did not completely remove it and had a far worse "twist". This is however not why I found this game painfull all the way through (and not just boring for about half of the game). No, it's because I'm French and Team Asano sucks when it comes to translations. When you get a new job, a small guide is mandatory to read. But they used different names for the classes and skills than what you could equip/use. I cannot stress enough how painfull that was. PS: There was a similar thing in Triangle Strategy where upgrade's description could do stuff like using an (existing) skill's name instead of the correct one or talk about heal instead of damage. Same with Octopath Traveler 2 where the ENGLISH version states that a skill remove the target's buffs where it remove the user's.
Tales of Arise has possibly the strongest opening I've ever seen to an RPG. Ever. It's amazing. Then.... They start to pad it. Like insanely pad it. I barely felt like finishing the game. Shit felt like busy work halfway through.
I’ve played through Bravely Default three whole times, and every time I think, “I’m gonna get the true ending this time!” And then I look up how to do that and immediately bail.
Surprised you didn't mention the Trails (Kiseki) series (if you haven't I recommend it. That said, excellent video! Enjoyed the pacing, the arguments and the comedy wasn't cringe. Nice work, dude.
@@slobertooth1358 it's a saga of games separated into arcs. I wouldn't call it a second half that shits the game, but most games have the sauciest cliffhanger ending that leaves you with blue balls and makes you buy the sequel so you can know what happens next.
@@NotAFederalAgent-ot really? The games aren’t individual games like other Jrpgs, which is why the series is different because they are continuous in their stories. Even the worst arc (Cold Steel) actually has solid final acts than most Jrpgs. The most common thing I can say is that Falcom loves to make their final dungeons overly long, but that’s it.
@@slobertooth1358 The only thing that may apply for this list is that the game is split into multiple arcs (usually the name will change based off the Arc...for example there's the Trails in the Sky games (1 thru 3), The Trails of Cold Steel games (1 thru 4), and then the Crossbell games called Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure (the only ones not named the same name but part of the same arc that's called the Crossbell Arc), and while not released in the west yet the Kuro games (given the name Trails through Daybreak which will released sometime this summer). All of these games occur in the same world within about a 5 t 10 year time span so you see plot points form previous games mentioned and characters (including playable an nonplayable) come back in later games as such to get the best understanding of the series you would need to play all the games which there are 10 localized (soon 11 with Daybreak, the 10th is called Trails into Reverie and is a game that ties up the Cold Steel/Crossbell games plotlines as the 2 arcs occur side by side early on (Zero and Azure occur at the same time as Cold Steel 1 and 2 and the plots of both arcs tie together for Cold Steel 3 and 4 so it's recommended you play those 4 no matter what before Cold Steel 3 and 4)) so the biggest issue for new players is how much catchup they'd have to do with playing 10 (soon 11) games before the newest entry to get total understanding of the series plot...or watch youtube cutscene only playthroughs I guess (may miss some stuff here or there that's optional though). The other issue is that every first game of an arc (Sky 1, Zero, CS3, Kuro 1/Daybreak 1) is generally setup for the 2nd game (or later) events so most people view the first games of each arc as a bit more bland compared to the 2nd (or later) games. However said setup is necessary and generally are examples of good writing in the games industry...granted for people that want to jump right into the climax it's torture I guess as they'll need to go 1 game before they hit the real meat of the arc (granted the ending chapters of each first game is generally good and has it's own climatic ending going on too but usually it's not involved with the series overall villain group but more so a different villain/plotline unique to that first game with the main villain group setting things up in the background while the main cast is focused on the other villain relevant to the first game of an arc). But overall the 2nd half of all games (even the first games in the arc) are generally the best parts of each game so it's an exception the the '2nd half shits the bed' rule that seems to be common in the game industry...whether or not you're willing to go through all the games though is the biggest issue...I highly recommend NOT playing every single one back to back though otherwise you will burn out fast and may get turned off from the series due to burnout rather than you feeling it's good or bad...would recommend an action rpg/non rpg game in between games/arcs (you may be able to do 2 in a row without burnout but I'd advise against 3 in a row...i did 4 in a row (Sky 3, Zero, Azure, and Zero) and wasn't that into CS4 when it came out due to burnout from doing all of them and I had about 9 months between CS3 and 4 lol). If you've played Ys games such as Ys 8 and 9 or Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ (same developer, Falcom) the way they handle characters and storytelling and side quests is very similar though without the overall story being told in a 2 game arc (granted Ys series all focus on the same MC, Adol, however they're each independent journeys that have yet to have any real influence on th other games' journeys) and the combat system being action based rather than turn based. If you haven't you could always try Ys 8, 9, or Tokyo Xanadu (though TX doesn't have dub and the translation is a bit iffy at times) to see if you feel like you'd like Falcom's style of storytelling.
For someone who wasn't even alive when BOF1 came out, thats some really accurate take on it. It was so painfully obvious even though it was a good game, it was SO far behind where JRPGs had come at that point. It felt like a small ass game, and it actually WAS a small ass game. The second one was like 4 times bigger I think size wise alone. And it SHOWED. But I still remember being a near teen and just counting the days till the English release of BOF1 came. I looked forward to that game a lot, second only to the excrutiating wait for Secret of Mana. Man, thinking about the what, 1.5 year max wait for a game then feeling like an eternity because I was 10-12 years old. Where now if you are waiting for a game for 3 years that would be considered short.
I really appreciated your views. I haven't finished these games, but will someday, and at least I can gird myself for what's coming! 😊 Enjoyed your opinions.
I am a huge fan of the Bravely Default series and I GET why Bravely Default's optional (yes it is optional since you can beat the game during Chapter 5) 2nd half is bad. Thematically it makes sense because its more of a "What WOULD happen if we let this continue". Its a case of a curiosity killed the cat kind of scenario, and lets you choose if the characters want to continue down that road or not. I wouldn't really call it making the characters stupid (especially after what they have went through at that point) but more they are following their own path. The thing I hate about it the MOST (outside of the recycled bosses and areas) is that this is rewarded with the best outcome. I get it to a degree because you are solving the route of the problem but how are the characters supposed to know this? The normal ending prevents it from happening but it COULD in theory happen again cause the root of the problem wasn't solved. Where in the "Good" ending you make things worse so you can get to the root of the problem somehow. There is A LOT of cool ideas here but its done in such a weird ass recycled way that it can make it hard to recommend. I still LOVE Default 1, but there's a ton of flaws in it. Bravely Second FIXES a lot of those flaws (outside of the OST being worse) but then people didn't like that IT reuses assets, which is ironic to me. Cause Second reuses assets from Default 1 but its never to the point where you have to replay them as much as Default 1 did. Anyways Bravely Default is still good but MAN that 2nd half is a mixed bag of SOMETHING alright.
I wonder why jrpg players always have low standards. If they boot up a game and it simply loads and has usual jrpg functions (exp system, basic turn-based battle system) it's already a 5/10 game. Give that decent artstyle and characters that move their mouths when the voice actor speaks and its already a 7/10 game. Music that sounds okay but everyone praises it like it's masterpiece soundtrack and u have an 8/10 game already. And I'm not talking about the really good jrpgs just the bad or low-budget ones that still get praised like they are that awesome. I rarely find a jrpg that people generally consider bad for some reason. While if you look at other genres like horror, people are not afraid to call out bad games. In jrpgs it's kinda rare. So is almost every jrpg a good game, or does the majority of jrpg players have low standards and just want a basic jrpg?
I think you are overgeneralizing quite a bit. There has always been discourse around certain JRPGs. You will find that many on this very list have their list of hard-core fans or haters. It also deals with the fact that JRPGs come in many different forms and many different flavors and usually has a story or style to fit at least someone's taste. Whether it be a game with turn based combat or action based combat. Be it a dark story, light hearted story, super complex and deep story or a basic and simplistic It has nothing to do with low standards as JRPG fans still expect a complete and quality game with an at least decent story or really good mechanics. There are still JRPGs which are very much so disliked (Final Fantasy 13, Tales of Zesteria, Fire Emblem Engage are the first to come to mind) or they have a bunch of differing opinions (the games on this very list are prime examples of that). No one is afraid of criticizing a JRPG if it's just genuinely objectively awful. Or if they find something they personally don't care for and you wouldn't have to look hard to find these criticisms from JRPG fans. Even if it's a game they adore, they will point out criticisms for said game. Even low budget and simple RPGs can be good games just like they can also be hot garbage. What matters is how well it uses that low budget to make a quality game or experience.
xenogears was the management of squares fault. they forced the developers and creators to rush it, it was made in less than a year and the final product wasnt what the creator envisioned originally.
I'm 600+ hours in Genshin Impact at AR57. Haven't spent any money but I do have characters strong enough to beat the abyss (not with all stars tho). While I did have fun it does take an awful amount of time to get where I am. Problem is the overworld is too easy now I hope they'll add a harder difficulty setting soon (I still have trouble with some of the bosses though).
Xenogears is the GOAT, and Disc 2 artistically strengthens the game because it's home stretch becomes compromised by the very forces of capitalism and religion it critiques. You can basically feel Western Civilization trying to stop you from playing it as you finish. Art imitates life.
Ohhhhh man, I agree wholeheartedly with how terrible monetization feels in Gacha games! I didn’t spend more than two hours playing Genshin Impac, but really tried to get into Honkai Star Rail. However, I just couldn’t do it anymore, every single box I broke and quest I completed gave me a tiny amount of the same in-game currency that I would need to buy by the bucket load if I wanted to really get good 5-Star characters. That grind itself, being tied to gambling-like triggers to make me spend money as irresponsibly as possible, makes me cringe every time I receive an in-game reward that is woefully insufficient on its own. I would’ve gladly paid $70 to get the e full game, even with Gacha elements, but only if those in-game currencies could only be acquired in-game, in sufficient amounts. But yes, I feel dirty and discontent whenever I play a game that’s clearly collecting data to tailor its incentives according to the worst psychological triggers they could find to abuse their dedicated player-base into making spur of the moment financial decisions based on cues in-game cues that illicit negative subjective responses. I cannot enjoy these Gacha games at all, no matter how much I try to stick it out. I want all Gacha to die out of existence; which is quite unlikely unless the Federal Trade Commission decides to treat those companies as illegal and unsanctioned online gambling platforms.
Stumbling with this video was funny bc I grew playing JRPGs and I love them; and while I'm aware why old-school ones might not be appealing to modern audiences, in recent days I have genuinely missed that feeling of having to grind and walk over and over againd trhought those long and cruel last dungeons these games used to have.
BD's looping arc didn't bother me at the time. I can understand why people would hate constantly refighting the crystal guardians, but I saw it as a great opportunity to level grind in the remixed boss fights. Most of my hate goes to BD2. The first half felt really good, but the second half didn't build on it at all. Questions like the main character's backstory and the Night's Nexus are never elaborated on. The game even tried doing a fourth wall break with one of its mechanics, but it didn't impact the story in any way and just left more questions. It could be reserving those answers for a sequel, but I had no interest by then.
While the back end of Bravely Default can be repetitive, being able to turn off random encounters helped cut down time immensely. And while the class balancing was nonexistant, breaking the combat balance over your knee was satisfying for me (Dark Knight 3xRage go brrrr)
Hasten World+all Valkyrie Super Jump was how I got through the last part. I tried to be beat the final boss with an actual strategy but when he killed me on phase 4/6 I said fuck it back to Valkyries
The thing about games like Genshin Impact and the "you don't NEED X to beat the game" argument that gets regurgitated by every brainwashed hoyo fan is that they are just completely offbase with the real issue here. It's not about what you NEED, it's about what you WANT. A lot of great games out there fully allow you to beat them without engaging in the many systems and options they offer you. You beat persona 5 using only Arsene, you can beat DMC with Dante only using Royal Guard, you can beat RE games using only a knife, you don't NEED a lot of the extra options thes games offer you, that's why they are great games, because they shower the players with tons of options that the player can easily choose if they WANT. That's where Genshin fails and why the "you don't NEED" argument is just used by brainlets. You don't NEED any of the 5* characters, you don't NEED c6 on anything, you get these things because you WANT them, you WANT to dash over the water as Ayaka, you WANT to soar the skies as wanderer, you WANT to run around blazing fast with yelan, you WANT to blast mobs with Neuvillette's kamehameha, you WANT to gawk at Eula's and Yae Miko's thighs, you WANT your favorite waifu all decked out at max potential with C6 and R5 BiS weapon. And by virtue of being a predatory gacha game, genshin heavily restricts it's players on a lot of their wants, and the more things the player wants, the least likely they'll be able to get them for "free", and for the game to be "free" it has to prey on the wants of a group of select players with no restraint or discipline and dumb enough to spend absurd amounts on a game plagued with so many flaws that would easily be bombarded by players and critics were it to release on it's current state at 60$.
Throwing another in: DQ11. Amazing first 2 acts, but act 3 retconning major character development and then forcing you to basically retread the entire map but now it's much harder, sometimes unfairly so, it leaves you on a sour note.
I still don't know how I feel about act 3 retconning all the character development of act 2, even if it did stop the bad guy's plans much sooner, avert catastrophe, and provide payoff for a few red herrings setup early in the plot.
I would disagree. Because the game solves many plot points that was left out from previous acts. Like Calasmos, the Watchers, Veronica's growth, Gyspy lady, etc. The first 2 acts feels kinda incomplete and gives us all the answer in Act 3. Yeah. It does seems kinda sad seeing side characters getting erased. But it's for the better way of keeping the world not in an destruction and it was lead to the chronically of the DQ universe. I can see why some might be disappointed if you only cared about the character development. It is pretty diversive. But it still turns out better at the end and it doesn't ruined the game completely. Also the difficulty in Act 3 isn't that hard. Just critical hit the Metal Slime like creatures early on, have the right movesets, equipment & abilities for each and it won't be that hard.
RIP Xenogears disk 2. I played it when it a few years after it came out when I was in High School. Loved it so much but even now I wish we could have a complete version of the game.
Tales of Arise, Xenogears, and Bravely Default are still good games. Do they fumble? Well, yeah, but no game is perfect. Except for Dadish, but that is more of a life decision than anything. Though it's fun taking a look at videos like these, which discuss some great game's sloppier parts.
Personally Genshin is just a clusterfuck that really, REALLY tries to be interesting with it's story by imitating the writing styles of many really famous jrpgs and Media, but just...isn't very good at it.
Xenoblade and Tales of Arise...I like this guy. Alphen is the best male protagonist I have ever seen. Relatable ... not broken op but quirky and intelligent.
Yeah Bravely Default was more of a Job Build Simulator/Puzzle game for bosses after a point. I mean my favorite builds were the "SamuraiPirateMonk" Barehanded for max attack, Free Lunch for 0MP cost and Amped Strike for 4X damage per hit... The other was the "Dark Knight Monk" max health Phoenix Flight and Minus Strike. These 2 builds were so fun and basic. The dark knight build also paired up for a specific fight against the salve maker and black mage where they lower your fire resistance and then oneshot you with fire spells. I just used 4 fire ice shields and Dark Knight Monked the salve maker before he could hit me... Then utalised the immunity to fire to just slowly minus strike the rest of the fight.
i cant tell if your video editing style is the best layout ive ever seen or the worst because you got me good with the title and game selection but your video is very well written and was able to concisely convey your problems with these games while also explaining what you love about them and for that i tip my hat off to you sir. p.s. I watched this with a friend and we had to remind each other to let you cook and not jump to conclusions lol
keep up the great work! got this video recommended to me and i was positively surprised. to me it feels like your channel could blow up any minute now. looking forward to your next videos!
I adore bravely default. Probably my favorite rpg of all time, and one of my favorite games full stop. Still fully agree that it fumbled around for the end. But the way you said "strangely i still recommend" is because of that "fumble". Its not good game design but it is good narrative. Its also not something most games before or since would even be willing to risk. Its similar to how i feel about classic megaman. Dogshit level design half the time, but very memorable and somehow fun. To chance sounding overdramatic, they just dont make games like that anymore.
I been playing genshin since release on console, and playing seriously since back when keqing got a banner. I never bought a character or whaled on that stuff and I got almost all the characters and a few 5 star weapons so you don’t have to put in big money. The welkin moon however, has become a monthly subscription for me. And I constantly reconvince myself that it’s worth 5$ every month
I'm glad to see Bravely Second get some acknowledgement. It feels weird to me that it gets ignored and panned by just about EVERYONE. The only video I could find talking about Bravely Second was a guy explaining how the game not only under performed in Japan but also some bad decisions made by Square Enix that locked off stuff that was revised for the world wide release. As well as some terrible good endings being locked to choosing the same job you selected twice in a row preventing players from accessing all jobs and the good endings. It's crazy too considering ProJared didn't even comment on Bravely Second considering just how big of a fan he was with the original. I never got to play Bravely Default since I simply didn't have it anywhere nearby locally to buy it physically. Nowadays it can thankfully be bought somewhat reasonably but with the e-Shop down, I am not too sure what additional updates are gone. I wouldn't mind revisiting Bravely Second but... I dread the amount of time it will take to understand the story again since THERE WAS some exclusive story content with its demo that you can't get anymore. Thankfully HCBailey is doing an LP for the series and has covered the demo before it the shop's shut down. I wasn't expecting much from this video but figured I'd give it a watch as my computer was updating, and after watching it I immediately knew I should at least leave a comment to say it was a pretty good video. It covered aspects to RPGs that genuinely get overlooked or underdiscussed because of how sore of an experience it can be for players. To that I thank you, also, Magnolia is best girl and the immediate reason I bought the game back in the day. I feel bad never finishing it but perhaps I can feel satisfaction from watching the cutscenes online.
Lol the second half of BD was fantastic. It was a blast fighting more difficult versions of each boss, seeing how they would switch up their tactics or be grouped together, or rethinking your approach with your new jobs. The boss rush in the final world is literally impossible unless you learn to completely break the game, and that shit is fire.
"You can beat Genshin with starter characters, but that's not a fun Genshin" PREACH KING I AM SO SICK OF PEOPLE SAYING YOU CAN BEAT THE GAME WITH FREE CHARACTERS! Free characters don't have quick exploration like Wanderer or Yelan, free characters can't kill waves of enemies in 3 seconds, free characters have lackluster kits and are NOT fast enough when exploring, fighting AND DOING PUZZLES. If I had to play this game without Wanderer or Yelan I'd uninstall this godforsaken game immediately.
Playing with the free characters alone is like a built in challenge run
@@Super_Hambone eh ? If you invest even a bit of time in artifact, these characters get reaaaaaaalllly good.
@@regalseagull Yeah but that would require farming artifacts. And if you're grinding the harder bosses with just the starter characters without a build already for them then you're asking to get hurt.
The game is boring as is too
Free characters are not us bad as you may think .
They are very serviceable and some have actually gotten better through the progression of the game .
Also the game sometimes would give free four stars on events and you really don't need to pull a 5star to beat the game comfortably.
BD has traumatized me so much that I have reflex anger and distrust towards fairies. So as a Genshin player, Paimon is in the middle ground as my best friend while simultaneously awaiting the day she stabs me in the back.
Can't wait until the final update when they reveal Paimon was the main villain the whole time
Cooking ( with ) Paimon when
I mute the game because of paimon
Isn’t paimon literally the name of a demon?
For real, any fairy in a game is suspicious now and when I DM in tabletop RPGs and introduce fairies, I sure know what to do.
As a person who just finished Tales of arise yesterday I can say Rinwell never left one of the main Slots of the party and Do was sadly never used 😢
Rinwell busts that last dungeon in half
Blah blah blah NUKE
same for me but for slighty different reasons
Well considering there's only 6 playable characters, there's only 2 characters at any given time not participating in battle, but I used everyone almost equally, half the skills in the game can't even be unlocked without actually using the characters, and I feel Bandai Namco did such a great job with each character I figured it would be a sin to not use all of them, especially considering how few characters there are, what annoys me are the ppl who only play with alphen just because he's the main protagonist, it's kind of a silly reason to ignore the majority of content over such a weird mindset, why limit yourself and handicap yourself like that, your just making the game more repetitive than it actually is
Dohalim is underrated
So many enemies in the final part are literally weak against his attack types
Finally I found another Bravely Second believer, don't get me wrong I liked Default but Second improves and fixes what made the former repetitive and let's not even start with the new jobs, Exorcist, Wizzard, Guardian and Catmancer, it was so much fun to experiment and make strategies with these.
Catmancer has gotta be the greatest job concept in Square Enix history
@@Super_HamboneCatmancer and Blue Mage classes in general have always been goated whenever they show up in squeenix games
Still can't believe they did them dirty like that in FFXIV.
@@tw0bold they are great in xiv wdym
@@wulf2863 They're not a real class
Unironically one of the best modern JRPG's.
9:45 "The amount of frustration i felt when i realized just how padded out Bravely Default was is comparable to... Pfff, idk, chemical castration maybe? Painful and depressing, no doubt, but in a very strange way i think everyone should try it at least once"
Wait, what? 💀
For every Xenogears fan, I recommend the Anime called Back Arrow. A total tribute to the game in anime form
I'd also recommend these anime that also greatly inspired Xenogears...
-Armored Trooper VOTOMS
-Five Star Stories
-Detonator Orgun
-Panzer World Galient
-Aura Battler Dunbine
-Tekkaman Blade
@@mattmaddogwheaton4724 Dunbine is great 👌🏻
@@LeooSaGoh Dunbine STARTS GREAT, but oh , Ohh man, it gets bad after a while, they forget their rules, Armors just pop up everywhere... and when they go back to the real world on the third act? You just want it to end Already... because is So bad, is a completely Different Anime...and in Classic Tomino Fashion he just wipes everybody out... LOL. I can understand why...
Others you mentioned are great, but I Think Xenogears is like a General homage to SR and RR mecha Genre, from Mazinger , Macross, Yusha Series, and others Like you said Votooms, Orgun , MS Stardust Memories, and many more...
@@migovas1483 I recommend Back Arrow as a MODERN tribute to Xenogears.
Those above are good prototipes. I mention Dunbine because of Tomino-san(UC Gundam, Ideon, Dunbine) who also inpired Hideaki Anno(Evangelion). Thanks to all those great writers we got the best JRPG-Visual Novel: Xenogears.
Back arrow never heard about it. But as I know evangelion is the closest to xenogear
Tales of Arise was great. One of my favorite games that I never finished. The combat became such a chore by the second half of the game that I just couldn’t do it anymore.
Bro same. The bosses are so overly spongy it’s insane
bruh the game was soo perfect and the later half just threw everything away, i didnt even bother clearing the final dungeon. also story went to sht as there's too much talking going on on later half.
Combat is the best part of tales of arise, it was by far the best rpg of 2021
Did you actually use all the characters?, just making sure your not one of those weird ppl who only play with alphen just because he's the main protagonist, extremely silly reason to handicap yourself and ignore the majority of content, I would give up to if I could only play as 1 of 6 characters, the point of tales games is mastering each character and building them from the ground up with equipment and skills
Nah I really do love that game and I don’t mind sponges bosses but when every single enemy was a mini boss towards the end I said nah…this ain’t it.
Wow! Great ending summary as well. My only criticism - being born after the year 2000 and making us 90s kids feel old.
Sorry man, i meant to be born a lot earlier😮💨
Imagine how 80s kids like me feel!
@@IIIEGOIII I'm with you bud. My back hurts.
@@IIIEGOIII I was going to say, I am old enough to be Hambone's mother!! I turned 22 that year!
90s kids be normal challenge
I agree completely on BD's second half, still my favorite game of all time that I've played from start to finish about 5 times and from 0 to 100% twice. The story drags, but at least most of the repeat dialogues are skippable and it's fun to find the subtle differences between the worlds, plus it gave a chance to test new and broken job combinations for the Endgame Nemesi, Ba'al and Adventurer. Still I think the game would've been leagues better if Airy's counter started at 3 at most and not at 5, sparing us two loops that could've been implemented into the others and the twist with both endings would've been the same. Bravely Second and Bravely Default 2 easily did the 4th wall breaking ways to continue the game better, but BD's characters are what puts it over the sequel and next gameb❤️
I agree, if the game went for maybe 2 or 3 cycles then i probably wouldn't have put it on this list. In CONCEPT the twist is just so cool.
I agree too, I love BD but that loop was just a pain. But honestly I can look past it because the game is still fun regardless
Well BD's characters are fine but I really enjoyed the party chemistry of Second much more all the ball busting and gravy included XD
I preferred Bravely Second: End Layer. The time loops in BD really weren't that bad. People complain about a few repetitive bosses. Try playing a game like WoW where you grind everything hundreds of times.
as much that I love bravely second for the gameplay being so much better
I have to agree that the story in Bravely default is better on the end game plot twist alone, too bad that it ends up ruining the gameplay as a result.
Bravely second's gameplay is much nicer but I found that the story was kind of a confusing mess , its like they kept introducing lots of plot points that would get nowhere and didnt know what to do, but the gameplay makes up for it since it much more fun than the other two games.
Bravely default 2 ended up being middle ground to me, the story is better than Second but its a bit generic compared to Default, and the gameplay I found to be worse because it lacked lots of the quality of life improvements from the other two games.
"I play a lot of RPGs, let me tell you it has greatly impacted my view on women."
That + the following sentence are an S tier joke, well done
Most JRPG's could only dream of having a story as good as Xenogears
What about ff 7 and ff 7 remake, is that not good?
@@Black_merchant IMO FF7's story was great but it was not as deep as Xenogears...and its only 1 of 6 parts of a bigger universe. You can check Xenogears Perfect Works for the bigger story.
@@Black_merchant Not the remake.
Ironically the "unfinished" ending was tacked on by SE.
It's not that hard to be better than xenogears story, ff7 original for example manage to do that just by having a better focus in term of ambition and what he want to achieve while xenogears is all over the place and shoot in his foot with underdevelopped plot point, plot conveniences, underdevelopped cast of characters, and obviously poorly delivered narrative in the second disk who just ruin the flow of pacing, entirely skip extremely important events in 4 lines etc... shit like that
Yeah i'm kinda pissed off after enjoying the first disk and then the game throw this shitty disk and just ruin what i've been invested for more than 50 hours and straight up shit on a lot of good things from the first disk too if that was not enough
when you said "my gambling addiction"... i felt that.
To be fair, Genshin would not have so much content or a hardcore 6-week update schedule with only an upfront cost, it's a give and take, the greedy ass gacha allowed the company to reinvest in the game with a decade long update planning. Its been 3 years, Genshin is still popular not because it's a quality game - after all ppl lose interest in most quality games just weeks after release, ppl are still playing because it gets regular updates.
TONY STARK HOLY CRAP PLEASE GIVE ME MONEY
Stark Industries funding Hoyoverse confirmed
I completed the story so far, have many characters, and still going to keep playing when they add more story. I never payed for anything, seems like a quality game to me.
Plenty of games get updates and aren't even half as popular as genshin
@@dez87 indeed. Could it be that genshin impact is actually a good game? 🤣Lol some people like the ones in these comments just like to complain. This poster was incorrect
A game that I feel this way about is Octopath Traveler (The first one at least, I haven't played the second). At first, I thought that it was really fun, getting all of the characters was fun, but I felt like after that, it dropped the ball hard, because I always felt like I had to grind after finishing each chapter for my batch of characters. Then, once I completed everyone's story, my main team were each around level 50 or so, with the other 4 being around 45, only to find out that the recommended level for the final story dungeon was LEVEL 65! I ended up grinding for so long until everyone was around that level, but at that point, the grinding had just left me feeling so soured on the game that I just did not want to finish it, and so I just ended up looking the true ending up on TH-cam.
I feel you on this one! Octopath is a beautiful game with a great combat system but good lord... it drains a man.
I have good news for you, then. Octopath 2 deals with it's post game content MUCH better. Endgame content is recommended level 51, which you'll very easily get to by the time you hit that point, with maybe a couple over leveled party members.
Octopath 2 is much better in that regards but I wish they would just use the chained echoes, all characters level up simultaneously, can change characters before starting so you have the optimal ones to beat the shield, and all characters are always healed after battle
Glad I'm not the only one. I hated that each time I'd switch to a character to do their story line I'd have to start grinding, or I run through a character's story with a lower leveled character. I never finished it because I got bored of grinding.
My problem is that the WHOLE GAME is just boring as sin.
The dialogue is dull dull dull.. it's not building to anything exciting, it's just these small unimportant stories randomly happening around.
EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER is just "go to town. learn problem is right next to town. dungeon next to town.". Like... is that even a GAME? There's nothing to do, nothing to search for, nothing except following the linear story that barely matters.
I like the combat system.
I finished the story for 2-3 characters, and I haven't been able to make myself pick it up again, it's just boring.
They definitely have something there, and maybe the sequel fixed it, I don't know, but I'm playing lots of other stuff before trying again.
Oh my god, another unironic Bravely Second fan!
BS was the game that actually got me into JRPGs after years of Pokémon as a kid. It holds up so well it’s insane
It's a really charming game. Sexy alien.
I like BS a lot, but I think I'll always prefer Default
Final Fantast 15's second half (as long as you never time travel, what a cop out just adjust) is by far my favorite part of the game perhaps one of my favorite parts of any game. the way the game only ever gets more restrictive as noctis' fate is revealed and it turns out there was no other road to go down but this one i think is a pretty great marriage of story and gameplay. The only agency Noctis ever has in his life is that short road trip with his friends and i feel like that's why the fugitive prince is going around doing the most inane and meaningless tasks for literally anyone who asks because its either that of face his own predetermined fate. First he goes by car, he can chose where to go what to do everyday it's complete freedom especially in the americana inspired world. Next he travels by boat, less distractions than on the road and noctis isn't behind the wheel but still there's that sense that Noctis is still in control. Finally they are put on a rail, once they get on that train control is entirely relinquished and Noctis is delivered to his fate with no choice. once at the end of the track the car is symbolically destroyed and now Noctis is trapped in the tightest corridors with no option but to keep moving forward until the finale.
About the Genshin take, I partially agree, but there are some disagreements:
I don't think the game is a a gem, starting point is quite low, but, I'd argue the game just gets better with each update, the problem is that the content downtimes are so... weak, that is borderline unplayable and gives this impression of the game getting worse... on top of how you feel shitty to quit because the story is not even done yet.
As for the character take, is more nuanced:
TLDR: The game does a terrible job with balancing character strength, would still have this problem even if it wasn't a gacha.
Rarities are misleading, is usually to show accessibility rather than actual quality (ehem Dehya), you usually need to check external sources because you might have a great unit benched, which is kind of shitty.
* 5 stars are a placebo effect *, they only feel strong early on, but gear has so much weight that rarity stops mattering, Even if you whale you still have to gear your units.
For comparison, Enchanted Netherite vs no gear in Minecraft is a smaller difference than built vs unbuilt Genshin units.
(I don't consider constellations nor having premium weapons "building" since that is entirely behind a paywall//separate from your building process)
Hambone, did you ever try the Persona 2 duology? Recommended if you still have that level of tolerance for old JRPGS 😅
They're pretty deep in my backlog, but definitely on my radar
play the PSP versions, the PS1 versions have crap gameplay
What really killed me with Bravely Defualt was the damage cap😵... and then I forgot the boss fighting patterns....
Labyrinth of Refrain and its sequel Labyrinth of Galleria get loads of praise as hidden gems. However, one may notice that most of those reviews are first impressions. The full games have plenty of unique and shared flaws that makes the story absolutely carry the gameplay.
For common annoyances, there's the karma meter. Refrain's central theme was that evil was hard to explain and the people who believe themselves to be incapable of doing wrong to be the most monstrous of all, so they made a completely arbitrary karma meter that could only decrease by scapegoating to further emphasize the point. Unfortunately, they still made it increase the chances of you getting hit by critical hits and Gore Hits even in the sequel that *did not* tackle this theme. Speaking of which, Gore Hits are critical hits on steroids that reduce your Max HP, make it so that the equipment associated with that body part does nothing and can only be reversed at your base (don't trust Jitter Bug's item description, "repairing a puppet" does not substitute for Puppet Repair). On top of that, these games made the worst thing they could do to make players care about item farming: making it mandatory. Not for the true ending, for the *normal ending* and beyond.
For things exclusive to Refrain, there's the "Hide incident" where interacting with a marker explicitly labeled "Hide" railroads you into a Black Page holder and doesn't let you run away. Speaking of which, all Black Page holders must be defeated for accessing the final dungeon and by extension the true ending. Their battles range from ok to painful.
Galleria's early dungeons become more forgettable because they're all ancient ruins. Then the second half adds randomly generated dungeons that don't have too much variety between seeds. To add insult to injury, the real final dungeon takes place in one of these only with constant penalties like decreasing your stats by 95% and healing by 90% as if being 3651 floors long wasn't enough.
After hating on it and then getting into Genshin, it definitely has a lot to offer a patient player that doesn't want to part with their money and I definitely stress "patient". The formula of the game is that you're constantly timegated for essential resources so its a sprint rather than a marathon but eventually your account will start looking good (with some research into best use of those timegated resources and care - investing in the right units and weapons), you will eventually get the standout 4 stars, you will end up with some of the games best 5 stars (pull wisely), you will inevitably get the right weapons and you will be able to consistently clear the hardest content the game has to offer without spending a single cent if that's what your intention is. If you can afford it though the Welkin Pass makes the game a lot easier by giving you passive wishing currency every day.
Isn't Genshin a Chinese game ? Also, really good video quality (in writing I mean)
As a "big fan of all "Xeno" franchises since 2004, I must say, although Monolithsoft wasn't able to realise their vision for the "Xenosaga" series, they still managed to create an amazing series that all JRPG fans should at least try. It really pains me to see it being victim of a massive middle-child syndrome. It's overall ignored by "Xenoblade" fans and looked down upon by "Xenogears" fans, and it really doesn't deserve either. Heck, I'd go as far as to say that "Xenosaga" is better than its siblings in some aspects, specially characters (well, at least up until "Xenoblade 2", I haven't played "Xenoblade 3" yet).
Yeah, I know a big reason for this is the fact that the games are very difficult to come by nowadays, but honestly, even with that in mind, I think more could be done to bring "Xenosaga" back to gaming community's awareness.
The xenosaga games are titles i want to get my hands on soon. Its a crime i havent played them yet.
Xenosaga is absolutely leagues ahead of Xenoblade, though X is a good outing there. If Gears had been finished I think it would have at least competed with Saga 1 or 3 but as it stands that second 'half' just kills it.
@@palladiamorsdeus gears got scuffed in disc 2 yeah but I'm pretty sure majority of people who have delved into the whole xeno series count gears as the greatest of them all when it comes to story and themes
@@palladiamorsdeus No.
@@potatofarmergyro1720 I certainly do.
4:37 Xenoblade 2 has a version of this problem where in order to get all the Blades they only resource you waste is time, not money, and half the story-guaranteed Blades are busted AF and it boosts replayability but it feels unfair to not be allowed to build the team you want throughout the adventure at your leisure. You have to get lucky or use rare Blade/Driver transfer items to get good setups because yeah, DIFFERENT BLADES HAVE DIFFERENT MOVESETS ON DIFFERENT DRIVERS. This is a luck-based combat balancing factor that just sucks and shouldn’t be there and was fixed in Torna and especially 3, where you can always get all possible combat options onto every party member in more or less the same order no matter the save file.
This wouldnt be a problem if Field Skills wasnt real
I got a false ending to Bravely default by praying too much. Never looked back, that was the right ending.
Yeah that was entertaining. Had no idea it was gonna happen either
That Ending straight up saves the game because you can beat it before it becomes bad.
All the Genshin 4* I could get assed to level and get some artifact sets for suck massive amounts of ass compared to a no constellation Ganyu equipped with literally whatever artifacts I figured would work and a purple bow I had lying around.
Had I not gotten that lucky pull I'd have uninstalled a month earlier than I did.
Yet I still sometimes get the urge to reinstall, like some sort of gambler being compelled by the sunk cost fallacy, if I already have some 5* maybe I'll pull a second Hu Tao and the staff of homa... Right?
The part of Bravely Defualt where you have to fight the crystal bosses over and over is actually my favorite part of the game.
It has the best sub quests in the form of the multi-Asterisk boss fights, that also give you more insight into their characters. And if you don't wanna do that, fighting the crystal bosses in all the loops doesn't take *that* long. Maybe an hour and a half or 2 hours with a good setup by that point, since you can break the game over your knee by then. It's still one of my favorite games.
I disagree with you, but it is really refreshing to see another take on that part of the story and it's really cool seeing the strengths of it highlighted in a positive way. Glad you liked that part!
I agree with this; I understand why people didn’t like this section but it just didn’t bother me. I thought the twist was great and I already loved the bosses so I genuinely didn’t mind fighting them multiple times over.
I mean yes, Xenogears could have been so much more and the second disc completely changes the game's presentation, but I think it still works out. The underlying religious and psychological themes are fantastically integrated into story and offer much more depth than any other story told at that time
"much more depth than any other story told at that time" I know this comment is old but this just comes across as ignorance.
@@mistertagomago7974 What JRPG strories come to your mind that have to offer more than Xenogears?
@@Salciin Wait why does it have to be jrpgs? I wouldve said Planescape Torment, The longest Journey, John Saul's Blackstone Chronicles, Gabriel knight series, and I have no mouth and I must scream.
@@mistertagomago7974 Because I was specifically talking about PS1 Jrpgs in my comment :D
Otherwise I would fully agree with yours. I don't know the games you have listed, but they look like really immersive games with interesting concepts and stories.
@@Salciin Honestly from what I know of it Linda Cubed might fit the bill. It was never released in English though. The playstation port is being fan translated though and the patch should hopefully be out in like 10 days.
And that is the trend when I try to think of older games like that, no English translation.
When I first saw the thumbnail I thought you were gonna call Bravely Second a worse Bravely Default. Not only did you happily prove me wrong but you're also a Magnolia Arch enjoyer. Sub earned.
At some point i need to make a video on those two games because despite my problems with BD, i LOVE bravely second
@@Super_Hambone Bravely 2nd was the original creators taking the criticism towards bravely default seriously. Namely that people liked the game it just had issues and well they did exactly what the sequel was supposed to do fix the issues while still keeping what made the 1st good. And at least embravely default too they didn't make you have to redo sequences when you had To see all the endings.
I like Magnolia for two big reasons
@@vjbd2757 because she's deadly *and* sexy! It's a winning combination!
You will loathe Bravely Second too if you import the very 1st Japanese version of it. It's one of the rare case where it's better outside of Japan with the newer version
If you want an (idea) how different it was, Red Nova Tyrant made a video about that
Honestly, I never had too much of an issue with Bravely Default's second half. The side quest bosses are varied enough to make the repeat story bosses bearable imo (spreading them out makes them way less obnoxious). It also provides a great opportunity to try new builds and learn more about the lore and characters.
Ironically, Bravely Second is the game I gave up on part way through. I really wasn't digging the story, and it reached the point where a minor boss setback was enough to get me to give up.
Still looking forward to trying BD2 eventually.
All bravely series have in common: being too grindy
the part with BS that annoyed me was the end boss phase two broke my strat
3 mages with the ghost condition from Confectioner (can't melee attack but can use magic) and the passive that gives free spell casts if low on hp since the condition counts as low/dead allowing for endless casting. Last party member was a knight with the passive to auto restore to their earlier condition so never had to worry about healing them
the second phase took away the ghost condition even though I entered the final boss with it already on them
The issue is that the sidequest-mixups are the only good part of that second half. And the real fight remixes only start several worlds in.(And by that point, I couldn't be bothered anymore)
TH-cam keeps recommending me so many smaller channels with banger content! nice! Also, you humor is very on point and reminds me of the more irreverent and down-to-earth style of the early 2000s.
Definitely feel like the last half of Bravely could've been cut down a bit. I'm actually surprised getting the true ending doesn't involve going against what they want you to do since that would be the logical thing to do by that point. Still, I can't really hate it since it let's you get more mileage out of the battle system and I do genuinely like seeing the different interactions you get after the first cycle.
Yeah and the sequel Did mitigate it showing that they did take the criticism seriously
@@paulman34340 I never actually did play Bravely Second since i'll admit i'm one of those people that initially passed it up because I didn't find the soundtrack as good lol, but I haven't really touched the series outside of the first one so I really want to give it and 2 a proper crack now.
Second has some pretty fun classes which heightened the alreasy great combat. And sexy alien
@InspireTheLiars 2nd is a good game. And honestly the 2nd game the official 2nd game on the switch I've really been enjoying that. I remember the complaints word that they moved it to more of a atb system And I found the complaints against that kind of ridiculous I can understand because of the weight system. But seriously the game was always basically final Fantasy 5 inspired. Which had that system so yeah it's still good Regardless and of course didn't have the problems the 1st game had namely if they had cut out some of the reduce then yeah I would have not been p***** off about doing s*** again. Or at least fast forward it was annoying having it at the same thing over and over before the characters were like finally realizing something wasn't right. I was thankful when the final dungeon was opened up seriously. I will replay BS And BD2 Any day but I will never do BD1 ever Again that's the reason I 100% it in my 1st run
@@paulman34340 Yeah, I played a bit of 2's demo and I honestly kind of liked some of the new things they've done with the battle system even though it was kind of confusing due to how much they give you to start off with.
0:58 What is the name of that game? Seems interesting.
That would be Fire Emblem Engage!
@@Super_Hambone That was fast response, thanks bro
Does anyone know the song that plays for a bit at 1:21-ish? It sounds real familiar but I can't place it for some reason.
It's a song from SpongeBob lol
That explains it, haven't seen spongebob in ages lol@@Super_Hambone
Didn't mind Xenogears' graphic novel. Lots of spots in teh game had poor pacing, giving you little as far as story goes. I don't think traversing 20 more hours worth of Labyrinths would enrich the game. Xenogears is beloved because of the story.
Haven't played a TON of JRPGs but something I've noticed with Bandai Namco games is that some high-level executive definitely has a hard-on for long and drawn-out final dungeons. But it may be a thing with all JRPGs,, lol.
Its a thing that's carried over from a lot of oldschool JRPGs which would often have extremely long final dungeons. For my pick of absurdly long final dungeon sequences I'd go with Final Fantasy 3. It has you run through 3 dungeons(4 if you count the optional one) back to back with your only chance to save being a roughly 3 step segment of the overworld between dungeons 1 and 2.
I haven't payed a single dime triple crowning Xiangling, Noelle, Kuki and Collei.
Meanwhile I spend 40€ and all my 100+ wishes to get ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for Deyha.
Lesson learned. I won't be spending any money on building characters anymore because appearently I get better shit for free.
On the topics of jrpg's, there's one jrpg that's grossly underated that I highly recommend you (or anybody reading this) play called Scarlet Nexus. That's a game I feel you'd like. One word of advice tho, when you first play the game, pick Yuito's route first. Ik the blue haired serious waifu is tempting, but your just gonna have to trust me when I say the story flows better when you pick Yuito's story first.
HELL YEAH I'VE PLAYED SCARLET NEXUS!! Haven't finished it yet though, really fun game
it's true i did the opposite and it just kinda sucks alot of the intrigue out if you do yuito second
Its free for PS Plus Extra users so thank you for the tip. I was looking forward to it so I'll save the waifu for later then when I play it.
5:52 Genshin Impact should've been an actual upfront cost for you to be able to have the entire game, ihstead of being manipulated.
We're only halfway through the story though.
It cost $100m to develop what came out in 2020, they were nearly broke, have spent over $500m on it since and the game has nearly tripled in size while being at best halfway done. Where do you want Mihoyo to have pulled the billion dollars and five years to finish it from? Eastern devs do gacha because it makes them more, it's just smart business.
They wouldn't earn 10 billion if they did
Xenogears deserves a full remake
A proper Directors Cut with the scrapped/lost material and story ideas. If they still exist anyway
Only if square sells the rights to monolith.
@@disgaealikerasapOG Yeah so they are forced to work on shitty nintendo hardware that can't keep a stable framerate and the game gets locked in console exclusivity for a device that will stop being relevant in the next 5 years and never get ported to other consoles, that'd be incredible
💀💀💀
@@disgaealikerasapOG real shit. Takahashi and Saga should be the only people allowed to touch it along with monolith.
Persona 5 is like this for me, especially on a repeat playthrough in NG+ or Royal. Replaying the starting arc I was hyped and like hell yes this is amazing why did this bother me so much? Then the rest of the game comes like oh right, the rest of it -_-
it just doesn't hold up to mild scrutiny and has god awful pacing (the plot is always "on" so the pulse of the pacing flatlines. Hard)
Honestly, I completely understand. I felt like I was going crazy for having the same opinion. Like, i'm not trying to be an elitist when I say this, but SMT nocturne. Is genuinely the best RPG I have ever played gameplay wise.
Yeah. That's my big issue as well. I wanted to love it as alot of them do. But I just got so bored and just moved along.
So I wanted to give everyone a tip to somewhat ease the monetization of genshin.
As someone who has been playing since 1.0, the best value is the welkins. Its about 5 dollars a month, and lets you get a 5 star every patch, not every banner but every second patch if not more depending on your luck. Seeing how we have lots of reruns now as well, and characters to skip I own most 5 stars with doing welkins only. Treating genshin as a cheap subscription works more for this particular gatcha, not other ones.
YES. Good deal.
Related to your criticism of Genshin, how did you feel about Xenoblade 2's random Blade pulling mechanic?
Since it's not monetised I wasn't too against it. My big issue with the blade pulling was that it allowed for luck to dictate a crucial part of the gameplay and cause some players to have a lot more fun with the blade system than others.
It was a gacha system without all the things that make gachas bearable. Limited inventory space, no protection from dupes or incentives for dupes, no way to collect draws en masse using regular money thus further worsening the awful drop rates on rares, no way to mass pull, the already limited inventory space is further limited by a need to do side quests that don't open up until a decent way into the game, world events requiring rare pulls, said side quests requiring blades with specific skills...I hate the blade system with a passion and overall really dislike Xenoblade 2.
@@palladiamorsdeusXB2 was a game I wanted to like despite almthe design choices for certain characters. I really tried and finished the game after 120 hours.
XB2 showed me what I disdain in modern JRPGs. The entire blade system from the Gacha mechanics, to these stupid environmental blockages, to the UI to simply interact with them. XB2 felt like an insult to my time that I was too stubborn to put down. I spent my money on this game and I wad going to finish it. But all these stupid little design choices that made any kind of grinding into a tedious task. I'm getting frustration flashbacks from all the times I had to play this annoying salvage minigame, watch the animation just to press one button three times at different intervals. All for some blades that I wouldn't use anyways.
@@palladiamorsdeusNah fr. This is why DE is still the best to this day. Call me an annoying fanboy but yeah I could go on a tall tale on my own complaints regarding 2. Never played 3 though but I have heard mixed things about it.
I somehow did not expect you to take the Gacha system angle on Genshin. Just because you need the patience of a saint to get to the good story beats.
Also hell yeah Bravely Second is great :D
Sexy Alien supremacy
What got me with tales of arise is the dialogue. I grew up on jrpgs, a lot of talking isnt the issue. The issue is they spend a tremendous amount of time not actually saying anything despite the huge amount of words that come out of them. Its becoming an issue with jrpgs lately imo. Ffxvi is the first jrpg ive played in awhile that didnt feel like it had circular dialogue to me.
youtube has a reserved spot in my reccomendations that seems to be for smaller channels and im always glad i check them out. great vid man
I just wanna say that you earned my subscription instantly for calling Bravely Second a masterpiece. That game blows Default out of the water in pretty much every way, and I'm saying that as a Bravely fan.
Xenogears and Xenosaga.... I love them, though, despite their flaws
You have more patience for Breath of Fire 1 than I did and I'm a decade older than you. I was 8 when i played it on the GBA and found it archaic in 2001.
Oh it's archaic no doubt, just with an undeniable charm.
I enjoyed it when I played it on 3DS in 2020, at the age of 19.
GBA port had double walking speed + they made it much easier.
what is that music at 0:57?
That's the xenoblade 3 battle theme
While a drop in the quality does not mean it's straight up bad, I would say The Witcher 3's last third, specially the hole island area, felt less polished than the rest of the game, and the main villains ended up being one dimensional and rushed.
Breath of The Wild would be here, but the bosses, dungeons and story are lackluster.
Elden Ring, unlike Bloodborne or DS1, at least has the best bosses of the game in the last third, not to mention two of the best dungeons. Mountaintops is simply eh, thought.
I can't believe Braveley Default was brought up in a video about JRPG's that gradually get worse and no one's pointing out what a shitshow BD2 was.
Seriously though, I wish Genshin is full released game, even though I just playing through first half of the game and never touch it again, from what I experienced it's pretty fun.
I discovered that Genshin Impact was a Gacha game 3 days after playing it.
That’s where it kinda broke the Camel’s back for me because I just found it unfair how I’m dependent on a Lootbox to get the character I want to play like Diluc.
I would be perfectly fine if they want to hide it behind a paywall. But a Gacha is worse.
@@chronenojysk5107 it’s funny because characters like Diluc are the hardest to get because they will never be guaranteed
@@shiroufan5401He's still a lot more easier to get compared to someone like say, Albedo or Eula who rarely get any banner re-runs. I would also add Itto although he's apparently getting a re-run in 4.5
@@shiroufan5401 they were free for the anniversary lol
I hate to hear the Xeno bashing. The end of Gears is awesome in its own way, and honestly my favorite part. The Saga games are fantastic and deserve a remaster.
I feel you on all accounts, I still love Tales of Arise to death but I can understand when someone says it went down hill at full tilt. I won't agree and say I felt the same way, because I definitely didn't (I might have been too hyped and happy with the game to personally notice the faults other people could help but be negatively affected by).
I generally don't have many criticisms with what I experience whether it's video games, anime and manga or cartoons. For every comment I see of "it's all bad and nothing about it is a redeeming quality" and "it's not worth anyone's time and effort, it should never have been made". I typically think to myself (because trying to be reasonable or neutral is met with toxicity or just complete silence), "It doesn't matter to me" or, "I think it is still awesome despite it's flaws". I prefer to draw my own conclusions before agreeing or dis agreeing with someone.
I feel tales of games usually drop the ball in most of their games.
@@dustingonzalez8080 I have only played Vesperia and Arise to be fair, and from those two, that's the feeling I got
Vesperia similarly dropped the ball HARD in the third arc, but both games were still more than worth it
No matter what I cannot for the life of me NOT recommend Bravely Default. But yes, I believe the process to get to the true ending could be shortened despite having side stories that expand upon some of the previously fought bosses and give them some much needed background and personalities and I always found those interesting and worth exploring. But still, I’ll go ahead and recommend Bravely Default 2 which has none of the padding and is fantastic and you should play it and it’s even on PC if you don’t own a Switch.
Tales of arise's ending is quite emotinal for me and I had rewatched it in youtube for a week. That ending is like the punch straight to the face of people who look forward to some bad ending or sad ending like some previous games of the franchise and I love it, maybe because I kind of hate those people who always think "the darker, the sadder, the better" and shit on almost everything popular because "it is not as dark as my favorite" so that punch makes me feel so satisfy :))
Genshin is that one game that I only return to once they have added new story contents. The open world aspect is only good if you're someone with a lot of time, otherwise it's very tiring and time-consuming (especially collecting materials that are only found in the wild).
I was going to ask why your thumbnail used Magnolia as to represent your problems with Bravely Default instead of someone like Agnes or Airy, but then you called her a 'sexy French alien', and I was all 'same'.
HELL YEAH
as a genshin day 1 player, the mindset that get me through isnt " im willing to pay to get what i want, please give me the char i want",
its "yeah, this is pretty good for a f2p game , i can drop 5$ for this month." there are also times i just dropped genshin for 6 months, let my resin overflow, completing spiral abyss with characters not fully built and artifact with shit substats. if it burns me out, i leave it. if the content i find its fun, i come back to it.
Yeah Xenogears needs a remaster, but not just a simple remaster,
but like add and restored lost contents/director's cut the game remaster,
and some modern rpg optional features.
But I doubt it ever gonna happen.
I played Breath of Fire for the first time recently! It was... very simplistic, I thought. Walking slowly is one thing, but the combat felt as if virtually every enemy fought the same way. By the end of the game, my foolproof strategy was "Two members attack, Nina heals, fourth member uses Acorns to keep Nina's AP up." Rinse and repeat.
There wasn't even strategy involved in gear setup, because almost none of the items have descriptions about their special effects. And I didn't know about fishing in wells with Rod5, so I missed every dragon transformation past the first three until after I beat the fake final boss.
Disc 2 of Xenogears was the better half. No one praises Xenogears for it's gameplay.
That's not true, its gameplay is pretty good actually. When you get to play it...
The gameplay made me drop the game on the SECOND area (the desert). The combats are so boring. Oh yeah I love spamming the same button combos 10 times
Disc 2 is like barely 15% of the game, not half. Disc 1 is a legit 60 hours and some of the best scenes you'll ever see in any game. It's not half/half.
@@akabancopop narratively disc 2 is like... 80% of the story
About Bravely second. While it did greatly ease BD's greatest issue, it did not completely remove it and had a far worse "twist".
This is however not why I found this game painfull all the way through (and not just boring for about half of the game).
No, it's because I'm French and Team Asano sucks when it comes to translations.
When you get a new job, a small guide is mandatory to read. But they used different names for the classes and skills than what you could equip/use. I cannot stress enough how painfull that was.
PS: There was a similar thing in Triangle Strategy where upgrade's description could do stuff like using an (existing) skill's name instead of the correct one or talk about heal instead of damage. Same with Octopath Traveler 2 where the ENGLISH version states that a skill remove the target's buffs where it remove the user's.
Tales of Arise has possibly the strongest opening I've ever seen to an RPG. Ever. It's amazing. Then.... They start to pad it. Like insanely pad it.
I barely felt like finishing the game. Shit felt like busy work halfway through.
I’ve played through Bravely Default three whole times, and every time I think, “I’m gonna get the true ending this time!” And then I look up how to do that and immediately bail.
Surprised you didn't mention the Trails (Kiseki) series (if you haven't I recommend it. That said, excellent video! Enjoyed the pacing, the arguments and the comedy wasn't cringe. Nice work, dude.
I've never played any trails games but do they have a second half that shits the bed?
@@slobertooth1358 it's a saga of games separated into arcs. I wouldn't call it a second half that shits the game, but most games have the sauciest cliffhanger ending that leaves you with blue balls and makes you buy the sequel so you can know what happens next.
@@slobertooth1358 yes
@@NotAFederalAgent-ot really? The games aren’t individual games like other Jrpgs, which is why the series is different because they are continuous in their stories. Even the worst arc (Cold Steel) actually has solid final acts than most Jrpgs. The most common thing I can say is that Falcom loves to make their final dungeons overly long, but that’s it.
@@slobertooth1358 The only thing that may apply for this list is that the game is split into multiple arcs (usually the name will change based off the Arc...for example there's the Trails in the Sky games (1 thru 3), The Trails of Cold Steel games (1 thru 4), and then the Crossbell games called Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure (the only ones not named the same name but part of the same arc that's called the Crossbell Arc), and while not released in the west yet the Kuro games (given the name Trails through Daybreak which will released sometime this summer). All of these games occur in the same world within about a 5 t 10 year time span so you see plot points form previous games mentioned and characters (including playable an nonplayable) come back in later games as such to get the best understanding of the series you would need to play all the games which there are 10 localized (soon 11 with Daybreak, the 10th is called Trails into Reverie and is a game that ties up the Cold Steel/Crossbell games plotlines as the 2 arcs occur side by side early on (Zero and Azure occur at the same time as Cold Steel 1 and 2 and the plots of both arcs tie together for Cold Steel 3 and 4 so it's recommended you play those 4 no matter what before Cold Steel 3 and 4)) so the biggest issue for new players is how much catchup they'd have to do with playing 10 (soon 11) games before the newest entry to get total understanding of the series plot...or watch youtube cutscene only playthroughs I guess (may miss some stuff here or there that's optional though).
The other issue is that every first game of an arc (Sky 1, Zero, CS3, Kuro 1/Daybreak 1) is generally setup for the 2nd game (or later) events so most people view the first games of each arc as a bit more bland compared to the 2nd (or later) games. However said setup is necessary and generally are examples of good writing in the games industry...granted for people that want to jump right into the climax it's torture I guess as they'll need to go 1 game before they hit the real meat of the arc (granted the ending chapters of each first game is generally good and has it's own climatic ending going on too but usually it's not involved with the series overall villain group but more so a different villain/plotline unique to that first game with the main villain group setting things up in the background while the main cast is focused on the other villain relevant to the first game of an arc).
But overall the 2nd half of all games (even the first games in the arc) are generally the best parts of each game so it's an exception the the '2nd half shits the bed' rule that seems to be common in the game industry...whether or not you're willing to go through all the games though is the biggest issue...I highly recommend NOT playing every single one back to back though otherwise you will burn out fast and may get turned off from the series due to burnout rather than you feeling it's good or bad...would recommend an action rpg/non rpg game in between games/arcs (you may be able to do 2 in a row without burnout but I'd advise against 3 in a row...i did 4 in a row (Sky 3, Zero, Azure, and Zero) and wasn't that into CS4 when it came out due to burnout from doing all of them and I had about 9 months between CS3 and 4 lol).
If you've played Ys games such as Ys 8 and 9 or Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ (same developer, Falcom) the way they handle characters and storytelling and side quests is very similar though without the overall story being told in a 2 game arc (granted Ys series all focus on the same MC, Adol, however they're each independent journeys that have yet to have any real influence on th other games' journeys) and the combat system being action based rather than turn based. If you haven't you could always try Ys 8, 9, or Tokyo Xanadu (though TX doesn't have dub and the translation is a bit iffy at times) to see if you feel like you'd like Falcom's style of storytelling.
For someone who wasn't even alive when BOF1 came out, thats some really accurate take on it.
It was so painfully obvious even though it was a good game, it was SO far behind where JRPGs had come at that point. It felt like a small ass game, and it actually WAS a small ass game. The second one was like 4 times bigger I think size wise alone. And it SHOWED. But I still remember being a near teen and just counting the days till the English release of BOF1 came. I looked forward to that game a lot, second only to the excrutiating wait for Secret of Mana. Man, thinking about the what, 1.5 year max wait for a game then feeling like an eternity because I was 10-12 years old. Where now if you are waiting for a game for 3 years that would be considered short.
I really appreciated your views. I haven't finished these games, but will someday, and at least I can gird myself for what's coming! 😊 Enjoyed your opinions.
Thanks bro, means the world.
I am a huge fan of the Bravely Default series and I GET why Bravely Default's optional (yes it is optional since you can beat the game during Chapter 5) 2nd half is bad. Thematically it makes sense because its more of a "What WOULD happen if we let this continue". Its a case of a curiosity killed the cat kind of scenario, and lets you choose if the characters want to continue down that road or not. I wouldn't really call it making the characters stupid (especially after what they have went through at that point) but more they are following their own path. The thing I hate about it the MOST (outside of the recycled bosses and areas) is that this is rewarded with the best outcome. I get it to a degree because you are solving the route of the problem but how are the characters supposed to know this? The normal ending prevents it from happening but it COULD in theory happen again cause the root of the problem wasn't solved. Where in the "Good" ending you make things worse so you can get to the root of the problem somehow. There is A LOT of cool ideas here but its done in such a weird ass recycled way that it can make it hard to recommend. I still LOVE Default 1, but there's a ton of flaws in it. Bravely Second FIXES a lot of those flaws (outside of the OST being worse) but then people didn't like that IT reuses assets, which is ironic to me. Cause Second reuses assets from Default 1 but its never to the point where you have to replay them as much as Default 1 did. Anyways Bravely Default is still good but MAN that 2nd half is a mixed bag of SOMETHING alright.
The real question is, would you rather have a Bravely Third, or a Bravely Default 3?
I say we do a proper number correction and head straight to Bravely default 4
I wonder why jrpg players always have low standards. If they boot up a game and it simply loads and has usual jrpg functions (exp system, basic turn-based battle system) it's already a 5/10 game. Give that decent artstyle and characters that move their mouths when the voice actor speaks and its already a 7/10 game. Music that sounds okay but everyone praises it like it's masterpiece soundtrack and u have an 8/10 game already. And I'm not talking about the really good jrpgs just the bad or low-budget ones that still get praised like they are that awesome. I rarely find a jrpg that people generally consider bad for some reason.
While if you look at other genres like horror, people are not afraid to call out bad games. In jrpgs it's kinda rare.
So is almost every jrpg a good game, or does the majority of jrpg players have low standards and just want a basic jrpg?
I think you are overgeneralizing quite a bit. There has always been discourse around certain JRPGs. You will find that many on this very list have their list of hard-core fans or haters. It also deals with the fact that JRPGs come in many different forms and many different flavors and usually has a story or style to fit at least someone's taste. Whether it be a game with turn based combat or action based combat. Be it a dark story, light hearted story, super complex and deep story or a basic and simplistic
It has nothing to do with low standards as JRPG fans still expect a complete and quality game with an at least decent story or really good mechanics. There are still JRPGs which are very much so disliked (Final Fantasy 13, Tales of Zesteria, Fire Emblem Engage are the first to come to mind) or they have a bunch of differing opinions (the games on this very list are prime examples of that).
No one is afraid of criticizing a JRPG if it's just genuinely objectively awful. Or if they find something they personally don't care for and you wouldn't have to look hard to find these criticisms from JRPG fans. Even if it's a game they adore, they will point out criticisms for said game.
Even low budget and simple RPGs can be good games just like they can also be hot garbage. What matters is how well it uses that low budget to make a quality game or experience.
The part about kicking children felt so personal.
xenogears was the management of squares fault. they forced the developers and creators to rush it, it was made in less than a year and the final product wasnt what the creator envisioned originally.
I'm 600+ hours in Genshin Impact at AR57. Haven't spent any money but I do have characters strong enough to beat the abyss (not with all stars tho). While I did have fun it does take an awful amount of time to get where I am. Problem is the overworld is too easy now I hope they'll add a harder difficulty setting soon (I still have trouble with some of the bosses though).
have you played Tokyo Xanadu? that game is awesome
The localization is shit tho
Xenogears is the GOAT, and Disc 2 artistically strengthens the game because it's home stretch becomes compromised by the very forces of capitalism and religion it critiques. You can basically feel Western Civilization trying to stop you from playing it as you finish. Art imitates life.
Ohhhhh man, I agree wholeheartedly with how terrible monetization feels in Gacha games! I didn’t spend more than two hours playing Genshin Impac, but really tried to get into Honkai Star Rail.
However, I just couldn’t do it anymore, every single box I broke and quest I completed gave me a tiny amount of the same in-game currency that I would need to buy by the bucket load if I wanted to really get good 5-Star characters.
That grind itself, being tied to gambling-like triggers to make me spend money as irresponsibly as possible, makes me cringe every time I receive an in-game reward that is woefully insufficient on its own.
I would’ve gladly paid $70 to get the e full game, even with Gacha elements, but only if those in-game currencies could only be acquired in-game, in sufficient amounts.
But yes, I feel dirty and discontent whenever I play a game that’s clearly collecting data to tailor its incentives according to the worst psychological triggers they could find to abuse their dedicated player-base into making spur of the moment financial decisions based on cues in-game cues that illicit negative subjective responses.
I cannot enjoy these Gacha games at all, no matter how much I try to stick it out. I want all Gacha to die out of existence; which is quite unlikely unless the Federal Trade Commission decides to treat those companies as illegal and unsanctioned online gambling platforms.
Stumbling with this video was funny bc I grew playing JRPGs and I love them; and while I'm aware why old-school ones might not be appealing to modern audiences, in recent days I have genuinely missed that feeling of having to grind and walk over and over againd trhought those long and cruel last dungeons these games used to have.
BD's looping arc didn't bother me at the time. I can understand why people would hate constantly refighting the crystal guardians, but I saw it as a great opportunity to level grind in the remixed boss fights.
Most of my hate goes to BD2. The first half felt really good, but the second half didn't build on it at all. Questions like the main character's backstory and the Night's Nexus are never elaborated on. The game even tried doing a fourth wall break with one of its mechanics, but it didn't impact the story in any way and just left more questions. It could be reserving those answers for a sequel, but I had no interest by then.
While the back end of Bravely Default can be repetitive, being able to turn off random encounters helped cut down time immensely. And while the class balancing was nonexistant, breaking the combat balance over your knee was satisfying for me (Dark Knight 3xRage go brrrr)
Hasten World+all Valkyrie Super Jump was how I got through the last part. I tried to be beat the final boss with an actual strategy but when he killed me on phase 4/6 I said fuck it back to Valkyries
The thing about games like Genshin Impact and the "you don't NEED X to beat the game" argument that gets regurgitated by every brainwashed hoyo fan is that they are just completely offbase with the real issue here. It's not about what you NEED, it's about what you WANT. A lot of great games out there fully allow you to beat them without engaging in the many systems and options they offer you. You beat persona 5 using only Arsene, you can beat DMC with Dante only using Royal Guard, you can beat RE games using only a knife, you don't NEED a lot of the extra options thes games offer you, that's why they are great games, because they shower the players with tons of options that the player can easily choose if they WANT.
That's where Genshin fails and why the "you don't NEED" argument is just used by brainlets. You don't NEED any of the 5* characters, you don't NEED c6 on anything, you get these things because you WANT them, you WANT to dash over the water as Ayaka, you WANT to soar the skies as wanderer, you WANT to run around blazing fast with yelan, you WANT to blast mobs with Neuvillette's kamehameha, you WANT to gawk at Eula's and Yae Miko's thighs, you WANT your favorite waifu all decked out at max potential with C6 and R5 BiS weapon. And by virtue of being a predatory gacha game, genshin heavily restricts it's players on a lot of their wants, and the more things the player wants, the least likely they'll be able to get them for "free", and for the game to be "free" it has to prey on the wants of a group of select players with no restraint or discipline and dumb enough to spend absurd amounts on a game plagued with so many flaws that would easily be bombarded by players and critics were it to release on it's current state at 60$.
Throwing another in: DQ11. Amazing first 2 acts, but act 3 retconning major character development and then forcing you to basically retread the entire map but now it's much harder, sometimes unfairly so, it leaves you on a sour note.
I would argue that act 2 was the only good part of that game.
I still don't know how I feel about act 3 retconning all the character development of act 2, even if it did stop the bad guy's plans much sooner, avert catastrophe, and provide payoff for a few red herrings setup early in the plot.
I would disagree. Because the game solves many plot points that was left out from previous acts. Like Calasmos, the Watchers, Veronica's growth, Gyspy lady, etc. The first 2 acts feels kinda incomplete and gives us all the answer in Act 3. Yeah. It does seems kinda sad seeing side characters getting erased. But it's for the better way of keeping the world not in an destruction and it was lead to the chronically of the DQ universe. I can see why some might be disappointed if you only cared about the character development. It is pretty diversive. But it still turns out better at the end and it doesn't ruined the game completely. Also the difficulty in Act 3 isn't that hard. Just critical hit the Metal Slime like creatures early on, have the right movesets, equipment & abilities for each and it won't be that hard.
RIP Xenogears disk 2. I played it when it a few years after it came out when I was in High School. Loved it so much but even now I wish we could have a complete version of the game.
Tales of Arise, Xenogears, and Bravely Default are still good games.
Do they fumble? Well, yeah, but no game is perfect. Except for Dadish, but that is more of a life decision than anything.
Though it's fun taking a look at videos like these, which discuss some great game's sloppier parts.
Personally Genshin is just a clusterfuck that really, REALLY tries to be interesting with it's story by imitating the writing styles of many really famous jrpgs and Media, but just...isn't very good at it.
Xenoblade and Tales of Arise...I like this guy. Alphen is the best male protagonist I have ever seen. Relatable ... not broken op but quirky and intelligent.
Question since you've played a lot of JRPGs, have you heard of the Trails series?
Genshin isn't a Jrpg?? Isn't it a Crpg??
Yeah Bravely Default was more of a Job Build Simulator/Puzzle game for bosses after a point. I mean my favorite builds were the "SamuraiPirateMonk" Barehanded for max attack, Free Lunch for 0MP cost and Amped Strike for 4X damage per hit... The other was the "Dark Knight Monk" max health Phoenix Flight and Minus Strike. These 2 builds were so fun and basic. The dark knight build also paired up for a specific fight against the salve maker and black mage where they lower your fire resistance and then oneshot you with fire spells. I just used 4 fire ice shields and Dark Knight Monked the salve maker before he could hit me... Then utalised the immunity to fire to just slowly minus strike the rest of the fight.
i cant tell if your video editing style is the best layout ive ever seen or the worst because you got me good with the title and game selection but your video is very well written and was able to concisely convey your problems with these games while also explaining what you love about them and for that i tip my hat off to you sir. p.s. I watched this with a friend and we had to remind each other to let you cook and not jump to conclusions lol
Were you a space hamster fan
keep up the great work! got this video recommended to me and i was positively surprised. to me it feels like your channel could blow up any minute now. looking forward to your next videos!
I adore bravely default. Probably my favorite rpg of all time, and one of my favorite games full stop. Still fully agree that it fumbled around for the end. But the way you said "strangely i still recommend" is because of that "fumble". Its not good game design but it is good narrative. Its also not something most games before or since would even be willing to risk.
Its similar to how i feel about classic megaman. Dogshit level design half the time, but very memorable and somehow fun. To chance sounding overdramatic, they just dont make games like that anymore.
i def understand the feeling with BD1, but i really did enjoy some of the remixed boss fights and still had a good time with the game overall
Hey kids of all beauty levels and standards would be traumatized by the shit Gears pulls out it seems just to horrify people
Xenogears is amazing also the 2nd disc. There is no better JRPG out there.
I been playing genshin since release on console, and playing seriously since back when keqing got a banner. I never bought a character or whaled on that stuff and I got almost all the characters and a few 5 star weapons so you don’t have to put in big money. The welkin moon however, has become a monthly subscription for me. And I constantly reconvince myself that it’s worth 5$ every month
I'm glad to see Bravely Second get some acknowledgement. It feels weird to me that it gets ignored and panned by just about EVERYONE. The only video I could find talking about Bravely Second was a guy explaining how the game not only under performed in Japan but also some bad decisions made by Square Enix that locked off stuff that was revised for the world wide release. As well as some terrible good endings being locked to choosing the same job you selected twice in a row preventing players from accessing all jobs and the good endings. It's crazy too considering ProJared didn't even comment on Bravely Second considering just how big of a fan he was with the original.
I never got to play Bravely Default since I simply didn't have it anywhere nearby locally to buy it physically. Nowadays it can thankfully be bought somewhat reasonably but with the e-Shop down, I am not too sure what additional updates are gone. I wouldn't mind revisiting Bravely Second but... I dread the amount of time it will take to understand the story again since THERE WAS some exclusive story content with its demo that you can't get anymore. Thankfully HCBailey is doing an LP for the series and has covered the demo before it the shop's shut down.
I wasn't expecting much from this video but figured I'd give it a watch as my computer was updating, and after watching it I immediately knew I should at least leave a comment to say it was a pretty good video. It covered aspects to RPGs that genuinely get overlooked or underdiscussed because of how sore of an experience it can be for players. To that I thank you, also, Magnolia is best girl and the immediate reason I bought the game back in the day. I feel bad never finishing it but perhaps I can feel satisfaction from watching the cutscenes online.
Lol the second half of BD was fantastic. It was a blast fighting more difficult versions of each boss, seeing how they would switch up their tactics or be grouped together, or rethinking your approach with your new jobs. The boss rush in the final world is literally impossible unless you learn to completely break the game, and that shit is fire.