Thread 712765307

Just tried to play this but the writing is fucking terrible. Bland plot, absolutely boring characters, long drawn-out cutscenes with tons of filler text and no meaning. I like JRPG worlds and vibes, but I need a good story to keep me invested.
What are some of the best written JRPGS?

>>712765307 (OP)
I feel like Golden Sun was one of those jrpg's that you had to play as a kid because that was really your only game with longevity and there were no distractions stemming from the internet or else to lead you astray.

>>712765659
PLEASE IGNORE THIS BAD POST.

Those were fond memories where I had no friends and spent all summer alone in the afternoons with shitty movies on FX playing in the background and getting lost in this game. It led me to good things.

>>712765659
>I feel like Golden Sun was one of those jrpg's that you had to play as a kid
I agree
>because that was really your only game with longevity and there were no distractions stemming from the internet or else to lead you astray.
but not for that reason.

Golden Sun is really poorly written, the characters are bland and the script is horribly bloated. But that doesn't matter to kids because their imagination isn't completely crippled, so they will be dupped by obvious twists, fill in the gaps in the characters personality, etc etc.And then when you come back to the game as an adult, you can overlook the bad script and really appreciate the gameplay and world design and things that you definitely missed as a kid.
Adults getting into GoldenSun for the first time probably wont be able to look past the writing and they will either drop it or grit their teeth and subconciously resent it.

tldr; nostalgia is real

>>712766926
You're mostly right here I think, but as an adult playing it for the first time, there really isn't much to latch onto and enjoy. The combat is snappy and stylish, but much too simple and easy to be engaging. I've heard the puzzles are great, I haven't gotten to any that seem to do anything more than waste time. Maybe I need to stick with the game longer, but I'm worried it just won't be worth the time.
I'm interested in what you mean by "world design", though.

>>712765307 (OP)
>What are some of the best written JRPGS?
trails in the sky fc + sc

>>712765307 (OP)
>JRPGs with good writing
Don't exist. Some can have good stories, but the actual writing itself is always either bland or cringe.

Golden Sun is an excellent 'my first rpg'. It does nothing particularly well, but nothing terrible either

>>712767698
Wrong

>>712765307 (OP)
Xenogears and FFX

>>712765307 (OP)
>this story bland
rpgs that don't waste time with story are best. Pokemon, for example.
>no can do
Fine. Strange Journey. There's like environmentalism n' shit. 'nuff said.

>>712765307 (OP)
i thought the writing was fine. the plot wasn't all that interesting but the worldbuilding was pretty good.

the thing i take issue with is that people bitch about gs being too verbose but then go on to excuse shit like nu-pokemon where they drop 18 pages of irrelevant verbal diarrhea on you every two steps. at least characters in golden sun are generally talking about the world and what's happening in it.

The Golden Sun duology is fantastic. The first game starts slow and exposition-heavy, but so do tons of other JRPGs, especially these days where voiced cutscenes can take up literal hours. TLA is the one with all the good puzzles and dungeons; everything from Air's Rock onwards has branching pathways and requires more spacial reasoning. They were originally intended to be one game, and the design reflects that.

Also, the writing of the duology is pretty solid, but you have to work your way to the twists. Everything seems pretty cliche until you reach Lemuria in the second game and the script gets flipped.

The biggest fault of Golden Sun is that the third game is completely indefensible and ruined the chance for a good sequel. The battle system got some extremely minor improvements, but the world was changed in a way that left most fans confused and downright angry. To top it all off, basically no lingering questions from the GBA duology got answered: We still don't know if the Anemos really became the moon, if Sheba really came from there, WTF happened to Alex, or how almost any of the places or characters from the first game turned out. Basically the only thing fans got was confirmation that Isaac and Jenna fucked, while everything else was left vague and a whole bunch of new mysteries got dumped. It will have been 15 years this fall since Dark Dawn came out.

>>712765307 (OP)
As far as writing that serves the game it's great. You get right into it, you know what your doing you know who the bad guys are, Some details are a little odd, but they're easy to move past.

Bonus points the they the bad guys kidnapping a young girl, and then in the next game when you play as the badguys, that girl's already fully stockholmed to him. which contributes to how it feels to control the party members in these games.

>>712768329
Even nu Pokemon, the character writing has at least some personality to it. Everyone in Golden Sun feels absolutely bland.

>>712765307 (OP)
the only good things jrpgs have are music and sexy women
cringe voice acting, storylines, even gameplay feel lackluster

>>712766926
maybe, but the game lore is legitimately S tier, the detail of not just the alchemy systems in place, but it's parallel to real world alchemy and it being a one point a real science system people thought could work is reflected really well in how the would translate to an actual world

>>712765307 (OP)
Xenogears
Xenoblade 1

>>712769708
the third game is defensible as far as leaving the series in a good spot to continue, adding additional ideas that can be expanded upon and tied back to pre-existing ones, extra characters and character stories that have been left open to expand upon/explain for the first time. Golden Sun at this point is totally open for both a prequel and sequel which is a pretty cool place for a series to be in that hasn't been touched in 20 years

>>712769951
Source? Genuinely interested

>>712765659
still the best ending of any JRPG ever though, the long winded nature of the game guaranteed the pay off at the end would be without parallel, and it still holds true

>>712770153
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0UGnlZOZ00&t=16s&pp=ygUbZ29sZGVuIHN1biBhbGNoZW15IGxvY2tzdGlu a pretty good summation of the details running behind the scenes, even in 3

>>712766926
God I miss being a kid when every game felt like a huge imagined world of its own and not some soulless slop of reused textures and mechanics made to give more money to the already rich

Isaacfags got BTFO in smash.

Lost Odyssey

Also one of the few RPG's I've played where the English dub isn't cringe dogshit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnI_zPNZj7g

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqi0r3i6ra8

>>712770579
Miyamoto seems to dislike Camelot, and Sakurai mostly is unaware of the series, there was probably some real workplace discrimination against them

>>712770712
How do I best emulate this

>>712769879
Mia is the blandest character dialogue-wise, if you don't count Isaac the self-insert. She pretty much only exists to round out the party in the first game, and there's very little reason for her to accompany the group past Mercury lighthouse except that she thinks the world is in danger. Her background with Alex never really gets leveraged to much effect.

Garet is a little cliche as the hot-headed bro character, but he at least has a personality.
Ivan has the least personality of the boys, but he does have the mysterious backstory with Hama/Contigo going for him along with the optional Hammet/Lunpa arc that revolves around him.

Jenna and Sheba are great. Jenna is meant to be something of an airhead while Sheba is the clever one. Where Jenna is quick to suggest the TLA party gets involved to help people, Sheba is more balanced and tends to be the one catching people in lies (without even reading their minds), and she's also shown to be playful as she pokes fun at Jenna about Isaac and does similar things in other instances.

Piers is the oddball in the second game, as he's supposed to be the calm extra character akin to Mia, but he at least has the "I'm actually 50 years old" thing going on, which is mostly played for humor once revealed.

Felix has great characterization in the first game as the resident bad boy, but is later revealed to be just kind and honorable as Isaac, which is a pretty good twist to pull off with someone acting as a silent protagonist.

I don't think they're all downright amazing characters, but you can DEFINITELY find plenty worse as far as "bland" or "cliche" goes in tons of JRPGs.

>>712770760
360 emulator

>>712770103
You make a fair point, but after 15 years, the hopium begins to feel like copium. I hated Dark Dawn but I would still day-one-buy a sequel just to see it end. I remember feeling similarly to Kingdom Hearts 3.

>>712770790
Um why doesn't this post feel like a bot post? On 2025 /v/?

>>712770760
He was removed from smash 4 but was brought back for ultimate. Sakurai knows of his fan demand.

>>712765307 (OP)
No shit.
Golden Sun is aimed at 4 year olds.
>>712769708
>i played them when i was 9 and haven't replayed them as an adult with an adult mindset.
Yeah we can tell.

>>712770983
only cause they demanded it, it wasn't on his mind at all

>>712769879
i don't agree, since like gen 7 i find the character writing in pokemon to be utterly atrocious. half of the characters need skip dialog buttons it's so fucking bad.

>>712765307 (OP)
Reminder that GS was supposed to be "Nintendo's main JPRG" but the third game ruined everything and that fate was given to Xenoblade.

>>712769708
>Everything seems pretty cliche until you reach Lemuria in the second game
I've heard the "it gets good after 40 hours" line before but never the "it gets good after the entire fucking game and part way into the sequel" line.

>>712768329
That's the problem, Golden Sun dialogue is almost all exposition

What is good writing according to you?

I just plucked a nose hair outta my nose. yeouch! that really hurt.

>>712768136
Story is the only thing JRPGs have going for them. And Pokemon gets more and more story heavy each generation

>>712771317
Gen 7 was the first time Pokemon dialogue wasn't just exposition

>>712765307 (OP)
While i agree that the dialogue is bad in Golden Sun, the plot overall is good

>>712771984
NTA but I'd be interested to hear thoughts on ff7 in terms of writing
Imo it has good-ish writing, terrible translation, but very likeable and memorable characters which carry the story along, partly thanks to very good pacing

>>712765307 (OP)
Clair Obscur is the best written jrpg of all time. Nothing comes close, there is a reason why it is being compared to novels

>>712768329
Worldbuilding is useless if the plot it's attached to isn't good. Worldbuilding without a good plot is like icing on top of a shit cake

>>712772241
Not Japanese and therefore not a JRPG

>good character writing/character interactions
Trails games (particularly the first 5, series drops off after Cold Steel)

>good story writing/plot driven narratives
Xenogears and Xenosaga.

>>712765307 (OP)
Bravely default

>>712772265
i don't think the plot is bad it's just not especially interesting, it's still ok

>>712765307 (OP)
The first game is ok. Not good, but just ok. The second game is just shit.
>Dude open world so cool exploration!!
No, the world is just tedious to explore. Especially the last continent where you have 10 or so rivers leading into a continent, and only 1 is the correct path (and you have to fly over halfway through). And not giving fast travel until late game is just garbage.
>But the story is good.
No, it's the standard the bad guys are actually good guys garbage (just ignore that they are kidnapping and murdering innocent civilians).
Yeah, the game is not as bad as some other GBA RPGs (like demikids), but it doesn't make it good.

>>712768110
Hard disagree on xenogears

>>712765307 (OP)
Play their other game series, Shining Force.

Xenogears though the translation is fucked in certain parts

>>712773448
Why?

>>712767986
that's french