Board 8 > KCF's Top 40 JRPGs

(+) Yeah! (+)

26. South Park: The Stick of Truth

The show has been out for what, 20 years now? In that time, I think that I've seen between 15-20 episodes. It isn't that I didn't find the show to be funny, it's just that I never felt compelled to stick with it. After a series of failed video games (I do have a soft spot for the FPS though), I wasn't planning on getting this game, though I think that was mostly out of fear that the humor was both integral to the experience and would go over my head. I impulse bought it when it was $5 on PSN, so I was going to learn if my fears were realized.

Not only did I find it to be a (morbidly) hilarious game, but Obsidian did a bang-up job with the Paper Mario-style exploration and battle system. Because it is Obsidian, it wasn't a smooth experience with framerate and other technical issues, but they didn't get in the way when it mattered. That's a huge sigh of relief in a game that requires good timing from the player.

I'm not sure if it was due to my approach to battle (whatever that may be) or if the game just had uneven usefulness from allies, but I found myself rarely using Kyle, Stan, Cartman, or Kenny and used Jimmy or Butters 95% of the time. That in and of itself isn't a problem per se, but when it wears a little thin when you hear the same line in battle for the 86th time. I'm also disappointed at the sheer amount of missables in the game. I like doing things in my own way at my own pace, so I was a little disillusioned at the end once I found out just how much I missed out on because I didn't do A thing at B moment.

While the game hasn't made me pick up the show again, it has made me anticipate The Fractured But Hole even though it is being handled by an Ubisoft studio that has only Rocksmith games.
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25. Pokemon GSC

To me, Pokemon was more of a social thing than something that I fully had genuine interest in. It was nowhere near my favorite cartoon, but I watched to discuss with friends. I preferred collecting baseball cards and playing spades, hearts, or euchre to Pokemon cards, but once again, I and my parents probably spent several hundred dollars on them during the time they were popular with my friends. The video games were no different.

I was a Monster Rancher guy. Approximately 0 of my friends were. Now I liked the first trio of games to a certain extent, but it wasn't until the following generation that I would say I became a true Pokemon fan. I'm sure that superficial stuff like color were factors since I was 9 or 10 then, but I was blown away by simple features like the night/day cycle, berries, the phone, and breeding. You can guess what my reaction was when I found out the postgame was going back to Kanto and getting all the badges there again.

Within two years after the games came out, my friends had moved onto DBZ and other stuff. I tried out RSE, but came to the conclusion that I had grown out of Pokemon. I recently bought XY to see if being away from the games for almost 15 years may change things, but even if they don't, I still look back at my time with GSC quite fondly.
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24. Half-Minute Hero

Part of the reason why I'm not a huge fan of JRPGs is the time commitment needed not so much just to finish (though it is a factor) but is essentially required for each time you sit down and play. They are no Super Mario 3D Land. Half-Minute Hero was made for me.

All of the levels are essentially disconnected and take just a few minutes to finish. Each level is basically a giant grind where you simply fight enemies over and over to become strong enough to fight the villain of the week while acquiring gold to buy better equipment. With its rapid gains and absence of filler, I wouldn't be surprised if it's one of best kinds of grinding that I may ever see in a video game.

Even better is that the game 99% of the time doesn't take itself seriously. That's right up my alley. The one time it did, I felt like a shitty person. Why haven't I played the sequel yet?
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23. Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga

Back to the short writeups that I promised!

I may seem like a broken record throwing out the same words, but the game is funny, charming, has that robust timing-based battle system, and has no need for grinding. While it doesn't reach the heights of future games in the series that have unique hooks and excellent dual-screen functionality, the game succeeded in its smaller focus and doesn't reach the lows of Partners in Time, Dream Team, or Paper Jam. That's how it finds itself here as the second-best in its series.
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22. Fire Emblem (GBA)

For a strategy RPG, strategy isn't as prevalent as one would hope. I think that, along with its too-often-frustrating RNG is why I think I probably stopped playing the games, but some of them were still pretty great.

The excellent strategy game series by Intelligent Systems named Advance Wars use a wide variety of scenario setups, but the my favorites tend to be those that have fixed units that force you to think three moves ahead instead of trying to overpower your opponent. H

ow that ties into Fire Emblem is that Intelligent Systems also made those games, and the series predates Advance Wars. You can see shades of the excellence that was to come to Advance Wars in the fantasy RPG Fire Emblem games. Some, rather most missions, are not quite fixed battles as the opposing side will often gain reinforcements, but the few missions that are true fixed battles are something else and make it worth playing through.

The overall lack of difficulty may have prevented it from reaching the heights that were totally attainable, but the first game to reach the US likely was the best at exemplifying the S in SRPG.
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21. Chrono Trigger

You can't help but be impressed with the ambition that Square had in the development of this game. I didn't even play it until the DS version back in 2009 or 2010, but I could definitely see why it was so revered.

JRPGs back then had low ceilings in certain areas that I value highly such as exploration and previously mentioned optional side activities. I hope that it speaks volumes to everyone that even though placing it outside the Top 20 might disappoint to some, I have Chrono Trigger as the highest-ranked pure 32-bit JRPG.
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20. Grandia II

Much like Trails in the Sky, this game was good, not great in most that it had to offer. In a period where RPGs started to veer toward the thought they had to keep outdoing themselves in the writing department and offer inanely complex plots with try-hard characters, I was immensely impressed with the route that was taken in Grandia II. Now I don't remember caring about the characters too much or many details from the plot, but the fact that I can't think of anyone or anything that enraged me is a good sign well over a decade since I last played it. Maybe that doesn't mean a thing to anyone, but I'm known for my good memory, and let's say I don't forget if a game irked me.

The reason why Grandia II is so much further ahead though is due to its fantastic turn-based ATB hybrid. Battles start out with all the allies and foes ready to murder the other side. However, there's also a meter where each ally and foe has their head plastered. Each head will move along the meter based on their speed attribute. At about the 2/3 mark is when time stops and you are asked to input a command for said player (an enemy will already have chosen its command without pausing). This is where things can get very interesting.

Both enemies and allies alike can have their commands nullified if they are attacked in the 1/3 of the meter between command and action, which is the end of the meter. This is because your head, or your opponent's, can go back on the meter (as far back as the beginning) when they are attacked. This in turn gives the game a high strategic element as you try and understand the speed of your opponents to determine a plan to attack the right enemy at the right time with the right move to keep your party members as healthy as possible.

Another game that comes up on this list has a similar battle system, but I still think that Grandia II has done it the best. It's odd that I never ended up playing any other Grandia games. Maybe they will get an enhanced port like II did.
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I will try to get 5-10 more done tomorrow
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>sticker star

literally barfing in my mouth
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Grandia 2, quite a great game, you played it for Milennia though.

I forget which of the two girls she was. I assume the "bad" one
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I'm reading and enjoying this btw. Don't have any comments to make so far
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SantaRPidgey posted...

I'm reading and enjoying this btw. Don't have any comments to make so far

Yeah this is me in most topics like this.

Though I guess in total fairness I only read the writeups for the games I've played or am interested in playing.
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19. Paper Mario: Color Splash

This is going to be a super-long writeup, so I apologize.

If you didn't like Sticker Star, I'm guessing that you won't like Color Splash. Probably the #1 question people had is if battles are pointless. The answer is yes and no.

The vast majority of fights result in a sort of XP being strewn about on the level. They come in the form of paper hammers that in turn fill up a meter on your paint hammer. When the meter fills up, you hammer's ability to store paint increases. In the beginning, you will likely never run out of paint unless your attacking style revolves almost solely around ice and fire flowers, which might be the most paint-draining types of cards. It isn't until later in the game that you will require of you to having a card deck of strong cards, and thus you might run into color.

To complicate matters, there are pre-painted cards to go along with the non-painted ones. Pre-painted cards are at their most powerful and don't require paint. Non-painted cards can be used in that format, but are severely weak compared to their painted counterparts, and you can use paint to make them powerful. Several of these cards can be purchased in a shop in the hub town (coins are also easy to come by), but most come in the non-painted variety. So while coins are easy to come by and paint is in low-demand and high-supply in the early going, it is necessary that you do fight many non-scripted fights to build up your paint hammer or you might find late game segments to be frustrating. I don't know if that is good enough of an incentive or not, but I feel that the reward is worth it, not to mention that I find battling fun anyway.

The second question is about the humor and charm. As I mentioned in Sticker Star, I felt that it was worthy of the Paper Mario name with its humor and charm. If you disagree, and I assume many will, Color Splash might be exactly what you are looking for. I will even say that Color Splash has an argument for being the funniest Paper Mario game, or at the very least is the most top-heavy in terms of humor with Dark Bloo Inn being the highlight level of the game.

If Sticker Star turned you away from the series, I hope that you reconsider with Color Splash or you are missing out on a great game.
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18. Skies of Arcadia

On one hand, Skies of Arcadia doesn't come anywhere close to realizing its full potential. The two main protagonists come from a community of sky pirates, but I rarely felt like a sky pirate. I feel like they could have come from anywhere and just be explorers/bounty hunters with their own ship, and it would hardly change a thing.

While it partially makes up for it in being able to explore a vast sky, its absurd encounter rates, invisible walls, and disappointing landmark side activity kind of put a damper on the whole thing. If you are willing to look past that though, and I can understand if you can't, you are in for a treat because this is one of the few non-Nintendo JRPGs that I've played that felt like I was part of a fun, grand adventure, which seems like something of a lost art these days across any genre.

Arguably its most unique aspect was its combination of air and land battles. Land battles are not anything that you haven't seen before, but its air battles turned out to be something special. Mostly used in boss battles, air combat required a strategic approach that was more anticipation than trial-and-error. It also incentivized exploration by converting people you meet out in the world to be part of your crew and help out in combat.

The game is one-of-a-kind, and I would really like a complete remake (not just an remastered port) or a sequel that could really take advantage of all the ideas that the game originally offered.
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More tomorrow
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17. Tales of Xillia

While I don't doubt that I will end up playing Zestiria and Berseria, I have hesitated to get them. It's less because I can't exactly play them without owning a PS4 or gaming-quality computer but more because I feel like they will pale in comparison to Xillia. That isn't to say that Xillia blew me away or anything. It's still a Tales of game with Tales of plots and Tales of characters. What impressed me was that they finally decided to make significant changes (mostly for the better).

Symphonia. Abyss. Vesperia. Graces. Each of these games are unique in their own way (I'm sure someone more well-versed could explain far better than I possibly could), but at the same time they seem too familiar. That isn't exactly uncommon in the VG industry, but in my opinion, that is a death sentence for an RPG series. I played those games in that exact order, and it was with Vesperia that things really started to get stale.

Perhaps someone at Namco or whichever studio produces these games was self-aware of that, but whatever the case, I'm glad that Xillia distanced itself from its predecessors. Gone are the inane puzzles that littered dungeons. They were routinely among the series' weakest attributes. In is the improved maneurvability while exploring. By holding the action button, you can pre-register various actions (climbing, jumping, etc...) before being given a prompt. Best of all, is the combat is faster, fluid, and more fun than ever.

The linking system that allows you to forcibly pair the character you are controlling with someone else to unleash combos can be iffy at times with the AI. The beauty of it is that the sometimes frustrating AI only comes into play when you are trying to work together to simply fill the meter to eventually allow you to unleash aforementioned combos. You are in full control of intiating and stringing combos, so the ultimate goal of what you are working toward is completely in your hands.
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16. Tales of Legendia

This might be perplexing seeing Legendia as the top Tales of game in my rankings despite what I just said about Xillia. I played this after Symphonia and Abyss but before Vesperia and Graces. While it took some getting used to random encounters and the 2D fighting plane, I really got into not just the combat but also how unique it was (not that I can recall everything). That isn't unlike how I became attached to Xillia.

It all starts with the game taking place on a derelict ship (I forget if it's of the aquatic or aerospace variety). That gives you a different perspective of all the locations you visit and makes you wonder how it all came to be, in the process setting a pervasive tone throughout the game. I never once had a thought like that or felt that way in a Tales of game I've played before or since.

JRPGs, while not on the level of WRPGs, tend to have a high amount of characters relative to other genres. It stands to reason that not all of them will be winners, and you are bound to hate some. I honestly, from what I can recollect, cannot say that I have intense negative feelings toward any of the characters (not even Shirley), and that to me is quite the accomplishment given the series. Were they great? Maybe only one or two, but when Tales of games are prone to having a couple characters (or a dozen) make me facepalm over and over to the point of nearly giving me an ulcer, I'd have to say that this game was a rousing success.

This game is also home to massive post-game content. Maybe massive is a bit of an exaggeration, but at the time, I was not accustomed to having an entire campaign (though I suppose that Legendia's is a series of character arcs, one in particular being gut-wrenching) open to the player after the game finishes. Graces might be the only other game from the series that I've played that had one.

Legendia gets a bad rap, and I can understand since part of it seems to be a de-evolution of where the genre was heading, but it successfully carved out its own identity at a time when the series was seemingly going through the motions. Part of me wonders if this being a commerical failure (I don't know if it was, but I'm assuming it was) prompted Namco to go back to the Symphonia and Abyss formula. Most of me also wonders how amazing the game could have been if they thought of it post-Graces and combined the ideas they had with it and Xillia.
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Tag.

Interested to see what you have to say about the Shining Force games. I mostly hear that the second one is far better, so that ranking is surprising.

Bump
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Consider this topic bumped

Sorry, my mind has been in other places as of late. I had cables fall into my backyard, which has halted four outdoor projects I am in the midst of doing, and the company legally responsible for dealing with that still hasn't showed.
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I'm ready to resume tomorrow. Sorry for the delay.
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15. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

I don't know the history of Fire Emblem in Japan, but I'm guessing that this too was the first one to be 3D there. If so, I think that would make it among the last of the active Nintendo franchises at that point to transition from 2D to 3D. It was rough in some areas.

2D Nintendo games used a lot of brightly-colored pixels, even with darker-themed games like Metroid and Fire Emblem. Metroid went to planets of various flora and fauna, with civilzations often long-gone, so there wasn't really any concern that it would be visually dull when it came to 3D. Fire Emblem though was about war, and war bred destruction and a lot of ugliness. The 2D games belied that with its greens, pinks, blues, and other colors that caught your eye. That ugliness though could not be hidden on the Gamecube. Mud, ruined buildings, burned trees, and just dark colors in general filled the screen all the time. It wasn't a pretty game to look at and made the 2D Fire Emblems look like they took place in the Mushroom Kingdom.

As one of my most-used buzzwords in this topic, strategic is not something that I would associate with Path of Radiance. I would even argue that this was the weakest Fire Emblem in terms of strategic involvement. Hell, Fire Emblem has always been an RPG with only lite strategic elements. All that you really had to worry about was not be an idiot and send your healers to the front line or engage in fights where you have a weapon weakness to your opponent (like sending an aerial unit to fight against an archer). All that needs to be said about Path of Radiance is that you can solo most of the first half with Tatiana and the second half with Stefan.

In spite of all that, I think that this was a better 2D to 3D transition for Fire Emblem than I could have expected. From higher-detailed units being easier to differentiate from one another (a problem that I have had with the handheld games) to more varied environments (if only slightly) to expectedly better battle animations, it felt like it was right at home on the home console, during the 3D age I should add.

I know this doesn't sound like the writeup for the #15 game, but I really did like this game a lot. It's just been forever.
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14. Persona 3

One of only a handful of games that I bought solely from B8's influence, Persona 3 might be the best of the bunch. It's combat system is fairly familiar. It is turn-based where all combatants theoretically get a move. Each enemy and ally tends to specialize in one are and have a particular weakness. What helps separate this from all the other turn-based RPGs is that the main character, the only one that you control, is the ultimate jack-of-all-trades.

They can essentially be any of the titular things/spirits/physical manifestations of your soul, which means they can have any strength or weakness and any moveset that you desire. This is from being able to switch to any Persona that uou have on hand at the beginning of each turn. You can only hold so many at one time, and you do have to level them up in order to be able to reap all of their benefits, but you are nearly unstoppable the further you get into the game.

A lot of people weren't happy that you couldn't control any of your allies, but I liked that welcome change, for the most part. The game is incredibly long (I think that I put in 75-80 hours), and that was without the micromanagement of having to think of actions for four characters. The AI wasn't the best, but aside from Mitsuru, they never veered to frustrating levels.

What sucked me into the game was its slice-of-life approach. Only a portion of the game is going out to fight as most of it is going to school and making connections with people in and out of it. Of course, the main purpose of hanging out with these people is to help you out in battle via Persona benefits, but this is where the game really shines. The main cast is underwhelming, so I was drawn to each of the unique personalities that aren't integral to the overarching plot. From a middle-aged monk who hangs out in a night club to a little girl that runs away from home to even an MMORPG player whose identity in the real world is kept under wraps, these side stories feature the best writing in the game and are the reason why I kept fighting god knows what I night to save the world, or maybe just Japan. I forget what was at stake.
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13. Shining Force II

Due to the overwhelming similarities between it and its predecessor, I am going to leave out most of the details for Shining Force's writeup. However, I will say that the reason why I ended up putting this below the original was mostly due to some obnoxious battles and because I didn't have the long, rich history with it like I did with the first game.
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12. Rogue Galaxy

Of all the games on my list that I know have a less-than-stellar reputation, I am probably most disappointed that this Level-5 gem is one of them. Yes, it has a dumb plot and dumb characters. That's a hallmark of JRPGs. Yes, its combat is not innovate, but it is highly fun. While having fun combat is certainly a contributing factor in its placement, there was one thing that ensured it would place high on my list regardless of what else the game had to offer: Optional Activity.

I can say with certainty that this game has the best slate of optional activities out of any JRPG that I've played. It has one that's like an assembly line aptly named Factory. Initially, it may seem like a dud due to a poor tutorial that makes it even more confusing, but if you get the hang of it (and that is a big IF), it is quite the interesting distraction. Another is I guess similar to hunts from FFXII. Called Quarries in this game, you go to various areas around the universe and lure unique enemies out with a particular item (I forget if some required multiple). As a game with no previous installments and thus no lore to ascertain a guess, not knowing what to expect was half the fun. The cream of the crop though is Insectron, which is basically Insect Chess. There are many types of insects and more sub-types. They all have their own specialties and movement styles. You have to catch them from all over the universe with special lures. The sheer variety of the insects makes this very replayable with all the potential combinations for you and your would-be opponents.

Toss in your typical bonus dungeons and a unique skill tree system called the Revelation Flow, and you got a mighty fine game. It's a damn shame that in addition to its less-than-stellar reception, it never received a follow-up.
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what a tease !

Don't have much to say since I've only really played the Shining Forces and various Mario RPGs, but still interested.

Many write-ups going up tomorrow
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11. Child of Light

This game is essentially a dream-like bedtime story. Well, maybe that isn't quite accurate. While the game is choc full of serene landscapes, an airy soundtrack, and even features rhyming dialogue, there is a pervasive sense of somber in the air, not to mention it took a dark turn or two that might be ill-suited for bedtime story material. Regardless, it is quite the visually striking game that touches on all sorts of themes.

Its combat is similar to Grandia II's, but to a much smaller scale. You can choose up two allies to come into battle, and you will face no more than three opponents at a time. You are all in fixed locations, on pedastals of sorts. It is otherwise the same as Grandia II. In and of itself, it isn't better than Grandia II's system, but I prefer how Child of Light does it due to its brevity and that fits the pace of the game.

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before, but the reason that I am drawn toward JRPGs more like Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi and less like Final Fantasy is not just due to its lightheartedness, but the pacing as well. While I think that games should only be as long as they need to be, I think that the sweet spot for JRPGs are in the 10-20 hour range. The ones that do typically don't waste your time with grinding or force a bunch of melodrama or deus ex machinas to pad the game length.

Child of Light is just like Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi but even more efficient. It takes you on a journey that is constantly in motion, but it does so in a delicate manner. You would be hard-pressed to find many games like it.
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10. Costume Quest

I'm sure that many of us have fond memories of trick-or-treating when we were kids. What I really loved about it was the element of surprise. What kind of decorations would be on display? Was the person on the other side of the door (unless they were already outside) going to be in costume and as what? What were they handing out? My absolute favorite kind of treat to receive was a mystery bag full of stuff.

These days, you are asked to put treats in a clear bag for safety reasons if you do go that route, but back then, it wasn't frowned upon if you didn't put the treats in a see-through container. At the end of the night, I would pour my bag out onto the carpet and open those bags last. I did not care if it was full of raisins and stickers. I just liked the discovery. It was the same deal with Christmas. Sure, eating candy was great, but that's not something that you tend to remember as the years go by. It is the venture into the unknown that has stuck with me.

DoubleFine's charming and perfectly-paced game Costume Quest brings back all those nostalgic memories and allows me to experience those memories once more. You play as one of two siblings on trick-or-treat night. While there's an overarching plot that takes you to several locations, all of them involved you going door-to-door in hopes of scoring candy. The small window of time between knocking on a door and the reveal of whether the otherside is a human giving out candy or a monster that will battle you is one of the most emotionally-fulfilling moments in a game (having the perfectly tense musical cue certainly helps).
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9. Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story

Bowser's Inside Story has Mario and Luigi, you guessed it, shrink and go inside Bowser. That wasn't for the entire game, but a good chunk of it was. I totally forget why, but it doesn't matter because it's awesome. As many are well-aware, the RPG iteration of Bowser is amazing, and it's a toss-up between this and The Thousand Year Door for his best work yet. Thinking of how awsome this game was makes me sad how Dream Team failed to properly use this game as a blueprint.

As mentioned, you are inside Bowers a lot, and things work differently inside him than outside in the Mushroom Kingsdom. They didn't overexplain nor assume that you were an idiot. Dream Team was far and away the most ambitious of the M&L games. Like BIS, you found yourself in another person for large chunks of the game, well sort of. You (as Mario) were inside of Luigi's dreams and had a dream version of Luigi assist you while inside of the dream. Once again, I totally forget why, but that's not important. There were a ton of new ideas, but with new ideas come explanations. These were way too wordy, were re-explained EVERY SINGLE TIME that said ideas were to be used, and in general there were may too many breaks in the game, halting momentum and throwing off pacing.

I'm aware that I have talked about Dream Team as much as Bowser's Inside Story, but sometimes playing other games gives you a more appreciative perspective on another game.
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I was expecting family to visit, but that was pushed back to tomorrow, so next write-ups might not be until Thursday.
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Bumpers
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tag
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8. Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean

There is probably no game on the list that I look more fondly at over time than this. It probably helps that it received a prequel that was a massive disappointment in my eyes, but I'm not going to get into that.

Baten Kaitos is a card-based RPG. This isn't like Magic the Gather nor like Lost Kingdoms. This game is set up just like hundreds of other turn-based RPGs except you don't go through menus to select actions but through a deck of cards. Each character has their own deck, and you can have up to three or four (it's been awhile) characters fight in a battle. Some cards can be placed in anyone's deck (healing items for example), but others are character-specific (such as weapons).

Another wrinkle to decks are elements. Many weapon cards will have an element attached. Not only are enemies often weak or strong against a certain element, but using light and dark elements as an example, using both a light and dark element in a combo will result in reduced damage since the smaller elemental damage number will be subtracted from the large one because they are opposing elements.

ANOTHER wrinkle is that cards are similar to a deck of playing cards and have sequence numbers in the corners. Since you can string a bunch of cards together with combos, you can get added bonus damage if you do the cards in a numerical order (I forget if you can also do poker hands like a full house or four of a kind).

It's a very involving yet equally satisfying setup to both deck-building and the battles themselves. Combine that with some downright gorgeous background scenery and surprisingly decent dungeon puzzles for an RPG, and you have yourself one of the most original JRPGs out there. Fucking prequel...
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I thought that I had #s 8-5 done, but I somehow forgot to do FF XII. I will do that and probably #4 for tomorrow and then hopefully wrap this all up on Saturday or Sunday at the latest.
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yay for Baten Kaitos

boo for not liking Origins
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yay shining force

kcf keeps finding more and more ways to be a great user
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Crap, I forgot to take my laptop to some place with Wi-Fi. On the plus side, I had everything typed up except for #1
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Zyxyz0 posted...

yay for Baten Kaitos

boo for not liking Origins

I don't think that I made it halfway through Origins before deciding I just couldn't go through with it anymore.
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Bump for now
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some say the topic is still being bumped to this very day.

Sorry for being unusually busy the past few days. I will post now.


7. Final Fantasy XII

As the only Final Fantasy game on this list, it goes without saying that I never cared for the franchise. It also shouldn't come as a surprise that I got this game by accident. I forget the ocassion (Easter?), but my dad wanted me to pick out a game for him to give me. I thought that I was going to get Shadow of the Colossus, but the store was sold out. I don't know why, but I panicked and picked out a game that was available. I forget what my options were, but it was FF XII that I ended up holding in my hands.

To the game though, it was the first in the series that I didn't feel like I was going through the motions at one point or another. The departure from the series' turn-based formula (I never played XI) was the main factor but that was more due to deep dynamics of the Gambit system (a wide series of commands that have X character use Y action when Z occurs) than the fact that you weren't just sitting around with the same battle screens. I don't know if this is just on B8 and just a vocal minority at that, but I am kind of surprised at the reaction to the Gambit system, specifically the complaint that the game “plays itself.” Not only is the Gambit system completely optional, but it isn't an either/or situtation. You can just have Gambits in place for healing and support magic and be in complete control of the offensive front. You could do the opposite. You could just have one character use gambits. You can do whatever the hell you want! Most complaints that I have heard on B8 regarding the Gambit system have just come across as contrarian and point fingers at it and Vaan (the main protagonist for those who don't know) for the Square Enix's decision to have the franchise evolve and go into a different direction.

I was also a huge fan of the license board, which has made me undecided if I am going to get the recent remake (I know that I totally will end up getting it). I am fine with characters being locked into a class from the get-go, especially if it is integral to their character/character arc. I am also fine with having the choice to choose what class each character belongs to, which will then get locked in. The freedom to make characters have whatever strengths and weaknesses I desire and change them as I please though is not just fine, it is ideal.

The game is basically flexibility in JRPG form, and you will hear no complaints from me about that.
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6. Monster Rancher Advance 2

As previously mentioned, I was a huge Monster Rancher fan. I own all of the mainline games except the original and DS game. While they do something differently from each other, the core has always stayed the same. Create monster. Train and feed monster. Enter monster into fighting tournaments. Retire monster. It sounds simple, and it is rather simple, but it is amazing and equally as challening once you hit the higher ranked tournaments.

When the series first started out, you had only a few breeds to choose from. Also back then, the games were famous in that you could put discs (CDs, DVDs, those AOL trials, other PS games, etc...) into your Playstation to receive your monster. This was a clever way to mirror the in-game creation of monsters as they came to existence through discs with the series' insignia. As the series went on, more and more monster breeds were added, which in turn created so many sub-types as you could cross-breed monsters. As it went to handheld, discs were no longer an option, and were replaced with the familiar word codes. While it is a shame that the novelty of the disc insertion was now gone, it was now incredibly easier to ensure that you could raise a new monster every time. For a game with nearly infinite replayability, that was more than worth the cost.

They all technically had an overarching story, but it was with the second GBA game (Advance 2) that I actually became quite invested in not for any of the sparse plot details but the challenge of raising a monster worthy of defeating a major, menacing Monster Rancher enemy called Joker.

Even after I finally achieved the ultimate goal, my interest never waned. With the seemingly endless amount of monster types comes different strengths and weaknesses, which in turn means you need to train, feed, and fight differently. Despite my long history, I have failed (as in make it to or right near the top) about as many times as I have succeeded in raising due to all the little nuances. This makes the each successful monster raising almost as rewarding the 15th time as it was the first.

The reason why I specifically put in Advance 2 is because it is the only one that I am certain that I have beaten, which was a prerequisite for making the cut. Had it not been, 2, 3, 4, and the original Advance would have all made it, likely in the 10-20 range.
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FFXII is great

(Besides Vaan who legitimately does suck)
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I haven't heard of FFXII at all, but you make it sound pretty good.

top 40 bumps of the week

#8 will shock you

You call that a bump, maggot?!

Oh crap, I didn't get on my laptop for almost two days, I realized that I had Microsoft Word open with the entries I apparently forgot to post on Monday. I can get distracted with other things with there being a 2-posts-per-minute limit.
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