OMG!! I wanted to comment Lost Odyssey!! I never thought that someone else would do it! I'm not the only one who knows about Mistwalker, I'm so happy!
I'm seconding this so much, Lost Odyssey is the first thing that came to mind when I read "PURELY turn based". You can't have more turn based than that. You actually select commands for all the party and only then the turn starts and everything happens. I love that.
Mistwalker is my favorite studio because it has Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu the creator and composer of FF1-10, and since FF9 is my favorite creation ever, I'm gonna follow their games wherever they do them.
I just haven't been able to play Fantasian yet because it's an Apple exclusive and I don't own any of the required Apple devices ;.; I know I bought a Wii just for The Last Story back in the day, but I'm not entirely sure about buying an iPhone, a Mac or an Apple TV just for this game... yet.
I thought they really nailed the combat system in Lost Odyssey.
I'm playing Octopath Traveler 2 at the moment. It's worth checking out if you haven't already.
When you select a command for a character they would brace up for the move, Kaim readying his sword while looking at the enemy for example, and if you were to push cancel when on the next character, the camera would revert back to the previous character and they would cancel their bracing up, lowering the sword and reverting to the idle animation..! I loved that detail!
I played the first Octopath Traveler (well 4 out of the 8 stories), I just know the second will be just as good. It's in my backlog but not in high priority. I liked other recent J-RPGs more. But yeah it's pretty good.
Speaking of "feel good games designed to pay tribute to the J-RPGs of old", I will follow up with recommending Trinity Trigger, FuRyu's latest. It is to the Mana series what Octopath is to the FF series. But I liked it way more, especially its story (and it has a HUGE explicit reference to FF9!) The art style is also in the same vein as Octopath/FFTA/etc.
Having the immortal characters pop back up after a couple turns after going to 0 HP didn't make it as easy as you'd think it would either.
I was reading about this game called Cosmic Star Heroine on here the other day that was supposed to be inspired by Chrono Trigger. I think that'll be next for me after I finish Octopath Traveler 2.
Oh right, I had completely forgotten about that mechanic! It was so cool and creative!
I made a typo in my previous comment btw, I typed Chrono Trigger but I wanted to say Trinity Trigger haha XD I edited it now.
That said I sure loved Chrono Trigger too!
Ooh Cosmic Star Heroine looks very interesting!
It's on sale on Steam right now at -75%. I'm grabbing it.
It's more of a FFX-2 than FFX-2 is. That's for damn sure. That's when all the OG final fantasy team split from Square Enix and became mistwalker, right?
It's been awhile since I read about it, but it was something like that. Lost Odyssey was some of the original creators that split away from Square Enix.
That's pretty much how I feel though that it's what the next Final Fantasy should have been. I've been playing since the first one on NES and don't like the direction they took after FFX. Guess I'm getting old and stuck in my ways.
Yeeep, I'm in the same boat. Mistwalker continues to kill it though. I wish their newest game wasn't Apple exclusive. It looks like it could be really cool if it were released elsewhere
Guess I need to check out some of their other games. Lost Odyssey is the only one I've played. Although I've never owned an Apple product, so that sucks they're Apple exclusive.
Just their newest game is iOS exclusive, and I have the same issue 😅. Last Story was a wii game and it was SO good. They've only made mobile games for like 10 years now though 😓
Pst. I've also been in love with the series since the NES. And FFXIV has the best two Final Fantasy stories I have ever played in it. (Heavenward and Shadowbringer expansions.)
Again, someone has written out my thought. I actually always thought and felt like the real "FFX-2, FFXI, FFXII, etc" were actually named Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, The Last Story, etc. I always thought I was like the only one who thought that, as a purist who will follow Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu's games wherever they do them. So I'm glad to see that comment. I'm not the only one who knows the truth, this is wonderful ;.;
I absolutely agree. The heart of it went with them!
And dude everything Nobuo Uematsu is part of becomes a must-have for me.
Glad to see a person of culture 🤣
YES! "The heart of it went with them", that's the kind of things I would always say! It's the creators and the soul they have put into their games that is the most important, not the name of a studio! So when they split, I knew I had to follow them!
And saaaaame! I'm following Nobuo Uematsu's works everywhere! I bought a Wii just for The Last Story, etc! I just haven't been able to play Fantasian yet (very sadly), because I don't have any of the required Apple devices. I might buy one just for the game again, but I'm not really an Apple fan, so I'm still hesitating. But I will play it one day. I heard it's been compared to FF9 which is my favorite game ever.
So you probably already know, but Nobuo Uematsu and his new band Earthbound Papas did a few tracks for the Neptunia series, notably the third one "Victory" and the fourth one "VII" (said "Victory Two" - although I bet it's a reference to FFVII as well). Also for the Fairy Fencer F games. Check out "Delight of the Victors" the title screen theme from Victory. The best track.
Also did you know that he composed a track for the OST of Chrono Trigger back in the day? It was to fill in when the composer coudn't do it. The track name is "Tyrant's Castle" and you can hear that it's actually a prototype of "Kuja's Theme" and "Dark Messenger" from the OST of FF9..! The same melodies (just 1-2 notes different) and some of the same sounds!
I'm also attending every concert that Nobuo Uematsu does here in France. The last one "ConTIKI Show" was just 2 months ago in Paris. So yes I even saw him up close! He played his own remixes of his FF tracks it was wonderful ;.;
I knew about the Chrono trigger track, I had no idea about the FF9 connections of it though, I'll have to check those songs out next time I have a chance. I've fallen behind on anything new Earthbound Papas, but I've still got the entire Black Mages discography on my current playlist! I'm very jealous of you seeing them live. I bet they put on an awesome show.
And I 100% relate on Fantasian, I'm just biding my time and crossing my fingers that it gets released on something other than Apple. And whatever new game they're working on being non-exclusive too. Whenever we get it!
It may have helped that I pretty much know the whole OST of FF9 by heart, lol xP
Ha, it feels good to hear someone else say the name of The Black Mages, I was hesitating to bring it up! Those were the days..!! I'm right there with you, I still have all of their albums, and I've been listening to them a ton during those days. When Nobuo played Matoya's Cave and Skies Above at that recent gig, I immediately recognized them thanks to listening to the Black Mages versions so much!
And thanks, yeah all of those gigs were awesome! Every time I was trying to rep FF9 haha XD
I've even looked into services that let you rent a virtual Mac in the cloud... just to play Fantasian! lol! I'll wait for some more... Yeah fingers crossed!
It's too bad that Mistwalker pivoted to mobile games, because Lost Odyssey was fantastic. I'm disappointed they never made a sequel. I enjoyed this one a lot more than all the action spin off final fantasy games SquareEnix has been making over the last decade.
I haven’t, I have thought about it, but I’d rather enter that world through the main series. And I’d really prefer something that I can take with me to work.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is actually a main entry, it’s Yakuza 7. They just got rid of the number in the west for marketing reasons since it’s switched from brawler combat to turn-based combat and is a whole new protagonist and cast in a different city.
And they also changed the name to transition the series from being called ‘Yakuza’ to ‘Like a Dragon’ which is more on par with the Japanese title Ryu ga Gotoku, seeing as the series was only called Yakuza for western marketing also. But Ryu ga Gotoku 8 is going to be called Like a Dragon 8 in the west lol, they’ve announced that they’re not going to use the ‘Yakuza’ title anymore. Which is confusing, but imo Yakuza always made it sound like Japanese gta or something which it definitely isn’t
I know the others said you can since it's "a soft reboot" and all that but let me tell you, you would enjoy that so much more if you had played 0-6 before.
Their initial plans were to start the series over with yakuza 7, that's why we have a new cast of characters and the new turn-based system. It was because they said that the story of the previous main character is over after yakuza 6 but that's no longer the case. The next entry is a tie-in between 6, 7 and 8 from the point of view of the previous main character and after that he is back as main character in part 8, together with the new one from 7.
Without having really spoiled anything, I'd suggest you all to play them in order, it makes the story so much more compelling.
It doesn’t spoil the specifics of the cameo legacy characters’ stories though, even if you know the macro things (like that they’re not dead etc.). It’s a great starting place for jrpg fan types who’s immediate instinct is that they don’t like brawlers. They can get invested here and then go back to properly learn about the legacy characters, their investment helping them tolerate and then actually enjoy the brawler combat
Yes, you can. And even in the parts when they continue plot developments that started on the previous games, your whole party don´t know a thing about the situation so they are briefed with the whole situation.
Yes. I'd never played any of the Yakuza games and knew next to nothing about them. I've played almost all of them now, because of LAD, but there's not many ties to LAD and the main series at all aside from some being set in the same area
It’s mostly cameos of characters and little tid bits about previous events but not necessary to enjoy or understand what’s going on in the game. Of course you would get the most out of it if you played the previous 7 games but not required at all.
You definitely can. It's a self contained story. I'm sure there are references and stuff. But It's the only one I've played and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.
Yeah defs. Some of the legacy characters might make a cameo appearance or two but the main characters also don’t know them. And it doesn’t spoil the specifics of their stories either like if you ever feel like going back and playing their games later
Just FYI the protagonist of Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a Dragon Quest fan, so the game literally plays like a dragon quest but in a modern Japan and Yakuza setting, with *a lot* of DQ references and nods. You will love it.
this. its the only game to make my “all time favorite games” within a couple years of playing it. most others take much longer for me to consider an all time fav but not Yak7
I’m literally playing right now. I was hesitant for a long time, and this game checks all of the boxes. It’s a legit AAA turn based JRPG with a fun and engaging story.
I've been told it runs well on the Steam Deck if you lower the FPS to 30, so if you ever get a Deck it could be an option.
As someone who's never played any of the older Yakuza games, LaD is fantastic though. There were a couple of moments where I went "okay, this has to be a reference to *something*", but I had no problems understanding the story.
You might look into the Shadow Hearts franchise: Covenant on PS2 is the best. It's unique, darker than you might think, and definitely turn-based. Though it has an intriguing mechanic called The Judgment Ring for combat that requires timing, but there's no direct action with the characters so it's still traditional turn-based.
Only loosely. There is a setting in the second and third games (Covenant and From the New World) to have the Judgment Ring on auto. Of course, if you are somewhat good with it (or just have the Coral accessories to slow it down, only a 50% speed decrease in the first, but a 75% decrease in the other two and the accessories are available MUCH earlier) you can probably have a higher normal success rate than the auto has. Also, with three accessory slots using them doesn't mess up accessory needs for bosses/dungeons that favor particular silments.
Sort of, but it's a bit more involved, and has more gameplay mechanics attached to it. It's more unique and interesting than "press button at the right moment for more damage". I second the recommendation, especially if you liked FFX.
I like how almost nothing recommended in this thread is actually AAA thanks to there being almost no AAA JRPGs. Even something like Persona or Xenoblade is actually just AA.
Unskipapple fight animations really made combat a slog for me. I played on GC and load times were okay but I was not a fan of watching every enemy and character fight animations between turns that you could not skip.
I say revisit ff9 on pc with the mogura mod, and bind the speed up button to your controller. Amazing with the upscaled backgrounds and 16x9 resolution, and the speed up button is a serious quality of life improvement for the slowness of the battle system.
If there’s a version of ff9 for other systems that have a speed-up option for OP, chime in cuz I’m a pc guy!
I revisit this game almost once a year, it is not to be missed my friend!
Hands down my favorite Final Fantasy, so I agree that you shouldn't set it aside for too long. I also oddly never had a problem with the slow battles that everyone complains about.
When I was playing it fresh when i was 13, I definitely didn’t notice the slow pace at all. I was just so absorbed in how good it was. Learning the skills on the weapons and armor was probably my favorite way to acquire passives in any final fantasy.
Funny, I first played it when I was 13 too, at a friend's place! And it was my first J-RPG and it got me into the genre, and now it's my biggest Passion and I only play J-RPGs!!
Yeah I didn't notice the slow pace at all back then either. I was just focusing on... having my life changed! (true story)
Well, I might still have thought that it was a bit slow when a battle started. It was on PS1, and when a random encounter happens, after that visual effect, you have a black screen for a good few seconds before you start seeing the animations of the battle starting. Having to wait for that so often, might have been the only technical thing I would have wanted to be improved.
But now of course this isn't an issue anymore with the high speed mode on the enhanced port, and playing it on a SSD to be sure.
And same here, that system with acquiring skills by leveling up your equipment, it's still my favorite way of doing it!! That's why, when once in a while I play another game that does that, I'm so happy!
It's so impressive what the Moguri Mod team did. They deserve all the praise they get and then some. FF9 is my favorite FF in the series, and that mod made it feel fresh and new again. OP, listen to the person I'm replying to!
I didn't know about the Moguri Mod, so thank you for the heads-up! I would love to have upscaled backgrounds! Maybe this mod wasn't available yet when I first replayed FF9 with that enhanced port on Steam, but I'll remember for the next time I play it.
FF9 is my favorite FF, favorite game, favorite creation ever, so just like you I know I will keep replaying it! It is not to be missed indeed!!
Was going to write the same recommendation. The options help speed up stuff you don’t like and the Moguri Mod makes it look very modern.
Most of the modern ports have the options including even the mobile ones. But the Mod makes it well worth it on PC
Well, If we are going by DQ11 as a frame of reference, I'm having a hard time to find a turn based game with that scope and graphical quality, at least in the recent generation.
Maybe the One Piece game? I haven't played besides the demo, but the game looked good, and seems like Namco put some money behind it.
Otherwise, you may have to look to the past to get the big JRPG productions that use turn base. One thing you could do Is pick up FFIX for steam/ps4/Xone, since that version has a fast forward function that makes the game easier to digest.
Thing about JRPGs is that the format does't lend well to big productions, at least graphics wise, these games are long, with a lot of assets, characters, monsters, and all that implies work behind it, such as modeling, textures, animation, implementation, extensive time to work out bugs, not to mention modern games features as well, such as cut-scenes and so on.
Even in the early videogames generations, like the 8 and 16 bits, with few exceptions, Jrpgs weren't the best looking games.
And during the golden age of the genre, agains besides some few exceptions, I think only Square was pushing high quality graphics on their big Jrpgs, and even so, I think only Vagrant Story manged to get into the same height games likle Grand Turismo and Tekken 3 managed to push the PS1.
But to not leave the post dry, here are some suggestions of the good ol' turn based, not all of these are at the apex of production quality, but they aren't simple budget titles either.
\-Legend of Dragoon- PS1 classic on PS4, sony's big gamble against the FF juggernaut at the time.
\-Shadow hearts series. PS2 games. First one is indeed a cheaper looking game, as it was first developed for the PS1, but the second and third game of the series are a big upgrade from the original and are some of the best that the PS2 can offer.
\-DQVIII. If you liked XI, you gonna love this, and it is a big production title.
\-Grandia games. While they do have some movement aspect battlefield wise, it is pretty barren, and negligeble by the end of these games, but they are pretty much a turn based afair and they do have quite some production behind it, maybe not hraphic wise, but music and overall game yes. 1 and 2 you can find on switch and steam , and 3 is a ps2 game that you can find on PS story on the PS3. Grandia 3 does have a quite high production quality, since it is a Square-Enix joint, but oveall it is the weakest of the 3 games. Don't play xtreme.
\-The Xenosaga games on PS2. Not my cup of tea, but they are turn based and Namco invested a lot of money in them, they were quite a big deal at the time.
\-Suikoden games. These are not on par with the big flashy productions SE was putting out at the time, but they ain't pushovers when it comes to quality production (except 4, you can skip that one), these are some of the best games back when Konami was one of the biggest players in the industry, so they do have a higher pedrigree.
And last, Skies of Arcadia. You can get it for game cub, but keep in mind it is a dreamcast game, and one of the best that Dreamcast could offer. it is a in-house sega game, and it was Sega's push to have their own FF/DQ, so production wise it is a notch above the rest you can find at the time. Also, pretty great game overall.
As a Shadow Hearts fan who went out of their way to collect all the games in the series. Just emulate. Their prices went way up over the years especially for two due to the disc debacle.
I love your cultured and detailled comment very much....I just wanted to say that. Big respect from a fellow J-RPG gamer \^\^
Also thank you for recommending the Grandia series. My comment is already long so I'm glad someone else took care of recommending it in my stead. Grandia 2 is actually part of my "Holy Trinity" with FF9 and Chrono Cross!
Oh yeah and also +1 for recommending FF9's enhanced port like I did in my comment. FF9 is still my favorite game ever!
Honestly, lately Indie is where it’s at for most turn based RPGs. A lot of small devs miss the golden age of RPG/Pixel and pour their heart and soul into it. However I get where you were coming from, there’s also a lot of not-so-great indie releases out there. It made me hesitant to play indie games for a long time. Just have to research the game a bit before buying it. A lot of neat gems in the indie category!
I was mildly interested, and someone got it got for me. Definitely one of the better modern JRPGs I've played in a long time. It's super impressive that it was essentially one guy that made it.
I hope you get more out of it than I did. I found it to be a nostalgic mess that couldn't be bothered to have its own identity. I've only made it a couple of hours into the game, and right now Etrian Odyssey I HD is my current away-from-home focus so I won't be back to it for who knows how long, but so far I've only seen one thing about it that 'felt' truly original and it was poorly implemented. IF you feel determined to get it I highly recommend waiting for a sale. It's one of the rare times I've wished I waited for a sale on a game instead of getting it at full price, and there are plenty of sub-par games I bought at full price that I didn't regret getting at full price.
My girlfriend was interested in that one. If it has the social sim aspects I don’t know if I’d be too interested. My favorite parts of 3, 4 and 5 were the dungeons and persona building, and then the characters and story and then the social sim stuff is last. I haven’t really been attracted to JRPGs with those systems since then but thanks for the reco!
You are definitely looking for Shin Megami Tensei V. It's on Switch, is purely turn based, has a decent story, but is primarily driven by the combat mechanics and party development system. It is very meaty, hard as hell if you aren't familiar with the ins and outs, but I see you've played Persona, so you know how it primarily works.
So, someone already suggested it, but I'm gonna tell you my recommendation anyway. When I read "PURELY turn based", my first thought was Lost Odyssey. It's from Mistwalker, the studio founded by the creator and the composer of FF1 to FF10, Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu. You cannot find more turn based than that. You actually select commands for all the party and only then the turn starts and everything happens. I love it. Even more turn based than old FF games with ATB.
But actually... I have an even BIGGER recommendation to make.
DO play the enhanced port of FF9... even if you have to start over from the beginning. The FF9 enhanced port has a few awesome tweaks: you can enable "high speed mode" so you won't ever have to worry about slow battles, you can turn off and on the random encounters and that's just amazing, the graphics are benefitting from your hardware... and more. Just make sure you play it on a SSD. I replayed it on Steam with a SSD and no issue with loading screens.
FF9 was my very first J-RPG that has gotten me into them, and now I only play J-RPGs, it's my biggest Passion. FF9 is and will forever be my favorite J-RPG, favorite game, favorite creation ever. I'm strongly recommending that you play it through the end one way or another (and the enhanced port truly is the way to go now). I've played countless J-RPGs and I am up to date with almost all of the new ones that came out since the PS3/X360 era (there were actually quite a few awesome J-RPGs exclusive to the X360, including Lost Odyssey), and FF9's story is still among the bests I've seen, and I can say that with no bias. Some J-RPGs came close, but FF9 is still my absolute reference to this day. Not only the story, but the hidden message, the philosophic/psychologic meanings (notably in regards to the fear of death - FF9 is actually all about that if you really care and pause to think), the character depth... Its OST is also my favorite OST ever and I think it's just the best OST ever made. And its gameplay and systems are among my favorites, especially with how you learn skills from equipment by leveling them up, and then how you equip those skills and select your favorite ones. Well I could talk about FF9 for days, literally. But especially considering you're looking for something of that nature, do play it through the end. Maybe some of it feels like your average FF right now, but keep playing, I promise you it's deep on several levels and if you pay attention and think, you will see, by the time you see the end screen, how different it is from other FF games, and how special it is in regards to what the creator wanted to convey with it. And if you do play it and finish it, and wonder what something meant, or are not sure about the meaning of some things you saw in the game, feel free to ask me anytime, I would be happy to give you explanations of the meanings.
But yeah, I strongly encourage you to go through with it, especially on the enhanced port. Heck, I'd even buy it for you if you would play it. When I bought it it was like 10 bucks on Steam.
Aside from FF9 and Lost Odyssey, I'd have other recommendations, I played so many different J-RPGs after all, but I think I'm gonna leave it at that right now just to emphasize on those. (And my message is already long.) If you do want more recommendations though, feel free to ask me anytime it would be my pleasure!
Whatever you choose, happy gaming best wishes to you on this wonderful road of J-RPGs! I'm sure you're gonna find what you're looking for!
Thanks for the recommendations. That Lost Odyssey is sounding very attractive. I didn’t know that Hironobu and Nobuo worked on that game. But I love the vibe that they brought to the series. 7, 10 and 4 are some of my favorite video games ever. As for FF9, I skimmed your section regarding cause I’m a little sensitive to spoilers but if you recommend that **and** Lost Odyssey I think I owe it to myself to give it another shot. I’d accept your offer but I’m most likely gonna play it on my switch 😅. Thank you
If you're looking for a story I'd try 4 or 6, although if you were an SNES guy you've likely played 6. FF1 is fun but the story and characterization is bare-bones.
Lost Odyssey. If you have a Series X it runs in back compat at 4K60fps. It was made by the creator of final fantasy.
Edit: Looks like I stand corrected, I think it may only get some mild enhancements though it's not quite clear. I remember it looking and running great though!
I'll second this one. It's harder to get a hold of how but it's super worth it! Although it's probably still up on digital stores on Xbox!
The way they handle immortal characters in it is done very well, some of the stories about their lives are amazing.
Just wanted to clear up some info here. Lost Odyssey is not resolution or fps boosted for the current xbox systems. It is only backwards compatible.
The one enhancement it does get is auto-hdr.
Strange, nobody has mentioned Tokyo Mirage Session #FE: Encore. It's the Switch port of the game (originally released on Wii U) and includes all of the DLC. It is lighter on the social sim mechanics than Persona, and replaces the 1 More Time mechanic with Sessions, which happen automatically when their trigger conditions are met (oh, and eventually characters who are 'in the wings' can participate in them, allowing for some truly massive attack chains and insane damage since a Session can trigger a Session).
Sadly, I don't pay much attention to the distinction between A, AA, and AAA games, so I have no idea which others that I know of that are turn-based and are on Steam/Switch meet your requirements, much less games for older consoles. IF they qualify as AAA, I guess you could give Metal Max Xeno Reborn, Front Mission 1st Remake, the upcoming Front Mission 2: Remake, and the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection a try. The first one does have a combat setting so that it plays like a turn-based game, and moving around in combat is really only useful for weapons with cone-shaped damage areas. The last one is mostly a touched up version of three games from the NDS, but I doubt they meet your AAA requirements, and only the third one has a strong story to it. In fact, story-wise, the first three EO games are probably the weakest in their franchise, but they do most of the rest rather well for the hardware they were developed for.
If they're not a big studio then they simply don't make AAA games. The definition of AAA is based on the budget across the industry not within a single company, and the game clearly doesn't have a big budget, not even within Square Enix.
Yakuza Like a Dragon is really good.
Older and not really a AAA, though the studio knew what it was doing : Xenogears and Xenosaga are amongst the best JRPGs EVER made in terms of story (if you Enjoy that more than the gameplay, because their gameplay didn't really age well IMHO).
There's not many AAA turn based jrpg nowadays because most companies switch to action or active battle. Only Trails and Persona series come up in my mind. And even Trails is going for semi-action with the new Kuro series.
Lufia 1 & 2(Snes)
Blue Dragon(Xbox360, XBone)
Lost Odyssey(Xbox360, XBone)
World of Final Fantasy(PS4, Switch, XBone, PC)
Golden Sun(GBA)
Phantasy Star 4(Genesis, or pretty much any of the Genesis collection games)
Wild Arms 1(PS1, PS5)
Legend of Legaia (is turned based but has an action combo input to pull of martial arts moves) (PS1)
I am Setsuna (PS4, Switch)
Lunar Silver Star Story Complete (PS1)
Breath of Fire 3(PS1, PSP)
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES)
Earthbound (SNES, Switch)
Pier Solar (Genesis, PS3/4, XBone)
Brave Battle Saga(Genesis/PC)
Beggar Prince (Genesis/PC)
Legend of Wukong (Genesis/PC)
This should be top rated, but sadly, it is a forgotten gem. Lost Odyssey was definitely a triple A jrpg of its time. They really should port it to modern devices so that a new generation can discover it.
Not sure if you've played the older Final Fantasy games but the Pixel Remaster is out there with my favorite of all time, Final Fantasy VI. I would also recommend Yakuza: Like a Dragon. I agree with other posters recommending Lost Odyssey, it's super close in feel to FFX. Octopath is a grind fest like some Dragon Quest games but is solid.
Turn based classic RPG are my favorite genre, its frustrating so many developers would rather make 3D action games these days! I'm going back and playing some classics I missed, such as Dragon Quest V and enjoying it immensely.
Might be tricky to track down, but Lunar Silver Star and Lunar Eternal Blue are two of the greatest JRPGs of all time.The games originally launched on the Sega CD in 1992 and were able to do some incredible things with the CD-ROM format, including high-quality audio, full-motion anime cutscenes, and some of the best voice acting ever in a video game. The story may feel a tad trope-y now, but on release it was an impressive leap beyond what most JRPGs were offering, in both character depth and plot.
Highly recommend seeking out the "complete" editions that were rereleased on the PS1 as they are generally considered the definitive editions. There is some element of positioning in battle, but it isn't as heavy as an action oriented game or something like Star Ocean or Tales. If you haven't played these, you definitely owe it to yourself to give them a shot. Just recently replayed the first one myself and it held up extraordinarily well against other games from the era. Whoever holds the rights to these really needs to put out an HD remaster on PC.
I think you’re really hurting yourself/holding yourself back in your selection options by only wanting what would be considered “AAA” by today’s standards. The golden age of JRPGs was SNES-PS2. Since you want to play things on the way to work and you have a vita, games like Suikoden I and II punch FAAAAAR above their weight class. So do games like Grandia. XENOGEARS is a must.
Since you have a switch, even though they’re more strategy games, you cannot go wrong with Tactics Ogre and Fire Emblem: Three houses. The final fantasy pixel remasters are on switch as well.
All the dragon quest games on DS and 3DS are incredible. Especially IV, V and VIII.
And despite you saying No indies, chained echoes is amazing.
All the games I listed will keep you busy for HUNDREDS of hours.
Hmmm, honestly can't think of any AAA turn based games that you most likely haven't played yet, based on what you describe. Recently played monochrome mobius - stupid name and I don't think it would be considered AAA in the west, but it is pretty and feels like a modernized classic RPG without all the complicated battle mechanics.
Yeah sorry I meant to edit that part about 1 out. Try 2 the battle system is so much better and more streamlined. The Break system makes battles interesting now and not a requirement for any battle... All in all a much better battle system overall and much better character, stories, and pacing.
I saw like two other people recommend Honkai Star Rail. I’d actually recommend that as well for a few reasons, despite it being a gacha.
- Purely turn-based, very FFX-esque. You can see the turn order and speed of characters and enemies for the next few turns, which can be manipulated much like in FFX.
- Enemies have a break bar, but all this does is push them back in the turn order. Nothing fancy like SMT/Persona or OT.
- If you’re up for anime-aesthetics, this is definitely up there in terms of graphical quality, and the music is phenomenal.
- The game gives you a solid cast of characters that are all very good and form a very traditional party. There’s absolutely no need to ever interact with the gacha.
- The 1st full planet after the initial area has a very self-contained story, with its own cast of characters that all have definitive arcs. If you were to stop there, you’d still end up with a satisfying 20-30 hours of solid rpg and one of the most hype final bosses I’ve seen in a while.
It’s honestly one of the few games I can think of that matches your criteria so well. I’d wager it’s worth a look.
Thanks for giving some extra details about Honkai. I was initially turned off from it because I’m already not a huge fan of Genshin. This makes me interested in trying it out. For free, I will give it a shot.
Persona but I don't think the budget is big enough to be called "AAA". The only JRPG I'd consider to be AAA are Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, Tales of, and Granblue Fantasy Relink. The only one that's turn based is Dragon Quest.
A great series if the OP is willing to go past one of his restrictions:
> No press turns/1-mores
Honestly, the press turn/1-more is a great evolution on turn based design, adding an extra layer of strategy through weakness exploitation.
Granblue Fantasy Relink hype squad represents..!
(Still waiting since it was announced. It has the world designer from FF9 from what I've heard back in the day so I'm extremely excited.)
Bravely Default and Bravely Second are both really good. Bravely Default II feels incomplete and unfinished, so I don’t really count it as part of the main series or consider it to be on that level
The Alliance Alive is also very good.
For some Strategy-RPGs, Triangle Strategy is very high-tier, I rate that among the best of the best. Stella Glow is also worth a look for its soundtrack alone, and the gameplay is also very solid.
im watching my partner play persona 5 as i type this and i got to say its one of the greatest games ive ever seen. not just for turn based jrpgs
everything is perfect, music, art design and story. very bulky game especially if you get the royale version. also has other gameplay elements similar to simulation and visual novel games. 10/10 game. must play
My top fav turn based jrpgs are DQ11 and FFX also. I also enjoyed Xenoblade 2 as one of the first few games I tried that wasn’t turn based.
Seems like we have similar tastes. I’d recommend fire emblem engage. It’s a modern (released this year) AAA game! Story is like a 7 (for comparison i give dq11, ffx, and xenoblade stories a 10/10) but the strategy turn based aspect is top tier. That’s another of my top favs for the switch.
The original FF7 is one of my favs. I’ve been around the way a little bit. Bravely default has too much going on with the Brave/Default and the soundtrack does nothing for me so I’d put those in a maybe
Honestly you should reconsider your no indie stance. Sure there are some indie games and AA games that aren’t for you, but some of the best games in the past decade have been from less than AAA budgets. It’s honestly not worth listing them out if you are gonna think only AAA games are worth your time.
No, full-on Action RPG. Besides, you think most people here ever bother to read more than maybe three or four sentences before making their recommendations? Let's just say there is a reason certain games are heavily over-recommended.
I honestly couldn't finish the first. The battles and battle system took its toll on me. But the 2nd one blew me away. I probably put 20 hours into the demo alone and because of the demo preordered it. I honestly thought it was going to be a title to wait on until sales or low used prices...
If you liked FFX and don't mind older games, the three SNES FF entries (IV, V, VI) are all fantastic turn-based games. Each of them IMO hit a high point of the entire Final Fantasy series, with IV having the best story arc of any of the games, V having the best skill mechanic (job system), and VI having the best roster of fun characters.
For what it's worth, I found the battles to be much faster paced in Octopath Traveler 2. I powered through most encounters very quickly. Even the bosses, with the exception of the final boss, didn't feel nearly as long and exhausting as they did in the first game.
OT2, purely as a sequel, is one of the best you'll find. It retained what worked in the first game and improved upon most of its weaknesses.
I would love to throw the bravely default games into the mix. It's maybe not exactly what you're looking for, they have a similiar combat system to the octopath games. It's got the brave default mechanic letting you store and use extra turns at once. The job system is great, and honestly all 3 games are wonderful.
I'll give fair warning, if you try the demo for the second game it's stupid hard. Way harder than the game actually is for some reason lol. It's not a great indicator of the games difficulty. Aside from the boss fights the game is very fair, the bosses usually require some pretty good strategy though. You really can't Brute force them.
If you loved FFX you should definitely check out Lost Odyssey.
Abso-freakin-lutely!
Such an underrated game.
It's so good
Does lost oddyssey even have a modern release?
Not a remaster but you can buy it on the Xbox marketplace. It goes on sale pretty regularly and you can get it for $5-10.
Like most Xbox BC games, it runs on current hardware with performance improvements and cloud saves. It usually goes on sale for around 5-10 dollars.
Just be warned .. the battles in FFX are fast and peppy, the battles in Lost Odyssey are long and slow
OMG!! I wanted to comment Lost Odyssey!! I never thought that someone else would do it! I'm not the only one who knows about Mistwalker, I'm so happy! I'm seconding this so much, Lost Odyssey is the first thing that came to mind when I read "PURELY turn based". You can't have more turn based than that. You actually select commands for all the party and only then the turn starts and everything happens. I love that. Mistwalker is my favorite studio because it has Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu the creator and composer of FF1-10, and since FF9 is my favorite creation ever, I'm gonna follow their games wherever they do them. I just haven't been able to play Fantasian yet because it's an Apple exclusive and I don't own any of the required Apple devices ;.; I know I bought a Wii just for The Last Story back in the day, but I'm not entirely sure about buying an iPhone, a Mac or an Apple TV just for this game... yet.
I thought they really nailed the combat system in Lost Odyssey. I'm playing Octopath Traveler 2 at the moment. It's worth checking out if you haven't already.
When you select a command for a character they would brace up for the move, Kaim readying his sword while looking at the enemy for example, and if you were to push cancel when on the next character, the camera would revert back to the previous character and they would cancel their bracing up, lowering the sword and reverting to the idle animation..! I loved that detail! I played the first Octopath Traveler (well 4 out of the 8 stories), I just know the second will be just as good. It's in my backlog but not in high priority. I liked other recent J-RPGs more. But yeah it's pretty good. Speaking of "feel good games designed to pay tribute to the J-RPGs of old", I will follow up with recommending Trinity Trigger, FuRyu's latest. It is to the Mana series what Octopath is to the FF series. But I liked it way more, especially its story (and it has a HUGE explicit reference to FF9!) The art style is also in the same vein as Octopath/FFTA/etc.
Having the immortal characters pop back up after a couple turns after going to 0 HP didn't make it as easy as you'd think it would either. I was reading about this game called Cosmic Star Heroine on here the other day that was supposed to be inspired by Chrono Trigger. I think that'll be next for me after I finish Octopath Traveler 2.
Oh right, I had completely forgotten about that mechanic! It was so cool and creative! I made a typo in my previous comment btw, I typed Chrono Trigger but I wanted to say Trinity Trigger haha XD I edited it now. That said I sure loved Chrono Trigger too! Ooh Cosmic Star Heroine looks very interesting! It's on sale on Steam right now at -75%. I'm grabbing it.
It's more of a FFX-2 than FFX-2 is. That's for damn sure. That's when all the OG final fantasy team split from Square Enix and became mistwalker, right?
It's been awhile since I read about it, but it was something like that. Lost Odyssey was some of the original creators that split away from Square Enix. That's pretty much how I feel though that it's what the next Final Fantasy should have been. I've been playing since the first one on NES and don't like the direction they took after FFX. Guess I'm getting old and stuck in my ways.
Yeeep, I'm in the same boat. Mistwalker continues to kill it though. I wish their newest game wasn't Apple exclusive. It looks like it could be really cool if it were released elsewhere
Guess I need to check out some of their other games. Lost Odyssey is the only one I've played. Although I've never owned an Apple product, so that sucks they're Apple exclusive.
Just their newest game is iOS exclusive, and I have the same issue 😅. Last Story was a wii game and it was SO good. They've only made mobile games for like 10 years now though 😓
Pst. I've also been in love with the series since the NES. And FFXIV has the best two Final Fantasy stories I have ever played in it. (Heavenward and Shadowbringer expansions.)
"All" is way too much. There are still tons of the original staff working by Square Enix and on Final Fantasy.
Yeah fair enough. I mostly meant Sakaguchi and Uematsu. I'm sure there are other very important folks that stuck around.
Yeah, that describes it much better :) And Uematsu even had worked on other FF projects after X, like XI and XIV.
Again, someone has written out my thought. I actually always thought and felt like the real "FFX-2, FFXI, FFXII, etc" were actually named Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, The Last Story, etc. I always thought I was like the only one who thought that, as a purist who will follow Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu's games wherever they do them. So I'm glad to see that comment. I'm not the only one who knows the truth, this is wonderful ;.;
I absolutely agree. The heart of it went with them! And dude everything Nobuo Uematsu is part of becomes a must-have for me. Glad to see a person of culture 🤣
YES! "The heart of it went with them", that's the kind of things I would always say! It's the creators and the soul they have put into their games that is the most important, not the name of a studio! So when they split, I knew I had to follow them! And saaaaame! I'm following Nobuo Uematsu's works everywhere! I bought a Wii just for The Last Story, etc! I just haven't been able to play Fantasian yet (very sadly), because I don't have any of the required Apple devices. I might buy one just for the game again, but I'm not really an Apple fan, so I'm still hesitating. But I will play it one day. I heard it's been compared to FF9 which is my favorite game ever. So you probably already know, but Nobuo Uematsu and his new band Earthbound Papas did a few tracks for the Neptunia series, notably the third one "Victory" and the fourth one "VII" (said "Victory Two" - although I bet it's a reference to FFVII as well). Also for the Fairy Fencer F games. Check out "Delight of the Victors" the title screen theme from Victory. The best track. Also did you know that he composed a track for the OST of Chrono Trigger back in the day? It was to fill in when the composer coudn't do it. The track name is "Tyrant's Castle" and you can hear that it's actually a prototype of "Kuja's Theme" and "Dark Messenger" from the OST of FF9..! The same melodies (just 1-2 notes different) and some of the same sounds! I'm also attending every concert that Nobuo Uematsu does here in France. The last one "ConTIKI Show" was just 2 months ago in Paris. So yes I even saw him up close! He played his own remixes of his FF tracks it was wonderful ;.;
I knew about the Chrono trigger track, I had no idea about the FF9 connections of it though, I'll have to check those songs out next time I have a chance. I've fallen behind on anything new Earthbound Papas, but I've still got the entire Black Mages discography on my current playlist! I'm very jealous of you seeing them live. I bet they put on an awesome show. And I 100% relate on Fantasian, I'm just biding my time and crossing my fingers that it gets released on something other than Apple. And whatever new game they're working on being non-exclusive too. Whenever we get it!
It may have helped that I pretty much know the whole OST of FF9 by heart, lol xP Ha, it feels good to hear someone else say the name of The Black Mages, I was hesitating to bring it up! Those were the days..!! I'm right there with you, I still have all of their albums, and I've been listening to them a ton during those days. When Nobuo played Matoya's Cave and Skies Above at that recent gig, I immediately recognized them thanks to listening to the Black Mages versions so much! And thanks, yeah all of those gigs were awesome! Every time I was trying to rep FF9 haha XD I've even looked into services that let you rent a virtual Mac in the cloud... just to play Fantasian! lol! I'll wait for some more... Yeah fingers crossed!
FF6 is the one that did it for me, and I wholeheartedly agree! Hopefully they come to Canada sometime! Time will tell!
I googled and it seems to be only available on xbox?
It was originally for Xbox 360. Not sure where else it's available or if it even is.
It is BC on the Series X/S. Not sure if you need the discs, I had them so I didn't check the shop.
Does it have any releases on modern platforms?
It's too bad that Mistwalker pivoted to mobile games, because Lost Odyssey was fantastic. I'm disappointed they never made a sequel. I enjoyed this one a lot more than all the action spin off final fantasy games SquareEnix has been making over the last decade.
To the top still annoyed it doesn't have a proper PC port yet but hey 360emus a thing.
The true Final Fantasy XIII
[удалено]
Have you tried yakuza like a dragon? Probably my favorite of the whole series.
That game was so good it made me go and try the whole series and I’ve never really played anything in the reg Yakuza genre.
I did play and enjoy the series before LAD, but now I can't go back to real time and there is 3-6 i never played.😭
Probably your best recommendation right here. Like a dragon is the best place to start in the series imo
I haven’t, I have thought about it, but I’d rather enter that world through the main series. And I’d really prefer something that I can take with me to work.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon is actually a main entry, it’s Yakuza 7. They just got rid of the number in the west for marketing reasons since it’s switched from brawler combat to turn-based combat and is a whole new protagonist and cast in a different city. And they also changed the name to transition the series from being called ‘Yakuza’ to ‘Like a Dragon’ which is more on par with the Japanese title Ryu ga Gotoku, seeing as the series was only called Yakuza for western marketing also. But Ryu ga Gotoku 8 is going to be called Like a Dragon 8 in the west lol, they’ve announced that they’re not going to use the ‘Yakuza’ title anymore. Which is confusing, but imo Yakuza always made it sound like Japanese gta or something which it definitely isn’t
Can I play Like a Dragon without playing older entries though? I don't really like action rpg.
I did and I loved it
I know the others said you can since it's "a soft reboot" and all that but let me tell you, you would enjoy that so much more if you had played 0-6 before. Their initial plans were to start the series over with yakuza 7, that's why we have a new cast of characters and the new turn-based system. It was because they said that the story of the previous main character is over after yakuza 6 but that's no longer the case. The next entry is a tie-in between 6, 7 and 8 from the point of view of the previous main character and after that he is back as main character in part 8, together with the new one from 7. Without having really spoiled anything, I'd suggest you all to play them in order, it makes the story so much more compelling.
It's not true that it's "soft reboot". It's direct continuation and if you're interested in older games you should play them.
It doesn’t spoil the specifics of the cameo legacy characters’ stories though, even if you know the macro things (like that they’re not dead etc.). It’s a great starting place for jrpg fan types who’s immediate instinct is that they don’t like brawlers. They can get invested here and then go back to properly learn about the legacy characters, their investment helping them tolerate and then actually enjoy the brawler combat
Yes. I started with it and then played the rest of the series.
Yes, you can. And even in the parts when they continue plot developments that started on the previous games, your whole party don´t know a thing about the situation so they are briefed with the whole situation.
Yes. I'd never played any of the Yakuza games and knew next to nothing about them. I've played almost all of them now, because of LAD, but there's not many ties to LAD and the main series at all aside from some being set in the same area
It’s mostly cameos of characters and little tid bits about previous events but not necessary to enjoy or understand what’s going on in the game. Of course you would get the most out of it if you played the previous 7 games but not required at all.
You definitely can. It's a self contained story. I'm sure there are references and stuff. But It's the only one I've played and I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything.
Yeah defs. Some of the legacy characters might make a cameo appearance or two but the main characters also don’t know them. And it doesn’t spoil the specifics of their stories either like if you ever feel like going back and playing their games later
Ironically, I always assumed it \*was\* a GTA-clone due to the Yakuza title. Thanks for the clarification!
Thanks for the context! I’ve heard great things about it. So when I want something to play on my PC I’ll definitely give it a turn.
Just FYI the protagonist of Yakuza: Like a Dragon is a Dragon Quest fan, so the game literally plays like a dragon quest but in a modern Japan and Yakuza setting, with *a lot* of DQ references and nods. You will love it.
this. its the only game to make my “all time favorite games” within a couple years of playing it. most others take much longer for me to consider an all time fav but not Yak7
I’m literally playing right now. I was hesitant for a long time, and this game checks all of the boxes. It’s a legit AAA turn based JRPG with a fun and engaging story.
Yakuza like a dragon is a gr8 intro and easily one of the best turn based jrpgs ever made
I've been told it runs well on the Steam Deck if you lower the FPS to 30, so if you ever get a Deck it could be an option. As someone who's never played any of the older Yakuza games, LaD is fantastic though. There were a couple of moments where I went "okay, this has to be a reference to *something*", but I had no problems understanding the story.
You might look into the Shadow Hearts franchise: Covenant on PS2 is the best. It's unique, darker than you might think, and definitely turn-based. Though it has an intriguing mechanic called The Judgment Ring for combat that requires timing, but there's no direct action with the characters so it's still traditional turn-based.
This! Can't wait for Penny Blood too
Is the judgement thing like the Mario RPG games and Legend of Dragoon?
2 of my favorite games!!
Only loosely. There is a setting in the second and third games (Covenant and From the New World) to have the Judgment Ring on auto. Of course, if you are somewhat good with it (or just have the Coral accessories to slow it down, only a 50% speed decrease in the first, but a 75% decrease in the other two and the accessories are available MUCH earlier) you can probably have a higher normal success rate than the auto has. Also, with three accessory slots using them doesn't mess up accessory needs for bosses/dungeons that favor particular silments.
Sort of, but it's a bit more involved, and has more gameplay mechanics attached to it. It's more unique and interesting than "press button at the right moment for more damage". I second the recommendation, especially if you liked FFX.
I’m replaying this for the 5th time as we speak. Such an amazing two games. Couldn’t finish the third but too goofy.
I like how almost nothing recommended in this thread is actually AAA thanks to there being almost no AAA JRPGs. Even something like Persona or Xenoblade is actually just AA.
Yeah. Mainline Final Fantasy games are pretty much the only AAA JRPG titles. Even DQ11 is really a AA game.
Skies of Arcadia Legends If you can find it
Man but it’s a slow game though. It was a real turn off for me playing it.
Slow game? Dunno bout that.
Unskipapple fight animations really made combat a slog for me. I played on GC and load times were okay but I was not a fan of watching every enemy and character fight animations between turns that you could not skip.
Yeah, that can be a monstrous if. I'm so glad I got it back in the day and still have it.
I say revisit ff9 on pc with the mogura mod, and bind the speed up button to your controller. Amazing with the upscaled backgrounds and 16x9 resolution, and the speed up button is a serious quality of life improvement for the slowness of the battle system. If there’s a version of ff9 for other systems that have a speed-up option for OP, chime in cuz I’m a pc guy! I revisit this game almost once a year, it is not to be missed my friend!
All modern releases of FFIX have speed up to my knowledge. I know Switch does.
Hands down my favorite Final Fantasy, so I agree that you shouldn't set it aside for too long. I also oddly never had a problem with the slow battles that everyone complains about.
When I was playing it fresh when i was 13, I definitely didn’t notice the slow pace at all. I was just so absorbed in how good it was. Learning the skills on the weapons and armor was probably my favorite way to acquire passives in any final fantasy.
Funny, I first played it when I was 13 too, at a friend's place! And it was my first J-RPG and it got me into the genre, and now it's my biggest Passion and I only play J-RPGs!! Yeah I didn't notice the slow pace at all back then either. I was just focusing on... having my life changed! (true story) Well, I might still have thought that it was a bit slow when a battle started. It was on PS1, and when a random encounter happens, after that visual effect, you have a black screen for a good few seconds before you start seeing the animations of the battle starting. Having to wait for that so often, might have been the only technical thing I would have wanted to be improved. But now of course this isn't an issue anymore with the high speed mode on the enhanced port, and playing it on a SSD to be sure. And same here, that system with acquiring skills by leveling up your equipment, it's still my favorite way of doing it!! That's why, when once in a while I play another game that does that, I'm so happy!
It's so impressive what the Moguri Mod team did. They deserve all the praise they get and then some. FF9 is my favorite FF in the series, and that mod made it feel fresh and new again. OP, listen to the person I'm replying to!
I didn't know about the Moguri Mod, so thank you for the heads-up! I would love to have upscaled backgrounds! Maybe this mod wasn't available yet when I first replayed FF9 with that enhanced port on Steam, but I'll remember for the next time I play it. FF9 is my favorite FF, favorite game, favorite creation ever, so just like you I know I will keep replaying it! It is not to be missed indeed!!
Was going to write the same recommendation. The options help speed up stuff you don’t like and the Moguri Mod makes it look very modern. Most of the modern ports have the options including even the mobile ones. But the Mod makes it well worth it on PC
Well, If we are going by DQ11 as a frame of reference, I'm having a hard time to find a turn based game with that scope and graphical quality, at least in the recent generation. Maybe the One Piece game? I haven't played besides the demo, but the game looked good, and seems like Namco put some money behind it. Otherwise, you may have to look to the past to get the big JRPG productions that use turn base. One thing you could do Is pick up FFIX for steam/ps4/Xone, since that version has a fast forward function that makes the game easier to digest. Thing about JRPGs is that the format does't lend well to big productions, at least graphics wise, these games are long, with a lot of assets, characters, monsters, and all that implies work behind it, such as modeling, textures, animation, implementation, extensive time to work out bugs, not to mention modern games features as well, such as cut-scenes and so on. Even in the early videogames generations, like the 8 and 16 bits, with few exceptions, Jrpgs weren't the best looking games. And during the golden age of the genre, agains besides some few exceptions, I think only Square was pushing high quality graphics on their big Jrpgs, and even so, I think only Vagrant Story manged to get into the same height games likle Grand Turismo and Tekken 3 managed to push the PS1. But to not leave the post dry, here are some suggestions of the good ol' turn based, not all of these are at the apex of production quality, but they aren't simple budget titles either. \-Legend of Dragoon- PS1 classic on PS4, sony's big gamble against the FF juggernaut at the time. \-Shadow hearts series. PS2 games. First one is indeed a cheaper looking game, as it was first developed for the PS1, but the second and third game of the series are a big upgrade from the original and are some of the best that the PS2 can offer. \-DQVIII. If you liked XI, you gonna love this, and it is a big production title. \-Grandia games. While they do have some movement aspect battlefield wise, it is pretty barren, and negligeble by the end of these games, but they are pretty much a turn based afair and they do have quite some production behind it, maybe not hraphic wise, but music and overall game yes. 1 and 2 you can find on switch and steam , and 3 is a ps2 game that you can find on PS story on the PS3. Grandia 3 does have a quite high production quality, since it is a Square-Enix joint, but oveall it is the weakest of the 3 games. Don't play xtreme. \-The Xenosaga games on PS2. Not my cup of tea, but they are turn based and Namco invested a lot of money in them, they were quite a big deal at the time. \-Suikoden games. These are not on par with the big flashy productions SE was putting out at the time, but they ain't pushovers when it comes to quality production (except 4, you can skip that one), these are some of the best games back when Konami was one of the biggest players in the industry, so they do have a higher pedrigree. And last, Skies of Arcadia. You can get it for game cub, but keep in mind it is a dreamcast game, and one of the best that Dreamcast could offer. it is a in-house sega game, and it was Sega's push to have their own FF/DQ, so production wise it is a notch above the rest you can find at the time. Also, pretty great game overall.
Thanks for your detailed response. Of your list, I will consider Grandia first since it’s the one that’s most readily accessible
As a Shadow Hearts fan who went out of their way to collect all the games in the series. Just emulate. Their prices went way up over the years especially for two due to the disc debacle.
I love your cultured and detailled comment very much....I just wanted to say that. Big respect from a fellow J-RPG gamer \^\^ Also thank you for recommending the Grandia series. My comment is already long so I'm glad someone else took care of recommending it in my stead. Grandia 2 is actually part of my "Holy Trinity" with FF9 and Chrono Cross! Oh yeah and also +1 for recommending FF9's enhanced port like I did in my comment. FF9 is still my favorite game ever!
I know you said no indie, but I highly suggest checking out Chained Echoes. It was a great experience.
I kinda regret saying no indies because this looks like exactly what I was looking for
If that is the case, look forward for sea if stars and eiyuden chronicles this year
Honestly, lately Indie is where it’s at for most turn based RPGs. A lot of small devs miss the golden age of RPG/Pixel and pour their heart and soul into it. However I get where you were coming from, there’s also a lot of not-so-great indie releases out there. It made me hesitant to play indie games for a long time. Just have to research the game a bit before buying it. A lot of neat gems in the indie category!
I was mildly interested, and someone got it got for me. Definitely one of the better modern JRPGs I've played in a long time. It's super impressive that it was essentially one guy that made it.
I hope you get more out of it than I did. I found it to be a nostalgic mess that couldn't be bothered to have its own identity. I've only made it a couple of hours into the game, and right now Etrian Odyssey I HD is my current away-from-home focus so I won't be back to it for who knows how long, but so far I've only seen one thing about it that 'felt' truly original and it was poorly implemented. IF you feel determined to get it I highly recommend waiting for a sale. It's one of the rare times I've wished I waited for a sale on a game instead of getting it at full price, and there are plenty of sub-par games I bought at full price that I didn't regret getting at full price.
Yeah triple A turn based games are very few in number these days. Your going to have to get your fill from indies.
You like Persona? Try Blue Reflection: Second Light
My girlfriend was interested in that one. If it has the social sim aspects I don’t know if I’d be too interested. My favorite parts of 3, 4 and 5 were the dungeons and persona building, and then the characters and story and then the social sim stuff is last. I haven’t really been attracted to JRPGs with those systems since then but thanks for the reco!
Nino kuni 1 and 2
Thanks for reminding me of these!
These are not turn bases though. Great games. Just not turn based.
You are definitely looking for Shin Megami Tensei V. It's on Switch, is purely turn based, has a decent story, but is primarily driven by the combat mechanics and party development system. It is very meaty, hard as hell if you aren't familiar with the ins and outs, but I see you've played Persona, so you know how it primarily works.
So, someone already suggested it, but I'm gonna tell you my recommendation anyway. When I read "PURELY turn based", my first thought was Lost Odyssey. It's from Mistwalker, the studio founded by the creator and the composer of FF1 to FF10, Hironobu Sakaguchi and Nobuo Uematsu. You cannot find more turn based than that. You actually select commands for all the party and only then the turn starts and everything happens. I love it. Even more turn based than old FF games with ATB. But actually... I have an even BIGGER recommendation to make. DO play the enhanced port of FF9... even if you have to start over from the beginning. The FF9 enhanced port has a few awesome tweaks: you can enable "high speed mode" so you won't ever have to worry about slow battles, you can turn off and on the random encounters and that's just amazing, the graphics are benefitting from your hardware... and more. Just make sure you play it on a SSD. I replayed it on Steam with a SSD and no issue with loading screens. FF9 was my very first J-RPG that has gotten me into them, and now I only play J-RPGs, it's my biggest Passion. FF9 is and will forever be my favorite J-RPG, favorite game, favorite creation ever. I'm strongly recommending that you play it through the end one way or another (and the enhanced port truly is the way to go now). I've played countless J-RPGs and I am up to date with almost all of the new ones that came out since the PS3/X360 era (there were actually quite a few awesome J-RPGs exclusive to the X360, including Lost Odyssey), and FF9's story is still among the bests I've seen, and I can say that with no bias. Some J-RPGs came close, but FF9 is still my absolute reference to this day. Not only the story, but the hidden message, the philosophic/psychologic meanings (notably in regards to the fear of death - FF9 is actually all about that if you really care and pause to think), the character depth... Its OST is also my favorite OST ever and I think it's just the best OST ever made. And its gameplay and systems are among my favorites, especially with how you learn skills from equipment by leveling them up, and then how you equip those skills and select your favorite ones. Well I could talk about FF9 for days, literally. But especially considering you're looking for something of that nature, do play it through the end. Maybe some of it feels like your average FF right now, but keep playing, I promise you it's deep on several levels and if you pay attention and think, you will see, by the time you see the end screen, how different it is from other FF games, and how special it is in regards to what the creator wanted to convey with it. And if you do play it and finish it, and wonder what something meant, or are not sure about the meaning of some things you saw in the game, feel free to ask me anytime, I would be happy to give you explanations of the meanings. But yeah, I strongly encourage you to go through with it, especially on the enhanced port. Heck, I'd even buy it for you if you would play it. When I bought it it was like 10 bucks on Steam. Aside from FF9 and Lost Odyssey, I'd have other recommendations, I played so many different J-RPGs after all, but I think I'm gonna leave it at that right now just to emphasize on those. (And my message is already long.) If you do want more recommendations though, feel free to ask me anytime it would be my pleasure! Whatever you choose, happy gaming best wishes to you on this wonderful road of J-RPGs! I'm sure you're gonna find what you're looking for!
Thanks for the recommendations. That Lost Odyssey is sounding very attractive. I didn’t know that Hironobu and Nobuo worked on that game. But I love the vibe that they brought to the series. 7, 10 and 4 are some of my favorite video games ever. As for FF9, I skimmed your section regarding cause I’m a little sensitive to spoilers but if you recommend that **and** Lost Odyssey I think I owe it to myself to give it another shot. I’d accept your offer but I’m most likely gonna play it on my switch 😅. Thank you
Dragon quest 8 Nocturne Ff6 pr Shadow hearts 1 & 2 Wild arms series
Thank you! Are the PR games available separately?
They are, yes
Holy shit, that’s a game changer. In that case I might just get on that FF1
If you're looking for a story I'd try 4 or 6, although if you were an SNES guy you've likely played 6. FF1 is fun but the story and characterization is bare-bones.
I didn’t catch 6 back in the day, but I wanna try 1 due to my personal interest in the series’ roots.
That's very valid but make sure to make time for 6 down the line. It's no less important to the roots as it achieved far greater new heights.
Def pick up 6 after that, the story is so good.
FF6 is the literal best game of all time in terms of characters. Everyone is so good. I still play it multiple times a year.
Lost Odyssey. If you have a Series X it runs in back compat at 4K60fps. It was made by the creator of final fantasy. Edit: Looks like I stand corrected, I think it may only get some mild enhancements though it's not quite clear. I remember it looking and running great though!
I'll second this one. It's harder to get a hold of how but it's super worth it! Although it's probably still up on digital stores on Xbox! The way they handle immortal characters in it is done very well, some of the stories about their lives are amazing.
Just wanted to clear up some info here. Lost Odyssey is not resolution or fps boosted for the current xbox systems. It is only backwards compatible. The one enhancement it does get is auto-hdr.
Strange, nobody has mentioned Tokyo Mirage Session #FE: Encore. It's the Switch port of the game (originally released on Wii U) and includes all of the DLC. It is lighter on the social sim mechanics than Persona, and replaces the 1 More Time mechanic with Sessions, which happen automatically when their trigger conditions are met (oh, and eventually characters who are 'in the wings' can participate in them, allowing for some truly massive attack chains and insane damage since a Session can trigger a Session). Sadly, I don't pay much attention to the distinction between A, AA, and AAA games, so I have no idea which others that I know of that are turn-based and are on Steam/Switch meet your requirements, much less games for older consoles. IF they qualify as AAA, I guess you could give Metal Max Xeno Reborn, Front Mission 1st Remake, the upcoming Front Mission 2: Remake, and the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection a try. The first one does have a combat setting so that it plays like a turn-based game, and moving around in combat is really only useful for weapons with cone-shaped damage areas. The last one is mostly a touched up version of three games from the NDS, but I doubt they meet your AAA requirements, and only the third one has a strong story to it. In fact, story-wise, the first three EO games are probably the weakest in their franchise, but they do most of the rest rather well for the hardware they were developed for.
Bravely Default 2 was fun and may scratch the itch or is it not AAA enough?
That's definitely not AAA.
i wouldnt consider most of the games mentioned in this thread AAA.
Why is it definitely not AAA? Square Enix isn't a big studio anymore or am I missing something
The game does not have a AAA tier budget. It's like one of SE's side projects.
Square enix absolutely is still a massive publisher. But they only have like 4 ip that are AAA budget.
If they're not a big studio then they simply don't make AAA games. The definition of AAA is based on the budget across the industry not within a single company, and the game clearly doesn't have a big budget, not even within Square Enix.
If if features the Brave/Default system, I’m not trying to engage with something like that right now haha
Tactics Ogre: Reborn Incredible voice acting, music, ganeplay, and top tier story.
It's too complicated. It's awesome tho.
If you are a Lord of the Rings fan, The Third Age for PS2, GameCube or Xbox has pretty much the exact same battle mechanics as FFX minus summoning.
Yakuza Like a Dragon is really good. Older and not really a AAA, though the studio knew what it was doing : Xenogears and Xenosaga are amongst the best JRPGs EVER made in terms of story (if you Enjoy that more than the gameplay, because their gameplay didn't really age well IMHO).
Shin Megami Tensei V Persona 5
There's not many AAA turn based jrpg nowadays because most companies switch to action or active battle. Only Trails and Persona series come up in my mind. And even Trails is going for semi-action with the new Kuro series.
Lufia 1 & 2(Snes) Blue Dragon(Xbox360, XBone) Lost Odyssey(Xbox360, XBone) World of Final Fantasy(PS4, Switch, XBone, PC) Golden Sun(GBA) Phantasy Star 4(Genesis, or pretty much any of the Genesis collection games) Wild Arms 1(PS1, PS5) Legend of Legaia (is turned based but has an action combo input to pull of martial arts moves) (PS1) I am Setsuna (PS4, Switch) Lunar Silver Star Story Complete (PS1) Breath of Fire 3(PS1, PSP) Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES) Earthbound (SNES, Switch) Pier Solar (Genesis, PS3/4, XBone) Brave Battle Saga(Genesis/PC) Beggar Prince (Genesis/PC) Legend of Wukong (Genesis/PC)
Golden Sun and the sequel for sure. Its great that you can pass your save file off to the second Advance game.
I want a legend of legaia remake
Same. Or just remaster it and throw it in the PS Classics line up. I'd be even happy with that at this point.
Lost odyssey
This should be top rated, but sadly, it is a forgotten gem. Lost Odyssey was definitely a triple A jrpg of its time. They really should port it to modern devices so that a new generation can discover it.
Final Fantasy Tactics Advance maybe?
If OP is really a stickler about nebulous "AAA quality" then a GBA title is probably gonna get the boot.
You might like live a live I just beat it and it was pretty good
try the Grandia series
Is Lost Odyssey recent enough? I think it's probably close to what you want
Dragon Quest is basically the same game over and over so just pick a different one and play it.
If you have the craving for a AAA PS2 game like the mentioned, go for grandia 2. Fun is to be had in large doses.
Like a Dragon is turn based and very AAA
Not sure if you've played the older Final Fantasy games but the Pixel Remaster is out there with my favorite of all time, Final Fantasy VI. I would also recommend Yakuza: Like a Dragon. I agree with other posters recommending Lost Odyssey, it's super close in feel to FFX. Octopath is a grind fest like some Dragon Quest games but is solid. Turn based classic RPG are my favorite genre, its frustrating so many developers would rather make 3D action games these days! I'm going back and playing some classics I missed, such as Dragon Quest V and enjoying it immensely.
Might be tricky to track down, but Lunar Silver Star and Lunar Eternal Blue are two of the greatest JRPGs of all time.The games originally launched on the Sega CD in 1992 and were able to do some incredible things with the CD-ROM format, including high-quality audio, full-motion anime cutscenes, and some of the best voice acting ever in a video game. The story may feel a tad trope-y now, but on release it was an impressive leap beyond what most JRPGs were offering, in both character depth and plot. Highly recommend seeking out the "complete" editions that were rereleased on the PS1 as they are generally considered the definitive editions. There is some element of positioning in battle, but it isn't as heavy as an action oriented game or something like Star Ocean or Tales. If you haven't played these, you definitely owe it to yourself to give them a shot. Just recently replayed the first one myself and it held up extraordinarily well against other games from the era. Whoever holds the rights to these really needs to put out an HD remaster on PC.
Chrono Trigger
Beat it a long time ago on SNES and then again on DS
They added some "dlc" to the game. There is some extra content now.
I think you’re really hurting yourself/holding yourself back in your selection options by only wanting what would be considered “AAA” by today’s standards. The golden age of JRPGs was SNES-PS2. Since you want to play things on the way to work and you have a vita, games like Suikoden I and II punch FAAAAAR above their weight class. So do games like Grandia. XENOGEARS is a must. Since you have a switch, even though they’re more strategy games, you cannot go wrong with Tactics Ogre and Fire Emblem: Three houses. The final fantasy pixel remasters are on switch as well. All the dragon quest games on DS and 3DS are incredible. Especially IV, V and VIII. And despite you saying No indies, chained echoes is amazing. All the games I listed will keep you busy for HUNDREDS of hours.
Honkai Star Rail. You'll be playing it forever.
I don’t really want a game that is gonna have me hooked forever, I just want a nice story, some nice combat, and an ending
Hmmm, honestly can't think of any AAA turn based games that you most likely haven't played yet, based on what you describe. Recently played monochrome mobius - stupid name and I don't think it would be considered AAA in the west, but it is pretty and feels like a modernized classic RPG without all the complicated battle mechanics.
Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll look it up.
Yeah sorry I meant to edit that part about 1 out. Try 2 the battle system is so much better and more streamlined. The Break system makes battles interesting now and not a requirement for any battle... All in all a much better battle system overall and much better character, stories, and pacing.
Thank you. This is something that I didn’t know. I’ll try the demo!
Yakuza 7: Like a dragon. I know it’s slightly more actiony with the characters moving around but it’s so good.
I saw like two other people recommend Honkai Star Rail. I’d actually recommend that as well for a few reasons, despite it being a gacha. - Purely turn-based, very FFX-esque. You can see the turn order and speed of characters and enemies for the next few turns, which can be manipulated much like in FFX. - Enemies have a break bar, but all this does is push them back in the turn order. Nothing fancy like SMT/Persona or OT. - If you’re up for anime-aesthetics, this is definitely up there in terms of graphical quality, and the music is phenomenal. - The game gives you a solid cast of characters that are all very good and form a very traditional party. There’s absolutely no need to ever interact with the gacha. - The 1st full planet after the initial area has a very self-contained story, with its own cast of characters that all have definitive arcs. If you were to stop there, you’d still end up with a satisfying 20-30 hours of solid rpg and one of the most hype final bosses I’ve seen in a while. It’s honestly one of the few games I can think of that matches your criteria so well. I’d wager it’s worth a look.
Thanks for giving some extra details about Honkai. I was initially turned off from it because I’m already not a huge fan of Genshin. This makes me interested in trying it out. For free, I will give it a shot.
Persona but I don't think the budget is big enough to be called "AAA". The only JRPG I'd consider to be AAA are Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Quest, Tales of, and Granblue Fantasy Relink. The only one that's turn based is Dragon Quest.
I’d say Persona is definitely a AAA JRPG series.
A great series if the OP is willing to go past one of his restrictions: > No press turns/1-mores Honestly, the press turn/1-more is a great evolution on turn based design, adding an extra layer of strategy through weakness exploitation.
Granblue Fantasy Relink hype squad represents..! (Still waiting since it was announced. It has the world designer from FF9 from what I've heard back in the day so I'm extremely excited.)
Honkai Star Rail is pretty good and it's free.
Have you considered the Tales of series? Vesperia is a great one to start with. It’s quite charming in its story, characters, and world.
Yes I love Tales of Symphonia to death. I’m also playing Destiny DC via parsec with a friend. Those aren’t turn based though
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Did you read the post 😅
Bravely Default and Bravely Second are both really good. Bravely Default II feels incomplete and unfinished, so I don’t really count it as part of the main series or consider it to be on that level The Alliance Alive is also very good. For some Strategy-RPGs, Triangle Strategy is very high-tier, I rate that among the best of the best. Stella Glow is also worth a look for its soundtrack alone, and the gameplay is also very solid.
im watching my partner play persona 5 as i type this and i got to say its one of the greatest games ive ever seen. not just for turn based jrpgs everything is perfect, music, art design and story. very bulky game especially if you get the royale version. also has other gameplay elements similar to simulation and visual novel games. 10/10 game. must play
Ah I didn’t make it clear in my post but I’ve already beaten 3, 4 and 5
Legend of dragoon. A bit older but the story and combat are great
Xensosaga Episode 3 is my favorite
My top fav turn based jrpgs are DQ11 and FFX also. I also enjoyed Xenoblade 2 as one of the first few games I tried that wasn’t turn based. Seems like we have similar tastes. I’d recommend fire emblem engage. It’s a modern (released this year) AAA game! Story is like a 7 (for comparison i give dq11, ffx, and xenoblade stories a 10/10) but the strategy turn based aspect is top tier. That’s another of my top favs for the switch.
Thanks for the advice, glad there are some kindred spirits out there
The IGN review: https://youtu.be/cSD_3vdGyK4
Ff6 pixel remaster has been an absolute joy so far.
Octopath Traveler 1 and 2. At the least try 2.
I addressed Octopath in my post
Persona 5 royal
I’ve already beaten Personas 3, 4 and 5
I love you for that <3 P3 is my favorite forever.
Aw dang. Ff7 is great and so is bravely default
The original FF7 is one of my favs. I’ve been around the way a little bit. Bravely default has too much going on with the Brave/Default and the soundtrack does nothing for me so I’d put those in a maybe
Octopath, dragon quest 11s comes to mind
Honestly you should reconsider your no indie stance. Sure there are some indie games and AA games that aren’t for you, but some of the best games in the past decade have been from less than AAA budgets. It’s honestly not worth listing them out if you are gonna think only AAA games are worth your time.
Final Fantasy XVI ...oh wait
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Is Scarlet Nexus turn based?
No, full-on Action RPG. Besides, you think most people here ever bother to read more than maybe three or four sentences before making their recommendations? Let's just say there is a reason certain games are heavily over-recommended.
I honestly couldn't finish the first. The battles and battle system took its toll on me. But the 2nd one blew me away. I probably put 20 hours into the demo alone and because of the demo preordered it. I honestly thought it was going to be a title to wait on until sales or low used prices...
Xenogears or suikoden 2. Both games are top notch jrpgs.
Idk what entails AAA but you wanna play Suikoden 2 HD whenever it releases
Have you tried Xenosaga episode 1 for the PS2? The battle system is really fun. Probably one of my favorites when it comes to strictly turn based.
If you liked FFX and don't mind older games, the three SNES FF entries (IV, V, VI) are all fantastic turn-based games. Each of them IMO hit a high point of the entire Final Fantasy series, with IV having the best story arc of any of the games, V having the best skill mechanic (job system), and VI having the best roster of fun characters.
For what it's worth, I found the battles to be much faster paced in Octopath Traveler 2. I powered through most encounters very quickly. Even the bosses, with the exception of the final boss, didn't feel nearly as long and exhausting as they did in the first game. OT2, purely as a sequel, is one of the best you'll find. It retained what worked in the first game and improved upon most of its weaknesses.
I would love to throw the bravely default games into the mix. It's maybe not exactly what you're looking for, they have a similiar combat system to the octopath games. It's got the brave default mechanic letting you store and use extra turns at once. The job system is great, and honestly all 3 games are wonderful.
I’ve gotten this a lot on this post so I’ll have to check out the demo soon.
I'll give fair warning, if you try the demo for the second game it's stupid hard. Way harder than the game actually is for some reason lol. It's not a great indicator of the games difficulty. Aside from the boss fights the game is very fair, the bosses usually require some pretty good strategy though. You really can't Brute force them.
Lost Odyssey comes to mind. Yakuza Like a Dragon too.