5 Disappointing JRPGs to AVOID 

I may have to give SF another chance

SMT is the soul like games of jrpg's

​That and saga and etrian odyssey are the 3 things my HP go to zero and my MP is null after death XD​@@svgatk

Bruh we were staaarved!!! Hahaah. We did what we HAD to!! 🤣🤣

It was one of the handful of rpgs on the 64. Thank goodness I also had a ps1. But at the time I played Quest, my brother took control of the ps1.

Yeah, I think if I'd ended up BUYING Quest 64, instead of just renting it, I would have found myself enjoying it. But since I only had it for a couple nights, it wasn't enough to get me hooked, and I just felt disappointed.

I feel like this about ‘Guardians Crusade’ on PS1. It’s so mediocre in looks, story, gameplay but I have massive nostalgia for it and it was the first true RPG I ever played.

Thanks, I do try to be courteous because I'm definitely not the objective authority on what's good and bad. I appreciate it!

While I did enjoy Octopath Traveler, your criticisms are correct. It was somewhat polarizing in that regard. The sequel does a better job of answering those complaints; not COMPLETELY, but it does move the series in a positive direction I think.

It's VERY weirdly repetitive too. Like the world map areas alternate between city adjacent and field in one big ring, almost every character chapter except one progresses exactly the same way.

Do you think the SF remaster is worth looking into?

@@JustTheGems If you enjoyed the original, then yes. But if you didn't, I don't know if anything in the remaster would make it better.

My favorite Saga game is Alliance Alive 😂I am joking but that game kept some of the weirdness of the saga games and the battle system while throwing in a more traditional narrative

@@justtatianaf1998 I got the same vibes from it, 100%

@@JustTheGems Hey, I'm autistic, and upon rereading I think I may have stated my opinion too harshly above. For the record, I totally get why someone wouldn't like SaGa Frontier. It does feel a bit piecemeal when compared to something with a proper world map and a single epic narrative. And tbh, I don't like the SaGa series as a whole. SaGa Frontier 2 bored me pretty fast. Romancing SaGa annoyed me. And Unlimited SaGa and whatever the mobile game is called just made me angry that they would charge people for such a thing. Alliance Alive does really feel like a SaGa game w/ more of a traditional RPG feel to it. I haven't made it very far(a little past where you become able to glide), but I read that you can make it impossible to learn certain skills if you don't do things quite right, so I'd need to research that more before I felt comfortable going forward any more with it. But it looks like it'll be decent once I get back around to it.

I'm pretty sure I only rented it as a kid, so I didn't have much time, and because I was disappointed from the get-go I never went back to it until now. I may see how far I can get in it at some point.

That's neat to hear. I"ve been on the fence about getting the remaster since I wasn't hugely impressed by, but I may just grab it during some sale. I'm really hoping SF2 gets a remaster also cause that one I really did love on the ps1.

I never finished Saga Frontier back in the days,just the girl story but the Remastered make me played it again,this time i finished it,it really neat game as well

It does sound like the remaster is the way to go for people like us that didn't vibe with the original

Same here. I tried many times to play the original, and wound up getting the Remaster knowing that if SE didn't fix the game, modders would. I wound up playing through most of Red's campaign, though I might have rushed the end too fast, might need to replay his campaign again and take it slower. At least it has a robust New Game+ mode where all of the "main characters" stats and equipment are preserved through different campaigns and playthroughs AFAIK. So, if I did choose to start another campaign, my characters stay leveled up which is really nice, lets one focus on the story.

😆

Lol same that was such a useless edition i wish they did more with it or are they hinting at DQ 12 battle system who knows

Yeah, my time with it was colored by a combination of skewed expectations and inexperience. I'd love to have a chance to play it completely fresh.

If I can find the time, I'm going to give the remastered version a spin.

I'm definitely going to try it

Thank you so much, that means a lot!

@@JustTheGems ah it's the Spider-Man pointing at himself meme. I thank you for entertaining me with your amazing content. You thank me for saying you make amazing content. 🤣🤣🤣

Thank you for watching! By the way, isn't there a Gameboy Color Quest game that's, like, a puzzle game, too? I'm pretty sure I didn't dream that up...😅

Thank you so much! Actually, I'm in the same boat as you, working on finishing FF16 before I start on Reverie. But unfortunately, this is when the busy season at work starts, so I don't know how much time I'll even have to get through it!

@@JustTheGems Work is an asshole. Always gets in the way on what’s really important like FF16 and the Trails series lol. Well I hope we both get to play Reverie sooner than later.

Thanks Mandy! Yeah, I remember that ad specifically and being like..... dang. The betrayal.😆

Yeah, I 100% agree, the whole feel was just off

My dumb kid brain definitely couldn't figure it out...😅 But I'd be willing to give it another chance today

@@JustTheGems Im not mad at ya, it probably isn't as great of a game as I think it is haha. I can accept it is a flawed game. I just loved it so much as a kid that I hold it near and dear

Oh I will also say I didn't like the silent protag, but the rest of the cast made me enjoy it. And I was a bit sad we didn't get a real "sequel" to the original cast. But for some reason I just enjoyed it. Made for a good duology in my mind.

Thanks! I've heard several people say they loved Xillia 2, And they ALSO disliked the loan aspect - so you're not alone there!

It's possible it did subconsciously! Do you remember the name of the FFX track?

Haha yeah, my only experience with Lagoon was watching someone speedrun it at Games Done Quick, and it looked AWFUL

The only good thing I can think of about Lagoon is the sound track.

Sure, I'm just thinking if people have followed me for a bit and find their tastes to be similar to mine, it's something they should be aware of. I don't think Xillia 2 is a bad game at all.

And Xillia 2 requires the player to have played Xillia 1, that game is already huge with two protags

Xillia 2s best feature is that all the Xillia 1 costume DLC works in it.

@@RaifSeverence The story and improved battle system did nothing for you?

If I can get my big dumb hands to be able to hold an N64 controller comfortably, I might try pushing ahead a little further in Quest, we'll see...!

@@JustTheGems coughRomscoughcough

@@mikeg5039 😂✊

Interesting - I've heard very little about Last Rebellion. I'm honestly not even sure how it plays, but I've kinda been keeping my eye out for it to give it a try. Not sure if I ever will, but who knows!

It had such a strong pedigree behind it, I wonder if their vision just wasn't achievable with their resources...

That does sound interesting, I'll make a note to check it out

Yeah, I feel like if I DO grab the remaster, it'll have to be on sale, but I'll have to make sure I'm in the mood and okay with being disappointed in case it really just turns out it's not for me.

It's soooooo painful

Its a fantastic game with a ton of Quality of life updates and new content. I love it.

Yeah, I'm hearing this quite a bit, I think that's the way to go.

The drought of JRPGs on N64 was a tough time... And you're right about the pluses of SaGa Frontier for sure. I plan on giving the Remaster a shot someday soon.

It's not even that I think the game is *awful* or anything, it just was disappointing for me because it wasn't what I was expecting. I think I might be able to get into now, though. We'll see!

Speaking of, you can count CC as a JRPG that disappointed me. Don't know if I've ever been as hyped for a game as Chrono Cross, and as a sequel to CT, I still think its pretty subpar. Maybe as it's own game it holds up - I haven't played it in ages.

Yeah, it definitely does NOT hit the same highs as CT. There are some great aspects to it, but overall it's a letdown.

well, the pr version of ff3 is... not the game i wanted. The job skill level breaks the game. As well as the ds version, it determines the number of hits, so if you changed the job of a character, you will hit nothing. And you will want to change jobs, for exanple, a fighter to Knight, monk to dark knight, everyone to dragoon, both mages 2 times, one for their upgrade and another for the sage. And it is the same game from the nes. No new dungeons or bonus dungeons like ds.

@@000adrianelpiola000 Most of the DS/GBA ports' new dungeons are entirely game-breaking and in some cases, lore-breaking and just don't even make sense why they're there, other than "NeW cOnTenT!". Like, that optional dungeon in the GBA version of FF1 was literally just random maps thrown together with no real sense that completely break the game by giving you insanely good levelup spots early in the game. Or FF4's that has you taking a group through some odd dungeon with absolutely bonkers OP weapons. So, "the game as it was with nothing new" is actually a decent selling point of a game. That means it's faithful and they didn't ruin it with a bunch of OP stuff. As for the job system and broken mechanics, well... that's just how the game was back then. It was the first game to feature a job system and it's no surprise to me that it was showing it's signs of infancy. When you buy the PR games, you know you're getting a snapshot of the time, simply updated to run of modern hardware for better or for worse. And unless you have a DS laying around or you wanna emulate, it's the simplest, easiest and overall best way to play those games. If you don't like some of the quirks of those games, since they ARE PC games, they are surely moddable and people will eventually make mods to change it.

I think my expectations had been lowered quite a bit before I played Zestiria, so I ended up being pleasantly surprised by it

@@JustTheGems I had hear bad things about it years before I bought it, but I had forgotten the details by the time I made the purchase. I did remember it had been criticized, though, so I went through the game with lowered expectations. Of course, I had to mod the game to make it work with my monitor's resolution and stop stuttering every 5 seconds, but after I made it playable, I forgot it had technical issues in the first place. Then the plot happened and now I understand why everybody criticized this game. Even with my lowered expectations, I was still disappointed.

It's a series that I have a feeling I'll connect with more now that I'm older. There are some super interesting mechanics in those games, and I've played other games that emulate some of those and enjoyed them (like Alliance Alive for example)

@@JustTheGems I'll be honest, I know nothing about Alliance Alive, but I guess I'll have to look into it haha

Silent protagonist can work in some cases, like Zelda. But it's a detriment to narrative driven games like JRPGs.

I sometimes feel alone in that, too!

I on the other Hand absolutely loved Ludger and to this Day hope for a Remake of both Xillia Games.

I wish I'd had the patience to really give it a chance back in the day... A lot of people echo what you're saying, and I definitely feel like I missed out.

Thanks! I'm pretty sure it was from The Yetee, one of their one-day-only things, I love it too!

It's interesting you mention the difficulty spikes in Eternal Sonata on PS3... I was really getting into that game, and then I hit a super hard difficulty spike, got frustrated, and quit, and unfortunately I haven't been back to it yet. I hope I do go back, because like I said, I was really enjoying it! Also, I only vaguely remember Grandia 3. That came out when I was not playing games as much as when I was younger. I know that I owned it at one point, but I don't know how far I got in it. I've gotta give that one another try I think, after I replay Grandia 1 and 2. Anyway, thanks for watching!

Yeah, I need to grab that. I think it's still on Play-Asia...

I think I'll give the Remastered a try, because I'm pretty bad at certain games....😅

LMAO Octopath and Final Fantasy VI is fake linearity. You can play at once and have the entire thing down. I find something new every time I play a SaGa game. Final Fantasy VII is my favorite game of all time and it came out the same year i play them both once a year ....I stopped finding new things 20 years ago.

Yeah, the things everyone uses to argue about have changed, but in some ways, we're all still arguing in the same way... 😅 But yeah, I'm still open to changing my mind about SF, but I have to find time to go back to it.

What FF6 has to do with frontier? I can understand you pointint octopath even if it hought it was very dissapointing compared to SF, but ff6?

@@templariox32 FF6 has an ensemble cast, each character has his/her own story. In addition there are a variety of hidden eggs for each character. Like Octopath, but with less choices, you do get a choice on which storyline to pursue as you play FF6. It's not a whole lot in the beginning, basically a choice between Cyan and Edgar or Terra...but it's there. In world of ruin it's completely open, and you have to re-recruit your party again as they made their way in seperate parts of the map. It's just an opinion, but I didn't see a compelling reason you wouldnt want to see all the cahracter stories in a playthrough, so it's more satisfying to me how FF6 takes you through each persons story...because it's semi-linear, characters you have already recruited have a reason to say or be a part of the story as you move forward, while Saga and Octopath have to stay silent (or create thousands of lines of potential dialogue for every player decision)

@@chuckhaynes9166 its not an anthology therefore not every character gets screentime and its also not anout tgeir story but instead about how they interact with the overall plot, thats the nature of FF as a franchise, which means it cant compare to SF since SF is a full on anthology that is gameplay heavy for all things. I cant find what i seek in frontier in ff6 since the free form scenario isnt a thing and the limited scope of the battle system makes it far from a battle based sandbox. It will only fullfill the needs of a fellow storylover SF is not for those

I've always liked Lufia and the Fortress of Doom.

I've heard the remaster of SaGa Frontier is supposed to make some pretty good improvements.

It's a really striking style for sure!

Same. I'm open to giving SaGa Frontier another shot now, especially with the Remaster

Honestly, even though I love Persona 5, I can understand that. It's definitely not going to be for everyone, but good on you for really giving it a try. You clearly weren't just being dismissive of it if you put that much time into it. I try to do the same with games that I end up not caring for.

Yeah, and I do wonder if I'd appreciate SaGa Frontier (and the broader series in general) more now as an adult than I did back then. I'm hoping to give it a fair shot sometime soon. And even though I thought Xillia 2 was fun, I just came away disappointed overall, like you said.

This is really interesting to hear, thanks for letting me know! I'm sure the manual covered that, but unfortunately I'm cart-only on this one.

@@JustTheGems Same here, never had the manual. I didn't know until looking online years later lol.

Honestly, I'd never say I *disliked* Xillia 2, it just didn't do what I wanted it to. But it was still a pretty great Tales game overall.

I think it was one of those one-day Yetee shirts...

SaGa Frontier is the game on this list with the most defenders, so that is motivating me to give it another chance.

@@JustTheGems Almost every SaGa game I've played I had to give it a second chance before I fell in love with it. It's usually because I'm expecting one thing and I end up disappointed only to find something else that I like about it on a second playthrough: *SaGa Frontier* Like you, I was expected something akin to Final Fantasy VII, but it wasn't that. If I had rented the game instead of buying it, I would have never played it again. Instead, I played more of it using different protagonists (while there's no 100% no-brainer choice of protag for beginners to start with, general consensus seems to lean toward *Red* or *Emilia*--even Asellus pops up as a good one story-wise (reminds a lot of people of FFVI Terra in some ways), but the middle part turns some people off). Whatever you do, don't start with Lute (no story, final objective easy to reach in the beginning) or Riki (monster mechanics take some getting used to, ESPECIALLY on a main character). In the end, I overcame the difficulty curve, fell in love with learning new techs, the gameplay, and the differences in events between the seven main protags and eventually became a diehard SaGa fan. *Recommendation for when to play*: First, as it's the most popular in the community and the characters seem to have more "charm." Again, this isn't usually seen until giving the game (and maybe the series) a second chance after being turned off the first time. Play the remaster if you want to try SaGa Frontier--there are quite a few improvements over the original. *SaGa Frontier 2* I was expecting more SaGa Frontier with multiple protagonists and races. That wasn't what this was. Instead *this one is more linear and story-focused* with two main characters/story paths that intertwine in some ways, which is a change of pace from ANY SaGa game after the first three on the Game Boy. It also has weapons that can break/have durability limits, which some people are ok with and some people REALLY hate. I was disappointed and, again, it took a second playthrough to appreciate it for what it was. This one should be approached more like Final Fantasy IV: characters constantly in and out of your party, characters have more focus in the story instead of just being "there." *Recommendation for when to play*: After playing at least two SaGa games and understanding that SaGa sequels give you Final Fantasy levels of change and not Mega Man levels of change. *Unlimited Saga* I was REALLY disappointed with this one, so it too at least a year to come back to it. It was only after playing other SaGa games that I started looking for some core SaGa mechanics (kind of like with Final Fantasy games--chocobos, Cid, spell names, Summons) instead of more specific things that I liked about past SaGas. It does have multiple protagonists with unique stories like Frontier 1 and Live A Live, but the fact that *you move your character around like a piece on a Monopoly board*...that was a HUGE turnoff my first time playing! Eventually I did beat all seven character's stories, but my brain's wired a bit different. :D *Recommendation for when to play*: LAST or not at all, unless you're curious about finding the diamonds under the REALLY rough exterior. *Romancing SaGa 3* This is probably the only SaGa game I liked the first time I played it, as it reminded me enough of SaGa Frontier (character designs, multiple protagonists). No, there are no multiple races like Frontier (or the three Game Boy games), but having techniques for more than just swords, guns, and martial arts makes up for it, along with a few non-human characters with some pseudo-unique quirks (Leonid the vampire with 0 LP being one of them). *Recommendation for when to play*: Second after SaGa Frontier if you liked it. It doesn't throw too many things at you that you wouldn't have found in Frontier ("Hmmm...that enemy just dumpster'd my ass...yep, that happened to me a lot in Frontier until I got used to it.") *Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song* This one reminded me a lot of Romancing SaGa 3 (multiple protagonists, but same story instead of multiple stories like Frontier and Unlimited or Live A Live), multiple techniques for lots of different weapons, etc. However, the mix of chibi characters with 3d models can be a visual turnoff for some. It does have a Proficiency system that's D&D-ish, but uses it WAY better than Unlimited Saga! Weapon durability returns from SaGa Frontier 2 and Unlimited Saga, but there are easy ways to restore durability and to reduce or even eliminate its effect altogether. There is one thing that can make this a tough sell even for people that love Romancing SaGa 3: the Event Rank system. Unlike all of the games above, *this game's events progress solely on how much you fight*--90% of the game's events are optional sidequests, and if you fight too much, you can actually MISS some of these quests! The entire game is like playing as Lute in SaGa Frontier (or Leonard in SaGa Scarlet Grace: Ambitions--I'll get to that below), but instead of being able to get to the last objective right away, you have to make yourself strong enough to unlock it. *Recommendation for when to play*: Probably third or fourth if you liked Frontier and RS3 (and maybe RS2). Play the Remaster for MANY quality-of-life improvements, ESPECIALLY since the menu now has an indicator on it for what Event Rank you are on as well as options for slowing down Event Rank progression, far more lenient penalties for running away from battle (1 LP for the character ordering the retreat instead of like 4 or 5 LP) *Romancing SaGa 2* This one was the least accessible to audiences outside of Japan for the longest time (Romancing SaGa 3 had a virtually complete fan-translation of its SFC version). This one can be brutal when it comes to difficulty (I call the Seven Heroes the "Seven Sodomists" for a reason). While its gameplay resembles Romancing SaGa 3 the most (no weapon durability! No Event Rank system!), the overall setting is different. *You play as an emperor and during the game you're both developing and expanding your empire*. If enough time passes, your party gets wiped out, or your emperor loses all of their LP, you get to choose a descendant to inherit the throne and their abilities. This keeps going until a certain point where you get to the end of your lineage (the character you choose at the beginning of the game). *Recommendation for when to play*: Third or fourth, depending on if you liked Frontier and RS3 and how you might feel about Minstrel Song. Again, Remaster has a lot of improvements as well as ways to mitigate some of the brutal difficulty. *SaGa Scarlet Grace: Ambitions* The newest SaGa game, this one had the potential to be the most accessible SaGa game yet with comprehensive tutorials that players expect in most modern games. However, this is SaGa after all, so there are going to be some experimental things in it. *This game is a minimalist's dream*: no dungeons, no walking through towns, select a spot on the map and you're either in a town, in some dialog resembling a visual novel, or in a battle. It's a step up from Unlimited Saga in that regard (except you're moving your character on the world map, not moving a board game piece representation of your character one spot at a time on a game board representation of a world map). It's that minimalism that turns people off from this game. *Get past that, and you have one of the best combat systems in a JRPG*: status conditions means something, techniques can manipulate your turn order, covering party members with defensive techniques become very important, using more than just your party can become important as LP is at a premium in this game. Some people feel that this is the most punishing SaGa game since you can seldom get to a "press X to win" point like with...just about every other SaGa game if you're overleveled or have busted ass techniques or spells. This one has *four protagonists* instead of the seven or eight that other titles have. Because of the game's questionnaire in the beginning, you're likely going to end up with *Urpina* or *Leonard* as your protagonists, and Leonard does have one of those "everything is optional, get to the end whenever you want, but if you get there early, you're getting bodied" progressions like Lute from SaGa Frontier, but Leonard actually has some story events that make him a lot more fleshed out (and you're actually TOLD where to go if you follow those events, unlike Lute!!). *Recommendation for when to play*: Third, fourth, or fifth, depending on how you feel about SaGa Frontier and/or Romancing SaGa 3 and if Minstrel Song and/or Romancing SaGa 2 hasn't scared you away. (I'd love to place this higher, since I spend like 1200+ hours of my life playing Scarlet Grace in order to write guides on GameFAQs, but I gotta be objective here)

I'm planning to play through 3 on the DS at some point, I do think that's probably the definitive version

Yeah, it's really interesting to see the DNA of SaGa being formed in FF2

Thank you!

I'm curious to try the PR for FF3 primarily because it doesn't change things too drastically, so it's good to hear that the changes they DID make serve to make the experience better.

It's funny, without a PlayStation I was also working to get FF7 on PC... and I ended up spending as much for a 3D accelerator card to play it with as I would have on a PS1...🤣

Favorite: that's hard. Maybe... Berseria? Xillia? It changes. Least favorite was probably Destiny if I'm being honest.

SF2 I haven't played yet, though I'd like to at least give it a try!

And also, some of the challenge of these older games is that the game pushes back against you in ways that modern games don't, from an ease-of-use perspective, but going in with the right old-school mindset can help keep the challenge manageable.

@@JustTheGems indead

I need to get myself in the mindset for some SaGa and really go into it hardcore, to see if I connect with them now that I'm an adult. I actually might.

Yeah, strategy games are hit-or-miss for me. Some I find very engaging and fun (Fire Emblem, Shining Force) and others just don't click.

@@JustTheGems Sadly for me like pretty much all of them don't click, at least from what I tried. I didn't even care for Final Fantasy Tactics. I've played exactly one strategy RPG I actually liked. Zone of Enders: Fist of Mars.

Oh not at all, I know that Astria Ascending has a pretty good-sized fan base, and the combat really is quite good. The rest of it just didn't hook me unfortunately.

LOVE Shadow Hearts!

Yeah it's funny, I actually downloaded a cleared game file online so that I could start on New Game+ and he would be voiced. Still a bummer that his interactions are so minimal though.

@@JustTheGems It is annoying that a basic game feature is locked behind NG+ which on a proper playthroigh if you do everything easily can take 100+ h. And even then, he is just bland although his character design woth dual weilding was certainly more interesting than Jude ein Xillia 1 for me. It was also awesome to be able to play as Gaius. Nevertheless Xillia 1 > Xillia 2 for me.

I haven't, I'll look him up.

Yeah, I do try and find things to like in every game I play, but if the bad outweighs the good, it's healthy to just let it go, I think.

It's 100% for the algorithm. I'm not crazy about it, but I hope people who watch my stuff realize I'm much more even-keeled than the titles might lead you to believe.

I did pick that one up, I'll give it a try!

Sf2 doesnt live up to 1 at all

It's true, though the Sakaguchi effect never quite reached the level of the Kojima effect...😅

@@JustTheGems holy good god isn’t that the truth. Poor Postapocalyptic Pregnant Presidential Delivery Boy Simulator

I consider JRPG to be a genre nowadays, not so much an indicator of where it was made. That's just to differentiate them from the style of most "western" rpgs, which tend to focus on systems over characters and story. But these are broad categories and there's lots of overlap in my view.

A lot of people seem to enjoy SaGa Frontier, so I think I'll try and give it a better chance sometime soon.

@@JustTheGems I think it's the kind of game that you either love or hate lol maybe try a more recent one like SaGa: Scarlet Grace - Ambitions

I think the main issue I had with the battle system was how choppy it felt to me, but I definitely didn't play it long enough to get used to it.

I really recommend Xillia if you can get your hands on it!

Yeah, I would really like to get Ogre Battle 64 one of these days.

True, I wanted it to go in a different direction too.

Symphonia 2 was infinitely more dissapointing to me the Xillia 2. But yeah, Xillia 2 was meh when it could have been amazing.

@@JustTheGems funny enough the originally planned final boss for Xillia 1, Origin, got backseated to a more background sorta character in Xillia 2 and having a mute main character being present in skits and somesuch really does not flow well. Plus I dislike almost all redesigns of the Xillia 1 characters.

Yeah, I kinda expect it in more Western-style RPGs, but in a Tales game it felt super out of place.

I figured I wasn't alone on that one

I remember thinking it was cool when I was a kid ... But yeah, it is truly a monster.

It's ok, I deserve the swirlies!

😳😚