Putting Chained Echoes on the thumbnail is the spotlight it deserves. I never even heard of the game until about a week after it came out. Decided to give it a shot, and boy am I glad I did. It's the definition of a hidden gem, and shines in every area you can think of. It's easily in the top 3 best games of 2022, right up there with the AAA titles
@GetRinsedTV I'll he honest, I was very underwhelmed by the beginning, and especially the face portraits. But right after when you're introduced to the other main characters through their perspectives, the game REALLY grabbed me. The writing, personalities of everyone, exploration... just everything started working so well together.
Chained echos is so freaking good. It reminds me of how undertale came out of nowhere and was so freaking good. The creator REALLY succeeded with this game.
You should have mentioned that Crystal Project has a massive demo, and saves transfer to the full game. Since it's an open-ended game, the demo is restricted by areas you can travel to, rather than critical path progression. Back when the demo existed before the full game was released, I got like 10 hours out of it, then a couple of us spent like 15 more hours poking at the boundaries of the areas walled off to us to figure out where we wanted to explore next in preparation for the full game being released. We even broke into a high level area with some parkour that the dev didn't think was possible, though the areas past that one were properly restricted until the full game was out.
I grabbed Crystal Project because of your video and WOW!! Thank you man, this game is exactly what I was craving. It's like Zelda & Final Fantasy had a kid with ultra super powers.
You've inspired me to dive back into Dark Deity. I picked up the Steam version years ago when the game was in its early stages. Your footage showed off so many positive changes and extra polish that has been added, that I had to give it another whirl. I think you've also finally sold me on Crystal Project. I will have to check it out soon.
Is there any way to turn of the bleeping whenever the text is written on the screen? It's annoying as hell and makes my head hurt. I couldn't find anything in the settings to turn it off.
Dark Deity looks better than it did but the maps are still about the same, the gameplay has not improved. It’s a game I wouldn’t recommend but I’d suggest keeping an eye of the future of the devs. Hopefully they’ve learned a lot from it.
there are often good reasons why there are 1 person, most of them have the inability to work in teams or just enjoy working alone way more. Putting them together might not be the best idea.
I can relate to Legend of Wright a lot, and it brings back memories of my best friend, we used to always draw comic in class, talk about the next story progression, he would draw 3 panels and I would draw the next 3. Days, weeks, months and years. That is like our special thing, until we graduated and went on with our life. We didn't keep contact, didn't thought too much about friendships and relationships back then because I just follow the flow of life. However, as I'm older, I miss these moments, these were experiences we took for granted, there won't be any more genuine friendships in adulthood. Only deceit and benefits.
Fun fact: Kemco RPGs are not made in RPGMaker at all. They all, of the 10 or so I’ve played, all start with “Made in Unity” on screen when you start them up.
Saw others say it but wanted to mention it as well. Astlibra Revision. This is definitely going to be the most slept on jrpg of 2022. The art style will probably turn most people away but it grows on you over time and the gameplay, story and music makes up for it in stride.
@@Sieghiro Sadly only 553 of those 7k+ are in English currently. It seems from at least the language settings that over 6400 of those are from Chinese fans. So it'd be more accurate to say it's slept on by western JRPG fans though that's expected with all the cool titles that released this year.
I am interested in Chained Echoes and RPG time but I have not picked up either one yet, my favorite lesser known JRPG this year has been Monochrome Mobius but I was already a fan of the Utawarerumono series.
I have enjoyed it, it feels like it has taken some inspiration from Trails which I like and I also enjoyed exploring the world from Utawarerumono. It had some technical issues at launch but they seem to have been slowly patching them out. I do find the combat rather simplistic but I know a lot of people like that in their JRPGs.
Yeah I missed all of them lol. To be fair I did hear about RPG Time and I wanted to play it but over time I totally forgot is existence. I will need to play some of these RPG's you listed in this video!
I'd recommend Symphony of War: The Nephilim for a tactical RPG similar to Dark Deity released in 2022. The game rocks and is from a two man team. It takes the best aspects of Advance Wars, Ogre Battle and Fire Emblem, blending them together to make one of the most rewarding tactics games of the year.
Oh man, love the call out for Crystal Project. I played that game and LOVED IT. It’s shortish by JRPG standards (20 hours plus or minus), so it’s a great palette cleanser between bigger games. Very well worth the modest price.
Now this is the video I needed. I’ve been getting heavy nostalgia vibes for a good JRPG lately (been prepping another 24 hour stream so playing a few retro games we’re planning). So this list is great for me.
Happy to be of service :D And good luck on your crazy 12 month film journey coming up! Your last horror film was a banger and I can't wait to see what you make.
@@Jatendo ROFL I have it but got distracted by Sports Story before I've had a chance to start. Sports Story is awful, so I decided to replay Golf Story to see if it was actually good. And it really is. I even figured out the Disc Golf this time.
Shoutout to Ara Fell Enhanced Edition. That game is my favorite Jrpg. With a heavy emphasis on exploration, Ara Fell features a beautiful 16-bit pixilated artstyle, beautifully composed music, the characters are loaded with personality, and their stories are written beautifully, and the stat growth and crafting system is very satisfying to progress through. The turn based combat system is sound, and I recommend starting the game out on the hard difficulty.
CP was great, but CE has been DOMINATING my time recently. I have been just as into it as Elden Ring--which is a statement in and of itself. GOTY for me for sure--a mix of Suikoden 2, Xenogears, FF6, and of course Chrono Trigger.
Great suggestions! I'd add a few more which I consider to be largely overlooked: Symphony of War: Nephilim Saga is more of an SRPG in the vein of Dark Deity, but still very good, despite utilizing the RPG Maker engine. This Way Madness Lies is another interesting concept from Zeboyd games, developer of such other games like Cosmic Star Heroine & Cthulhu Saves the World, that features an all-girl party & a Shakespearian backdrop. Jack Move is a cyberpunk style JRPG with great pixel art/animation that eschews conventional party based combat for single protagonist gameplay, which uses an interesting deck-building mechanic. Highly underrated experience, IMO. Lost in Fantaland is a tactics style RPG mixed with a rogue-like/rogue-lite, that also uses a deck building concept, & plays out on small, chessboard sized maps (similar to Into the Breach), featuring grid-based combat & dynamic terrain interaction. My final spotlight isn't actually from 2022, rather released at the end of January, 2023, but I enjoyed too much to omit! That is 8-Bit Adventures 2, a delightfully old-school style experience heavy on story (maybe a bit too much, actually!), & featuring intricately designed enemy battle sprites with a classic retro presentation. Also features lite puzzle solving! None of these are quite on the same level as Chained Echoes, which is undoubtedly the breakout JRPG of the year, even considering AAA titles, but they are all nonetheless quite enjoyable in their own right, & at least worth a look if you haven't heard of or played them yet!
All Crystal Project needs is some marketing to get the word out more. It's one of the best indy games in the past year imo. Just pushed out another beta for testing the other day too. The guy is still adding to it
Rune Factory is a farming sim and romance sim with some JRPG elements thrown in as well! Xenoblade is far from hidden, but those games are my number 2 favorite ever, so I figured I'd mention them.
I love Rune Factory! Check out my favorite JRPGs of 2022 video for some love on both games ;) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-s6tgs9EUAng.html
Now that I think about it, despite playing a bunch of games this past year in 2022, not many of them were games that actually released in 2022. Much less RPGs specifically. For the most part, I was catching up on stuff I started but never finished ("Agarest Zero", "DIsgaea 4", etc) or finally got to something I missed out on for one reason or another ("Legasista", "Trials of Mana", "Sorcery Saga", etc). Looking at what I played, there's technically only like 5 RPGs actually from 2022. I say technically since I'm counting the WW release or new ports, their initial releases often weren't this year. I guess that means I just have more to catch up on I guess. As for 2022 hidden gems...I can't say I've played anything that could constitute as one. I want to count "The Cruel King & The Great Hero" (PS4/Switch, NIS) since it's very much hidden and quite lovely, just not quite gem material. Still loved the game and would recommend it to anyone interested due to it's story and aesthetic alone but it's a bit too simplistic and, despite being rather short, has some questionable pacing issues.
The "underrated" JRPG in 2022 for me was Caligula Effect 2, (Yeah, the game was released for consoles in 2021, but I played the PC port which was released in 2022). It's a unique type of JRPG which the gameplay gets its inspiration from music player apps.
One of Chained Echos selling points is you can't outpace the content's difficulty. But what worries me about it and games that try this is you don't end up feeling more powerful. Is that true of chained echos?
I bought FF7 CC and Chained Echoes on the first day. I played 1 hr of FF7 and then tried chained echoes and was hooked on it for a week. I hated FF7 CC but chained echoes saved the end year for me.
What is that game that you show in the beginning? The one that has 4 characters and team rush attack on the top left corner? Can't wait to try chained echoes. Thank you so much!
@@TheGamingShelf very nice list 👍 I found some games I didn't know before like RPG Time. I am sub'd. I'm still trying to finish the endless endgame of Tactics Ogre Reborn so I can finally play Chained Echoes.
"Chained echoes has tons of mini games!" ...it has 3 in the 1st hour and then none for the rest of the game. It just came out so I'll assume you're not very far in. Good game though.
Chained echoes easily become my Wishlist on steam and it's only around 7$ in my country currency. Definitely auto buy, when i already can get SteamDeck.
This is probably because I grew up on the PS1 and N64, but I really can't get into these SNES-like games. The big thing for me is animations and particle effects. I like seeing 3D particles for my spells and attacks and it's why games like Octopath and Triangle Strategy are right in my comfort zone. 3D polygon backgrounds, 2D sprites, and gorgeous particle effects. It's FFT and Xenogears to the max.
Great vid! Loved the recomendation on Chained Echoes, dindn't know it and it got me on the first look. I just discovered your channel and I am really happy! Oh, btw, I recognized DioField Chronicle, Triangle Startegy and obv Pokemon, but whta is the other one? Anyway, great recomendations! Keep it up. Sadly I have to disagree on Dark Deity. The pc version seems bugged, tutorials are inexistent or just a bunch of text in a box, options are basic, and story is heavily difficulto to follow since you lack information on chapter to chapter and feel like you missed something. Playable loop is inconcistent and level design is poor (sometimes they just drop you in a giant empty map). Character art is gret sometimes and hella static others, and they just shot you characters one after another withouth time to get used to the previous ones or give you time to love them. Many visual bugs on sprites appears during conversations and some characters are just sooooooooooooo unbalanced that is not worth to try on new ones. In general I feel like it is a bad GBA Fire Emblem.
RPG Time the legend of Wright looks amazing! And it's a 6 hour experience, which I think is my new favourite game-length since Jack Move. But.. Isn't €30 a bit steep? :(
@@flikkie72 ?? No. That isn't the same logic. If you tie value to length you arent being logical was my point. An experience is subjective and the value of said experience is likewise. For me personally a 6 hour experience at the quality mark and team size as wright is easily deserving of 30 euro. But it is relative. Alternatively P5 as great. It does have padding and some places hurt by pacing issues or superfluous expostion. Still worthy of 60 euro but not an experience I'd pay the price of a console for personally. Having worked on indie games and in food services I could not fault a small team valuing their hard work.
