You guys make sure to check out Super Derek! The guy is THE place for RPGs on youtube (www.youtube.com/@SuperDerek). And huge thanks to Machine Hunter OG, the guy who made the new intro song. His handle is twitter.com/machinehunterOG and he's currently accepting commissions.
For breath of fire 2 you HAVE to play the Maeson + Retranslation hack. In my opinion, the original version has a horrible translation and miserably high encounter rate. The above fixes it.
SuperDerek - Not sure if you remember this, but a few years back, I tried calling your hot line to leave suggestion. I was a bit drunk and kept screwing up my messages. I said something along the line of, “you look like someone who calls movies cinema” or something like that. You actually played my voice mail in one of your podcast videos. I never did manage to get my suggestion out, which is why it’s so awesome you guys end up doing a collab! My suggestion was to invite Avalanche reviews on to your Sunday’s podcast.
Don't know if it was reviewed yet but... I suggest: - Ar Tonelico (Suuuuper cool management system using crystals and sync with a 'singer') - Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al Revis (Vey nice school setting and crafting)
Did you ever play the Van Helsing PS2 game? I found a copy I've had laying around since I was a kid and decided to give it a try. It's actually pretty enjoyable. Sorta plays like DMC, but it's got elements of resource management and metroidvania backtracking, not to mention that the whole gothic town/castle aesthetic gives me big RE4/Village vibes. It can get a bit frustrating when the later levels turn into bossrush with close to no resources becoming available between fights, but it's still a fairly enjoyable game throughout.
i waited for arc rise fantasia to come up, its been so long since i first asked you that question. honestly the only reason i play is for the combat, being under powered in a fight in the middle game is super engaging as you have just enough tools to get by a lot of the scenarios presented to you, but not too much to make you too over powered or to overwhelm you, and when it comes to that point when you have those options its when you have a had time to get to grips with it. it has a few difficulty spikes and demands a bit of grinding, but the grinding more or less surrounds the Materia combined with Tetris/re4 attaché case system. which feeds more rewards to you at a consistent pace which makes that grinding less of a chore overall (even if i use the turbo function the whole time), and that weapon system basically makes weapons stay consistently viable throughout a majority of the game when some of them get replaced with better variants. the weapon system is very engaging and meshes with the other systems well as you can make different builds with different characters, which all have a different weapon subtypes that attack at different ranges, you never actually have to use the main protag in the party though. L'arc being the protag, is the best character overall, that doesn't mean you have to use him, its very recommended though as he gets some of the best offensive locked weapon parts [being weapon parts you cant unlock by level up the weapon with WP (the games exp system for weapons)], the Rolex (Rogress) the summons of the game are usable by him as well, the rolex give him options to basically negate large portions of boss fights by either taking out a majority of their health bar or giving your party numerous benefits and status buffs, this paired with the passive buffs to resistances and stats that they give to L'arc puts him up there as the best. speaking of the rolex. they are the majority of the plot focus, while there is a few strands not from them, most of the fights you will be taking place in will surround rolex, or be in fights with rolex to prove your self. which while repetitive doesnt really get in the way of enjoyment, as while the story writing is overall really poor, the pacing of the story is quite good, theres never really a time where theres no reason why your doing something, and they always try to move the story along in a timely fashion for the most part there is a few outliers, but overall the plot is fairly paced throughout. and that concludes my mini essay about arc rise fantasia, this is truly a game i cant say is bad, its has so many rough spots, and can be grating at times either because of the story or some of the mechanics, but i could never say its bad, because i have immense nostalgia goggles for most of the game, and it has so many bright spots as well, so if you can pickup a copy (legally, plz, i understand if you cant tho) put it through dolphin (because the resolution is so bad and you can speed up some parts) and enjoy it, not really for the cutscenes, (although some are pretty funny) but for the gameplay, which will engross any jrpg fan throughout, it has alot of different bars, and as an jrpg fan, yknow you love bars. also props to me for having the longest comment by far sheesh
I thought about writing back a comment one letter longer than yours so I could have the longest. Arc Rise really is one of those flawed, but great kind of games. It's got a list of issues the length of my arm, but I still really get a kick out of it.
Glad in another video you mentioned Legend of Legaia, I really loved that game when I was younger. I played a lot of weird and random RPG's as a kid, and that was one that was a gem. Have you thought of adding the Lunar games to this list? I wish those games got some more love and the work that was put into Silver Star Story and Enternal Blue always deserves more love and highlighting.
Oh hey, I was actually the one who recommended Nightmare of Druaga when you were on that Mystery Dungeon kick a while ago. I'm glad you liked it enough to include in a video! Of course, Super Derek is always awesome, I think it's been a long time since you two collabed on something. Of course, just when I think you couldn't get any more gigachad putting the *entire* Breath of Fire series in the video (and exalting the greatness of Dragon Quarter) you bring in Arc Rise Fantasia, and absolute must-play on Wii. In fact, if you do play it on real hardware, I highly recommend using the Classic Controller Pro, it gives a very nice "lost late-life PS2 RPG" vibe to it. Also, I don't dive into emulation often, but I didn't know Klonoa Legend of the Star Medal's fan translation was already finished... I might just need to dust off ol' VBA
Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter is one of the best games of it's generation. Very Few RPGs and hell other games are on the same level of ambition as that game is. I use to be in the camp of not liking it, but after giving it a chance, it became one of my favorites. DQ is a funny case cause I think it was very well received by critics but not so much with RPG fans where it was divisive. The way the game is structure is very engaging and kinda akin to a survival horror game and a dungeon crawler which works very well. The story and look of it is all it's own and it probably has hitoshi sakimoto's best score. On the subject of capcom rpgs, if you do another one of these, I'd like to see your thoughts on some of the megaman RPGs. Specifically Command Mission and Star Force, which the later gets overlooked by a lot of people outside of the megaman fanbase. Didn't expect Klonoa Heroes on here, but that game is great and probably my favorite in the series. Regarding it's place in Klonoa's series, it uses a lot of characters from the main series like Guntz from Klonoa 2 Dream Championship for the GBA and Lolo and Popka from Klonoa 2 Lunatea's viel, but the story is in it's own continuity seperate from the main one. Hard disagree on the OST, I think heroes has a very memorable soundtrack, esp that theme song sung by klonoa's VA.
I have thought about trying Command Mission for so damn long now. Damn, it's crazy to see other people really liking DQ. That game really has a strong......anti fan base?
@@AvalancheReviews It's so good, it's basically breath of fire but as a megaman X sequel(Same team even). I think it's cause DQ has been more forgotten and times have hanged that it found it's audience. I can say I've seen my fair share of JP BoF that call it a "god tier game".
I wasn't prepared for Dragon Quarter to get as much focus as it did, but I'm not complaining either. I played them all and I understand that a game that was previously all about colorful fantasy-environments with a mixture of goofy humour and sometimes quite bleak plotlines hard-rejected a game that went all-in on bleak post-apocalyptic sci-fi where everything is earth and metal-toned... and that whole part where a turnbased strategy game went all in on dungeon crawl and pseudo-rogue lite gameplay, but I for one loved the planning of those fights, and slowly unraveling the plot. Maybe one day, we'll finally get a collection or something along those lines... or a Shining Force game that takes advantage of Fire Emblem becoming bigger to give us some of that good old tactical fantasy action. I didn't play it back in the day but I was charmed to see someone who had fond memories of it give me a small run-through of it. Breath of Fire and Shining-series feels like they share a "high fantasy with lots of animal-people" vibe to them that makes me wonder if the character artists in them were inspired by the same things or something. Also, apparently Time Stalkers is a cross-over game between a lot of different characters from that company, so I guess they kinda decided to go all out with a big cross-over game since I don't think they're active any longer? I'm mostly just amused by how the game has Sword's 3D-model look like a pretty standard heroic-build JRPG hero of the time, while the character art is that artists usual "lanky smirking asshole" deal.
Have you ever played Planet Laika? Every time I see it mentioned I think of your channel. It's a very weird PS1 RPG that has similarities to survival horror games of the time, and it was translated relatively recently.
Devil summer will always be a classic. I remember playing it and hating it then one day (not long after) picking it back up and realizing how absolutely amazing it is
Wow, Super Derek was the channel that led me to both you and Jimmy Hapa. Glad to see that you both were finally able to make a collab. On another note, I know RPGs are not as much of a popular subject on your channel but I'm really happy that you're able to cover them from time to time.
33:40 From what you're telling here I can certainly guess why many purist fans would dislike this installment, but I can still see why it would be your favorite. Sometimes if I like a story, or if the gameplay does something unique and interesting, I don't care if a game sticks out from its peers.
nice to see you covering games that normally get glossed over and being a huge fan of Raidou Kuzunoha games let me say its sequel VASTLY improves the gameplay and movement ;3
I don't know if you already covered it in another video like this one, but I really enjoyed Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits on PS2 [though it's the only one in the series I've played.]
@@AvalancheReviews I honestly don't remember much about my time with the game [till i read the wiki to make sure i got the right game, I'd forgotten you spend the game switching between two teams,] but I remember really liking it. I think it's the only game i've ever played with turnbased combat that had a range of movement that wasn't grid based. The range circles led to some very interesting strategising for movement and I wish more games used it [and, in general, that more RPG's would return to turn based combat. Final fantasy as basically a Hack&Slash just doesn't work for me.] Then again, even before I discovered Furry I was always low-key trash that could be swayed into liking a game if it had cool character designs and especially if it had anthro's so Valk sold me on the game just from the boxart XD
I love that the first game to come up was Time Stalkers! I really liked it from what little I've played of it but I gotta get my Dreamcast fully repaired before I start getting back into that console.
For anyone not aware, the artist for Time Stalkers, Landstalker etc,Yoshitaka Tamaki died recently. Meaning that along with the writer for illbleed and Blue Stinger, Shinya Nishigaki; we are losing many members of Climax Graphics before they have had chance for their game to be truly loved and appreciated for the weird, wonderful and offbeat creative works of art. It's truly saddening that we haven't had some kind of collection of their games (even though we nearly got illbleed and Blue Stinger on the xbox... until he died and the deal fell through). These old guard of 90s small team development seem to be dying young before we get chance to take down their history (RIP Kenjo Eno) I am assuming it's due to the culture that many of them went through during the 90s. No sleep and smoking like chimneys. Sorry, after seeing Timestalkers I just had to get that off my chest... Goodbye Climax Graphics, Goodbye Crazy Games.
Great to see another Dragon Quarter fan! I have to say though that it is most certainly possible to beat it on your first try. I did it on a new save. There were tense moments, but when I won the feeling was amazing. I had beaten the game before; so I knew how to play. It is one of my favourite JRPGs and it is hilarious because I used to trash the game all because when I was a kid, I didn't like it.
Always down for a good RPG discussion/recommendation video! 😄 Time Stalkers is one that I have been wanting to pick up. I did not have a Dreamcast back in the day, so I missed out on a lot of the goodness the system had to offer. I still need to dive more into the SMT series, and I’ll have to bump Devil Summoner up the list. Much love for the Breath of Fire series. Getting all the nostalgia chills during this segment of the video. I hope we do get a revival someday. I do appreciate the lengthy Dragon Quarter defense. 💚 It is a little sad when you find out about a gem of an RPG that never was released outside of Japan. I’ll have to look into Sacred Blaze and Klonoa sometime. Being scolded by the game in Nightmare of Druaga, I love that concept. Anything that blurs that wall between the player and the game I appreciate. I’ve never played the GBA version of Shining Force. Loved them on the Genesis! I do like the look of those GBA sprites. A great series which I agree doesn’t seem to get enough love these days. Glad you included them here! Great video, Jared! Hope all is good on your end and you had a great Christmas and have a great New Year’s! 😁
Another awesome game to add to the list someday, Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. Basically, Final Fantasy X with a lord of the rings coat of paint, one of my favorite games to visit from time time. Also, Gladius! A Lucas arts strategy rpg where you make a team of gladiators to fight in the games, travel the lands, different cities have different arenas all with unique challenges. You might have a normal brawl in one town, or have to do a bunch of king of hill objects in the next one over. Some arena's are themed, like all monsters, or more focus on heavy or light troops. Really great game, and deserves more love.
I remember kind of being hyped on that one. It looked like a real traditional RPG. I was expecting an action game. Still haven't played it yet. I'll admit I'm not much of an LoTR guy, but I'll def give it a try at some point.
Arc Rise Fantasia's combat system is PEAK in my opinion. Worth the playthrough for that alone. One of those JRPGs where, even after hundreds of fights, i'm still up for another one. Another example is Tales of Graces f. Great vid!
Always wanted to play dragon quarter. I love cel shading too. Dark Chronicle has some beautiful characters because of it. I'll be eagerly awaiting the mail man 😂
If I may comment, since I just finished playing BoF 1, I found that the main issue is the horrible translation. The game in general is good, with amazing music, a good setting, and good gameplay for the time. However, it is difficult to keep interest when the translation is so bad that following the story is almost impossible.
Cant complain about someone praising about Dragon Quarter, easily one of my favorite RPGs, the story, the presentation, the battle system, heck even the atmosphere, everything just work, if I were to complain I would say that higher D-ratio could add more cutscenes and areas to explore, would make me want to play better to get that elusive D-ratio of 1/4, and would actually really complement the name of the game
Got Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter a while ago, I didn’t even know it was the 5th game in the series. Since I wasn’t sure it was ok to play the game before playing the other I checked some reviews which were pretty negative and ultimately put me off trying the game. Ironically one of these reviews was from Super Derek.
He's still looking good!! His name is Jared!!! Great video. When it started off and you started talking about obscure mystery dungeon games. I was sure you were gonna do Azure Dreams for PS1. Check it out, it's incredibly charming mystery dungeon, sprite based, monster taming , town building and relationship building game that's totally lost over the years.
I absolutely adore about this channel. Despite me disagreeing on a lot of avalanches game design opinions they are super consistent with what they like and why they like something. This makes it so that when I watch a review I know everything I need to know about the game because of how consistent of a voice avalanche is. I don’t have to worry about different writers and contradictory reviews like IGN. Super thanks avalanche
I still have the original DQ game, play it all the time, the game really was ambitious and I think they smashed it out the park! I had no idea people didn't like it, but I can see how people didn't like the change up in style. But they are wrong it's amazing hahah
BoF Dragon Quarter was one of my all-time favorite games I played on my PS2. I got it randomly for Christmas and had never played a BoF game before. But when I put it in my PS2 and played it, I was hooked. It's one of the few games I played growing up that sticks in my memory and if I could get my hands on a fully functional PS2 It would be on that list of games I would be hunting down.
It must have been wild seeing what the other BoF games were like after having DQ be your first one. Kind of like the rest of our experiences, but in reverse.
@@AvalancheReviews Yeah, I played a few game series in reverse order before getting hooked on the franchise. BoF for example, though when it comes to Resident Evil, I didn't really get into that series until a little after my first experience with it. I was handed a copy of Code Veronica when I was still young and told that it wasn't a horror game (which to be fair, it really isn't), so when I got up the stairs at the start and entered the graveyard you can imagine what a shock to the system it was when the zombies started popping out of their graves. I didn't touch another RE title until Outbreak. That was when I became hooked on Resident Evil.
I will always agree with this. Anytime you're saying that an old RPG series needs a remaster or re release, just know that somewhere, I'm nodding my head in agreement.
If there's anything, ANYTHING, this video convinced me, it's to at least try Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter, this thing looks and sounds so sick. Thank you. Also I gotta take advantage of the retro market crashing so...
One of the ps2 games I played a bit of that had some interesting mechanics was Ephemeral Fantasia, the game itself was fairly meh but the groundhog day style story and music mini games I rather found done well enough. The grind is real though, don't think I finished it at all, but I have vague memories of saving the general from the bomb.
The breath of fire series has been on my list to experience at some point but you definitely sold me on dragon quarter in particular. The world and setup intrigues me but the resetting mechanic does make me raise a brow some. Thinking on it a bit.. is Dragon Quarter a JRPG roguelike in a way? Keeping equipment and getting more powerful each run through while unlocking new scenes/dialogue etc. Just a thought.
It is adjacent to one, that's for sure. I get being apprehensive about the restart system. It's not something sounds like it would work on paper. It really is fun as hell though.
Love your videos man, especially when you branch out and do ones like this, but maaan that was harsh what you said about the Genesis soundchip. I understand if you played some games that had shit soundtracks, they certainly exist, but there's also several games with great soundtracks on that console. SNES was not 100% better, it has a problem with hallow sounding instruments and weak bass and drums on a lot of games too. The way I see it is, both consoles had great but very different soundchips, and each one was better at certain things than the other!
The smt series is my bread and butter the press turn system makes such a difference to boring rpg combat. Though I like active combat like in paper mario or like a dragon
I thought I was the only one who loved Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter. I remember being so disappointed, playing not long after it's original release because I'd loved Breath of Fire IV so much and this was barely like the games that preceded it at all. But, something just clicked a few hours in and it became my favourite in the series. It really is a strategy title through and through with each of your trio having a role that you really need to understand.
Woooo new vid hype. Ok you like JRPGs, you like stories, you like exploring and you like games that kick you in the balls .Why have you not played Fear and Hunger yet?
@@AvalancheReviewsthe first one is very much a roguelite dungeon crawler (a la Chocobo Dungeon) and the second is so full of tropes and references you can't help but smile. I'll skip the "current year" bits I noticed in the second, but they *are* there.
Great video as always! Have you ever tried out the PS1 fan translation of Persona 2 Innocent Sin btw? Whilst I love Eternal Punishment it was actually Innocent Sin and later Persona 3 that were my first JRPG I've played! You should also try out Namco X Capcom at some point, you'll get to meet a lot of your favourite and unexpected characters from both companies and get an unexpectedly well written crossover!
I tried out that P2 fan translation back on the PSP. Loved it! I've had Namco X Capcom ready to go for so long, but still haven't really messed with it. I really need to.
@@JarlBarbossa Unfortunately not so, whilst Innocent SIn on PSP is much better than the PSP port of Persona 1, the PSP version of Innocent Sin changed how the battle system works so its not as fast as the PS1 original, as well as censored some stuff and most annoyingly of all, made the game way too easy, easier than the original PS1 game (which wasn't hard in the first place), increasing difficulty only increases the HP of the bosses and nothing else. Pretty much all these issues were fixed in Eternal Punishments PSP port and thank god that has an English translation now so that people can experience the additional story from the game's original writer, Tadashi Satomi.
I absolutely loved and still love "The Bouncer". It had insane amount of unlockables and replayability. Every single character played vastly different, characters were cool and story was also very good. Gameplay was also one of the deepest any beat 'em up ever had. Along with MGS2, they are the only 2 games ever that I've completed on every possible difficulty and have unlocked everything there was to unlock.
At the part where you're talking about the Shining Force gba remake. Think it's being talked about less because that generation of game players are just getting older and the next generation of kids probably haven't been exposed to shining force 🤔 An excellent way to experience these games is the sega genesis collection for modern platforms. Might be still on sale on the switch eShop for $7 👀 Picked up the 2nd sega genesis mini but haven't played shining force cd there just yet
Dunno what that says about your tastes. If everyone things it killed the franchise and you think it's the best/your favorite. I dunno if you can be a trusted source lol
