What a lovely couple. Here's my gaming couple experience: My wife loves videogames but never played Nintendo games (she always played Xbox, mostly FPS), when we got married and moved together she started to watch me play Zelda TOTK, I was 70 hours in and she just liked to watch but one night she asked me of she could play a little of Zelda, I had no issue with it so after a little tutorial about the controls I let her explore the massive world at her will. Next thing I know, she was 272 hours in, with almost all armors and all of the map clear and I had to settle with just play a bunch of old JRPGs in my Retroid Pocket 3 (which is totally awesome too by the way). 😂 Now we are tag team playing Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance, she loves to explore and grind but not to fight against the bosses, she immediately hand me over the control 😂. Anyway, great video, is lovely to see couples bond trough games, specially JRPGs.😊
this video is so sweet, interesting and novel for me ❤ there's even a doggie on the couch back there 🔎 it's funny that my boyfriend and I are somewhat opposite of your video's idea😂 I play 99% JRPG games, including gacha ones, but I ask him to play Resident Evil or Silent Hill games, so that I would watch it like a movie. I'm a huge horror fan of any kind of media, but I'm afraid of the action happening in horror games while holding a gamepad 😂 anyways, thanks for the video and sending good vibes to your family ❤
I can see your wife’s perspective when it comes to Final Fantasy 4, since I just played through and beat it for the first time about a month or two ago and had a great time. The ATB system rushes the player and easily punishes the player for making mistakes, but that’s what I kind of like about it. I like the “anxiety” I get from frantically rushing through the menus for the right option so I can beat the enemy before they can attack. The thing about FF4 is that it’s not a good starting point for RPGs as a whole, but is probably the best starting point for getting into Final Fantasy, since many of the fan favorites in the series use the ATB system that originated from 4. i think the idea of you playing while she experiences the story is great, since she found FF4’s story the most interesting and can be used for future games you play, where the gameplay isn’t clicking but she’s enjoying the story, also she might pick up on what you’re doing and try to emulate it or you could guide her through the gameplay with some friendly backseating Now, Super Mario RPG. This might be my bias speaking, but I think your wife might have a better time with “Paper Mario” or it’s sequel “the Thousand-Year Door” which is available on the switch. It keeps the action commands and humor. It has an appealing Art style. Only 1-2 party members to manage. Also, puzzles to solve. Not to mention no isometric camera and getting an advantage by attacking enemies in the field/overworld. I remembered a there was a guy I think his name was Razbuten who was also trying to introduce his partner to video games and this video reminded me of it, because he also tried JRPGs, so if you’re looking for inspiration might want to check him out Also, as a fan of the Ace Attorney series I hope the two of you have fun with that and enjoy it as much as I did when I first experienced them. As for recommendations, going off of what her history with gaming is I would suggest staying away from action RPGs like Tales and I’m not sure of your stances on strategy RPGs like Fire Emblem if you’re down for that I’d suggest an entry with the “Casual Mode” that removes the permadeath mechanic. So, let’s just stick with turn based since those seem more her bread and butter She plays: Dragon Quest 5 Easy to understand gameplay and beloved story in the Dragon Quest community Earthbound She likes Undertale, this inspired Undertale, might as well check out the inspiration Paper Mario Already went over Pokémon Crystal/Soul Silver This game is meant to be played more casually like Animal Crossing because there are events that only trigger on specific days of the week. It also features a lot of the original Pokemon. Pokemon is also regarded as baby’s first baby JRPG Final Fantasy 10 I mention this one since you can actually see the turn order and I remember that being an issue for her in the other games. She may or may not like the story; it differs from person to person. Other drawback might be the Sphere Grid, but it’s not the most complex imo Paper Mario the Thousand-Year Door Went over earlier, but I will say every chapter feels like a parody of movie genres and it works because it’s Mario Pokémon Black & White I mention this entry because it is the most story heavy entry in the series, and there were no returning Pokemon so it works pretty well in vacuum Persona 5 Royal The vanilla version of the game made me realize I like RPGs/want to try out more of them, so it might click with your wife. The premise is cool, there are the social sim aspects that might appeal to her. The knockdown system is pretty easy to understand. Only drawbacks might be option overload for what to do when the player finally gets to plan out their day and understanding demon negotiation and fusion. I also personally prefer the themes of 3&4 over this entry Dragon Quest 11 I’ve only played the demo and enjoyed my time with it, haven’t been able to get around to getting the full version, but I have friends who have played it and loved it. Also, dragon quest is jrpg comfort food Yakuza Like A Dragon It’s a wacky zany game that I think has a good message She experiences (i.e. just along for the story while you play/pass the controller back and forth): Final Fantasy 6 It’s just an iconic entry, but I feel like she might have an issue with the magicite system and ATB system Final Fantasy 7 Again another icon for JRPGs with a great, yet complex story. Again I feel like she might have issue with the movement controls, materia, and ATB system Trails/Kiseki Just all of it Phenomenal story that she can digest in the correct order, but it is a massive time sink so idk how much time you’ll have for it. Well that’s everything that I have to share, sorry if it’s too much just trying to help. In conclusion, I would stick to either simple turnbased RPGs with easy to understand mechanics or games with good stories that she’d be interested in. It would also be cool to hear Jenn's thoughts on the games after finishing them, idk how well it would do, but I'd watch it.
Branden, this was great. Big thanks to Jenn for taking part in your little experiment. I would definitely agree that JRPGs have so much breadth that knowing your target audience is super important. I introduced my wife to JRPGs with Persona 3 FES while we were dating, based on her interest in dark fantasy stories (we met working at Barnes & Noble). She wound up loving it, with the characters and story being what drew her initially. While the core systems (fusion, battles, time-management) took her some time to adjust to, she wound up extremely invested in them by the time she finished her first playthrough. As someone who considers FF4 to be my favorite comfort food RPG, it caused me actual pain to hear Jenn's first experience with it was so abrasive. Don't forget that you can adjust the battle speeds for the ATB bars in the menu; slowing things down as much as possible at the beginning could be very helpful! I 100%ed the PR in 15 hours, shortest game in the collection by a lot. I still haven't properly played Undertale, but my wife 100%ed it in about 20 hours (I accidently murdered my surrogate mother during training and fled in shame...).
There's so much love and respect in your marriage; it's so great to see! As far as suggestions so, I would recommend Dragon Quest 1 or maybe Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. The latter was on the SNES and is only available through ROM sites but it's pretty straight forward and easy while introducing many concept that have become JRPG standards.
You should make this a series, if Jenn is willing. Do another set of 3 JRPGs each time and follow the same format, but refining as you go. As she gets exposed to more games she will perhaps start to build a little of that prior genre knowledge we are talking about, it would be interesting to see if she improves in that way and enjoys other games more because of it. There are so many different games with different tones, settings, art styles, appeal, etc that surely she will find ones she likes and gets invested into more. If you haven’t seen it, I suggest checking out Razbuten’s “Gaming for a non-gamer” series of videos here on RU-vid. He also takes his wife through a series of games and sees how she fares with them, it’s basically the same concept. Maybe it would give you inspiration.
I’d think Chrono Trigger over FF 1-6 as an intro from that style, especially since your wife seems to like cozy games. There’s a lot of options in the beginning in terms of what you can do, if you like playing mini games, exploration, fighting, talking to npcs, it’s all there and also has such an accessible feel to it. Put fantastic art style and music on top of all that, and then nailing the pacing. Narrative style I can see why though. Super Mario RPG already has that light hearted feel, with Undertale I much prefer the narrative when getting more serious while still looking like a charming game
Hey Brenden and Jenn, first of all Jenn is much more cute without the mustache! But that was fun to watch, interesting choice for her first JRPG, I guess I would have go with Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, for one of them! But, thanks for that!
I think another good RPG for beginners would be Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. Story is automatically charming since Studio Ghibli is involved and with the battle system, it gives a nice balance of using both Mele and Magic attacks since you get familiars to help you out. Playing this game is what got me to give Pokemon a try lol. Plus, there's an Easy mode and it IS pretty easy. I don't like playing difficult games anymore (which has led me into the Cozy genre myself), so while I am a JPRG vet, I find myself gravitating to easy games like that now. It got remastered on the PS4, so I am sure you can play it on a PS5. It got an XBox Series X/S port too. So it's easy to get. As always, I recommend getting a physical version (if it's available).
That was awesome! I woud love to have an future update hearing about Jenn and your adventures together to see what games are good for newbies or for gaming together!
I would say FFX remaster would be the best FF for beginners. Fully turn based, voice acting/not a lot of reading, somewhat modern graphics, and a great story and music.
If you guys do a 2nd one of these videos I think you should try out Final Fantasy X, the opening cutscene is a good way to get into the story right away and it doesn't use the ATB system. OR!!..... since she seemed to like the timed button presses with Super Mario RPG then I would also recommend *ahem* Legend of Dragoon!!! *ahem*. Just saying ;) Now it's time for a video of her teaching you to paint as well!
Thanks for sharing this, and it was interesting to hear Jenn's perspective as I think for those of us that have been playing these games for years, we take things for granted when recommending something to some one that does not have as much experience. I hope the Trails in the Sky remake is good and gets a dub because as a general rule of thumb, those games are not to hard when set to easy mode. We will see how the Lunar remakes turn out as those games are not too hard and are on the short side. I know you have the PS1 versions, but I suspect the remakes will see some quality of life improvements.
This was really fun and a fascinating watch as a fellow JRPG veteran. I myself struggle with Real Time Strategy games (among myriad other genres, lol), so I totally get her pain point with FF4's ATB. I wonder if she might have a better time with Bravely Default or even Octopath Traveler, even if they're so long she likely wouldn't finish. I just recall them being pretty decent about displaying attack and item information and not having ATB. Also obligatory "try Pokemon" comment, of which I'd recommend Pokemon X or Y, since they are far and away the easiest games. The biggest hurdle here would be the Type chart, which I can understand folks getting stumped by. 18 types, each Pokemon can potentially have two Types, and every single attack has its own Type as well, so there's a lot behind-the-scenes math going on there. I'd still would recommend them though since it's cute and fun. Plus, in these games you can eventually customize your player character, which is always a nice touch!
For sure! I initially was going to recommend FireRed/LeafGreen, since that seems to be a common entry point. It's the first remake of the OG games. Another option would be Crystal. It's missing some minor QoL from later games, but the mechanics are a bit simpler. The game overall is shorter than others too. Gold/Silver/Crystal did get remakes in HeartGold/SoulSilver, but the DS pokemon games are notorious for running very slowly and it incorporates some of the newer mechanics that might be confusing.
The Let's Go games are honestly pretty great for new folks since it was intended to bridge folks coming over from the Pokemon Go mobile game, but it does incorporate motion controls/timing of button presses. If she's good with that, I'd just go for the Let's go games. :)
Thank you for making this video It's actually very helpful for game design thoughts It's very rare to come across people exploring a new genre, especially in the hardcore gamer spaces I find myself in I'll definitely keep some of this inherent physiology of what the player does and thinks on base reflex and the actual appeal of a JRPG if I ever make a game in the genre She definitely was alot more engaged by Undertale, which was kinda designed to cut the bloat of 90s RPGs and keep the base appeal of it It's very interesting
My wife saw me playing P5R when it released. She liked the way it looked and the music and tried it. She's since beat it, strikers, and P3R. I'm hoping i get her to expand beyond the persona series
Thank you for the video! This is such a great idea my son loves to watch me play JRPGs but is more of a fighting and sports game player. I’m going to try the trade off method to see if he enjoys playing JRPGs himself. I definitely agree that Mario RPG probably would have been my first suggestion as it was my gateway into JRPGs. I understand the 2.5D navigation can be a pain. Maybe Thousand year door would be worth a try? I also get that the ATB system can be stressful. I like to have time to think while fighting an enemy maybe DQ 11 would be a good entry to play as well although it’s an extremely long game. Also just because I love Trails maybe the first Cold Steel game. I feel like it’s beginner friendly but it’s hard to know for certain because I’ve been playing JRPGs for decades now.
You know, I wonder if Paper Mario TTYD would be better in general than the original Mario RPG for her... I may have to give it a try. They're both funny games, but I remember TTYD being funnier.
@@JustTheGems My 6 year old daughter and I started playing through Mario RPG and while she liked it at some point she stopped asking to continue playing it. With thousand year door it's a different story she was relentless to finish it and we are now allready on a second playthrough because she wants to revisit cool moments. So I think that's a hard recommendation right there.
Aside from Mario RPG, I would also consider Ni no Kuni 1-2, DQ8 (DQXIs), Tales of Vesperia are good intros in jrpg. Which would anyone get a taste of turned based, action jrpg, monster taming in simple terms.
I would recommend Suikoden 1 as it teaches a lot of the basics with a compelling story and isn't too long. Once the remaster is out I think it would be a great choice.
Fully agree with FF4 being on the list. I've said it many times that FF4 to me is the best starting RPG. The story isn't too complex, its a nice introduction to turn-based mechanics, and its difficult to get stuck. It's also something you can finish in under 6 hours if you wanted to, and you know where to go.
If it was the original ff4 on snes or ps1, she could control a single character in the game while you fight with the rest. I played it that way with my daugther so she felt more invested than just looking at me play.
This was such an interesting take on the JRPGs for beginners topic! In terms of recommendations, Gurumin comes to mind (that game is even shorter than Super Mario RPG!).
The single biggest issue with introducing people to JRPGs is the trade-off between Quality of Life features and ease of understanding of the game's systems. When I was a kid, the original Final Fantasy and the original Dragon Warrior were fun games, with absolutel8y terrible quality of life features. The original Dragon Warrior had a spot where you had to push up against a black wall to find a secret passage, and this was before that kind of thing happened in games and there was no in-game warning or directions to figure that out. Basically, one person in our class figured it out one night by pure luck and told everyone else. Those old games had terrible quality of life features, but, to be fair, that was the wild west of video games when no one really knew that quality of life features were important. As games have progressed, quality of life features have gotten better, but game systems have gotten much better. 30 years ago, tutorial levels were not a thing, but now, they're common. These days, any new mechanic will have a tutorial battle where they'll show you how to use it, and then, of course, you completely forget how to use something 10 seconds later, but at least the tutorial battle was there, so that's something. Modern games are better at teaching players more complex systems, but you do need to have that background, that muscle memory, in a lot of cases, for anything to make sense.
not to be rude, but imo and coming from a similar place as Jenn -- what sorts of stories is Jenn drawn to? what sort of art style/visuals does she find most appealing? i think anyone can play anything as long as there's a draw to play it, even if the systems are weird or complex. i think its a bit silly to rely on any core foundational knowledge/games when people are more than willing to play out of their wheelhouse and get use to new gameplay if, frankly, the game looks cool enough. (also from one ace attorney fan to another -- another code on switch and, if you have a ds, hotel dusk. also also nancy drew sea of darkness iykyk.)
Jenn here…I am drawn to mystery, puzzles, and empathetic stories. I also seem to be drawn to stories that deal with grief but rarely in the head space to actually play them. I have a small backlog of switch games that fit that category. Visually I am drawn to games with unique art styles. I enjoy a minimalist look. I also like with things look like a painting or sketch.
I guess one of the Pokémon games would have been a good option as well. Also, I think that for someone who's not really into videogames nice graphics are an important point, so I think Dragon Quest XI would be an optimal alternative
Hmm, I find myself wondering how Jenn would feel about Bug Fables, since it was inspired by Mario RPG but has a different kind of storyline. Then again, the play/combat style of all three party characters from BF being different might be off-putting for someone new to command-line games. I'm curious to see if my wife might like Bug Fables. She was okay with trying Chicory, but she eventually got bored of it and dropped it.
The best JRPGs for beginners are Knights in the Nightmare, Xenoblade Chronicles X,Resonace of Fate,UNLIMTED Saga,The Last Remnant, Valkyrie Profile,Star Ocean Till The End of Time and Tales of Zesteria.
Really cool video, i think you should have pick up Dragon quest 1 from the snes cause is the best jrpg for begginers but besides that good picks and good video.
Sorry to be contrarian but Xenoblade 2 was the first JRPG I ever finished and what ultimately got me into the genre. I’d tried a few final fantasy games before this but the ‘mashing A’ gameplay was so monotonous I couldn’t stick with them. The layering complexity of systems in xc2 kept things fresh and engaging many hours in.
I really love anecdotes like this. It's such and interesting thing to me, and it's refreshing to hear this over someone saying FF7, or Chrono Trigger swayed them into the genre.
No, I'm actually glad to hear that! I think it's a fantastic game, but knowing Jenn, I have a feeling it would not work for her. But it's good there are folks out there who can connect with it without a strong JRPG background (that's how you grow a fanbase after all)
I have a strong dislike for FFIV and all subsequents FF for that very reason, losing a turn based battle because my reflexes or speed are not good enough is really frustrating. I think FF3 would be the ideal for beginner friendly, it introduces the job system but it doesn't overwhelm you with it.
I think 2 out of 3 choices are excellent for beginners, but I would take Undertale out and replace it with Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, if you have a way to play it (emulation?). Undertale is a fine game, but its bullet hell shooter style combat isn't the typical way to learn the genre. FF Mystic Quest is an OK game, but perfect for beginners to understand turn based mechanics.
Tales of Symphonia might be harder to get IF he doesn't have a Gamecube (or a Wii, it has backward capability). While the game did get a remaster recently, I heard it was a horrible one (otherwise I would have gotten it myself). But I think it would be decent too, it's not too bad on the difficulty level.
FF4 was first FF i truly got into, via DS remake. But FF9 was first FF i actually beaten and also loved too. I'm experiencing the pixel remakes first time, having me fall in love with JRPGs all over again. Adored FF1 so much, and just beaten FF3. FF4 is next, excited to reexperience it once more but in 2D.
