Suikoden 5 is truly a masterpiece. I think they ruined the shining force series when they switched up genre's though. Nothing they have done since can outdo shining forces 1-3 (especially all scenarios of the later). If they ever remade those it would be huge. I wonder why no one has? Do they just not like money lol?
Odin sphere and Tokyo Xanadu are so good! I wanted to play shining resonance refrain but couldn't get into the demo. Would you still recommend it even if I wasn't a fan of the demo?
I just finished Final Fantasy XII and honestly characters not being relevant to the plot is the least of the problems within the game. I actually don't mind it. The thing for me is that the combat is plain boring. It's not turn based, not action either, it just feels like a semi-idle mobile game, that and some other issues like too many secrets and no real info to discover them in-game, like bazaar recipes for example, chest having random shit and respawn instead of fixed locations locked by difficulty which is stupid and annoying, items missing information, like black/white robes not telling you they increase holy/dark damage, same of staff of the magi and other equipments, gear don't tell you about life, speed or anything like that either until you try to equip it and see for yourself, that's a thing from SNES RPG's, even PSX games did better. Sidequests doesn't prompt you with anything, you don't even know you're doing a quest most of the times, It's just awful. It's like a 5/10 for me, would not revisit that one, best thing the game had was the character building with the Zodiac Age job system and that's it.
I dont really get the list. Some of the games on it are really popular RPGs that are on most top 20 lists. Like Suikoden 5 and Grandia 2. Lufia 2 is on almost every Retor RPG list and FF12 Zodiac age has been argued to be one of the best games in FF history (Even if the original FF 12 was a mess). But i do agree that all of the games on the list are good games that ppl should atleast try if they like Jrpgs. (Shout out ot Lufia 2s endless dungeon!)
I wouldn't call Rogue Galaxy underrated. It's just incredibly meh. Outside of solid production values, it's not got much on offer. The story is wildly predictable. I was shocked at how many times I saw certain "twists" coming from a mile away. Every character is a stereotype. You have the plain-faced hero with a murky past. The obligatory princess. The obligatory rogue. The obligatory comic reliefs. The obligatory clumsy nerd. The obligatory muscle. The obligatory fan-service character, etc. etc. The dungeons all feel like mazes that feel like every path and corridor turns at a 90° angle. None of the differing systems come together cohesively. One minute you're laying down factory blueprints and the next you're battling with... robotic bugs in an arena? And the story all culminates in a rather predictable, unsatisfying wrap-up. It looks nice, but as a whole, I found Rogue Galaxy to be incredibly underwhelming.
