Action RPGs

I have been playing a lot of Action JRPGs most of last year and into this year to fill the action game void and get me to Sekiro/DMC. (Side note: If Left Alive does come out in march with those games like the internet says, that could be one of the best months for Japanese action games in a long time.)
I'm specifically talking about games like Tales, Ys, Ni No Kuni 2, Kingdom Hearts, and more recently for me, I have been playing Valkyrie Profile.

I want to talk about Valkyrie Profile in this first post, though this topic is to discuss any and all of those games. VP is such a hidden gem and I am having a blast. It has everything I love in a game, good combat, interesting story, good leveling and progression system, and it is super vague on how to even play it at all, like classic King's Field or those newer FromSoftware casual cash grabs. (Mostly joking but Dark souls 2 put the nail in that series) I love when I have to really dig into a game and read faqs online/watch playthroughs to truly understand a game. If you play the new spiderman game, within the first battle, you have seen and done just about everything there is to the combat. This game is the exact opposite.

If you haven't played it, each party member is on one of the four face buttons. You select an enemy in a classic turn based way, then unleash combos in any order or string you want with the four buttons. The game rewards juggling the enemy as long as possible to get more XP and enemy drops. It's a pretty fun little system. Yeah it isn't the most in depth thing in the world, but trying to set up your party to maximize juggles is a lot of fun. Different weapons have different attacks as well, some even having multiple attacks, and a lot of them can break. So equipping your dudes is a tough choice, luckily the game let's you practice on a dummy to test your kit whenever you want.

I haven't even talked about the other main part of the game. It is time based like Dead Rising, each action, like going to town or a dungeon, consumes time. After a certain amount you have to send one or more of your party members up to fight for Asgard in Ragnarok at the end of the game. Though you can choose not to send anyone up and get a bad ending, or send up too many people and not get the true ending. It is a super weird system that can be frustrating, but is clearly meant to be played multiple times to understand. The A ending sounds impossible to get without a FAQ on your first play though so I will just end up watching it on youtube.

The ps2 sequel Silmeria looks great as well and I can't wait to try that one.

Great to see you here.

Feel free to make topics on individual games if you want to focus more on them too.

VP is such a hidden gem and I am having a blast.
Years ago I watched my brother play this. At that time I had only played the most simple turn-based like early FF series. I found many of of VP's mechanics totally bizarre, yet amazing, being the first time I'd seen such things.

The flying on the world map and timer were the main things. Combat was cool to watch with all those crazy super moves.

If you play the new spiderman game, within the first battle, you have seen and done just about everything there is to the combat.
I find most games these days never even leave the tutorial. They are constantly bombarding you with the basics. I found it particularly egregious in Batman and Tomb Raider. I'd be trying to explore and they wouldn't shut up about what to do next.

TR is probably the worst. Spidey sense, Lara never stops giving hints, and the fact that none of it is even hard. Who do they design these games for? Zombies? Though in the new TR you can turn everything off in the harder mode.

But yeah, older games had so much shit to uncover.

It is time based like Dead Rising
Love this game.
Weird, it sounds almost the same. In DR, you escort survivors back to the security room, but you don't have to. There are different endings depending on whether you took all of them or none. Not sure if there's an in-between, but there are more endings.

The ps2 sequel Silmeria
I played this a little years ago. Watched my bro play it mostly.

Welcome to the board Hedfone! Great first post!
Be sure to introduce yourself here when you have the time :)
https://stinger.actieforum.com/t6p50-welcome-new-members-introduction-topic

Left Alive totally flew under my radar, never heard of it before but from what I see it looks fantastic. Looks like a mixture of Max Payne (in its tps-sections) and just a balls to the walls action title with the mechs. Not a big fan of the visual filters plastered on top to obscure vision.
Dark Souls 2 is, unique. It did a lot of things wrong but also a lot of things right (like exclusive enemy layouts to NG+) as well as having fantastic DLC - the base was just such a step backwards. Bloodborne redeemed the studio a lot in my eyes.

> I love when I have to really dig into a game and read faqs online/watch playthroughs to truly understand a game.
This is something I miss so much in recent years, most of the things - even the little details - are overexplained. It is no secret I'm a big fan of the casual JRPG Golden Sun, which had a lot of neat little tricks to it. But in its latest modern sequel it even went so far as to explain that, if you run out of PP (mana basically), you can walk around to regenerate it. Even that little piece of data is handed to you in minutes worth of dialogue. That feeling of exploration of a game's mechanics is so rare these days. People are to blame for this sadly, you saw it with Vanquish's PC-re-release especially, with them not knowing a single advanced tactic or mechanic since the game never explains it, it just wants you to figure it out.

> VP
Game sounds very interesting. The way you describe it, it kind of reminds me of Indivisible (an upcoming Western actionRPG) and also a tad of Final Fantasy XIII. Any truth in that or am I misunderstanding? Really like your mention of weapons changing up the gameplay, I love that. Always hate how it tends to just be a pure 'stat boost'.

> Spiderman
I've seen users not the opposite, but the challenge in that game is more from playing better and more efficient than going wild with combos or other options. Not nearly on the level of the greats, but I've heard good tales from good action players (haven't played it myself).

I knew about the skull girls rpg but haven't heard anything recently. After watching some gameplay, yes it is 100% Valkyrie profile. I am excited as hell for this game now. With their fighting game background that game could have some sick juggles. I hope they can nail the difficulty, most western JRPs never have a good difficulty.

I want to try golden sun one day, hell I want to try every JRPG. They are such a time sink though.

I found Left Alive from some random googling. I have heard no one talk about it at all. I was a huge fan of cover shooters of yesteryear. Especially the Japanese takes on the genre, like Binary Domain, and Vanquish. Hopefully it turns out good.

Fantastic to hear you like Indivisble, I played a demo on the PS4 years ago and the combat system really had me hooked. Interesting to hear it is basically VP, sounds amazing. Which VP title would you say is the best?

> Golden Sun
Not that big a time sink thankfully, if you want to do a 100% run of the first game you're looking at 20~ hours depending on skill level. Its sequel, The Lost Age, is a lot longer though.

Sadly even 20 hours is a lot for me these days, most jrpgs want 50-60 hours of your time.
I think Silmeria looks like an improvement to VP in every way. I am going to start it soon, just picked it up. I would say definitely try the first one, though copies go for $100+, sooo maybe just jump into 2.
I hear it is a prequel and isn't required.

I don't want to turn this into a definition topic, but would you count games like Shadow Hearts? They're still turn based, but when attacking you have to time your inputs.

Have you played The Last Remnant?

>VP
I love these games so much. The ability to skip as much of the game as you want and go to certain story points or the final dungeon in the first game is great. Fun combat and great music too. I played on Hard the last time I played it and I had a pretty tough time with it, but it was a ton of fun. Managing your time/actions is very cool too, was sad to see this go in the sequel.

VP2 is quite different while still retaining a lot of elements from be first. You can move in combat now, with a cool dash that makes the whole party move together. I spent a ton of time fighting monsters and breaking off different parts of them for equipment. The ability to freeze enemies during exploration and use them as puzzle pieces is cool too. While I like the combat and dungeons more in VP2, I miss flying around the world map. It’s still my top PS2 RPG, along with FFX. I have really great memories of me being in junior high and playing VP2 and Okami for several months straight.

>Ni no Kuni 2
What did everyone think of this? I got towards the end but it didn’t click with me. I purposely stayed at a low level so I didn’t break the game but it was still pretty easy and I really felt like I was missing something about the combat. Plus the kingdom building thing was disappointing. I had read it was similar to Suikoden(anyone played these?) but it really wasn’t. Felt more like a mobile game or something to me.

>Shadow Hearts
Was there anything else in the combat that you had to time? I only played Covenant but I just remember attacks being that way. Part of me wants to say it’s not an Action RPG because there’s no movement or reacting to enemies involved. But I don’t really know what the criteria actually is to be considered “Action” in terms of JRPGS.

>Last Remnant
Nope. Always wanted to.

Anyone here played Resonance of Fate? Now that is an interesting game.


Sent from Topic'it App

What did everyone think of this? I got towards the end but it didn’t click with me.
I'm still playing it on and off. Originally, I got it for the character design which I love, colorful world, and Higgledies because I love games with some sort of minion. Had lots of set ups in mind, though not all of them worked out.

I purposely stayed at a low level so I didn’t break the game but it was still pretty easy
The only hard things in vanilla were repeating Kingmakers, but that was more due to RPG stat BS. Doesn't work well in this game because even if you dodge everything, your pals won't. They'll never smartly use their abilities either.

The other was the Faraway Forest dungeon where there was a timer called the danger level that slowly went up and made the monsters stronger, but again it was just more level up crap and got to the point where a run of the mill wolf thing took like 3 damage per hit and could kill you in less.

I have the DLC which has expert mode, and the new dungeon and skills are pretty cool, but the Bayo dodge breaks the game, it's too good and super easy to do, and makes the Higgledies even more irrelevant.

kingdom building thing was disappointing
I was hoping it was like Dark Cloud 2, where you could place everything yourself. No kingdoms would be the same.

Was there anything else in the combat that you had to time?
Only your actions, so attacking in any form, and using items/healing/support magic or abilities. Your characters were stuck on the spot though and took turns.

But I don’t really know what the criteria actually is to be considered “Action” in terms of JRPGS
While it's definitely more involved than standard turn based, not sure if we should call it action. But then VP is also turn based isn't it? You just juggle the shit out of them manually when you get a turn.

What about NamcoXCapcom? Sort of similar. When it's the player phase, you move units into range and it goes into a 2D battle where you manually juggle. I had quite a bit of fun with this game back then.

Anyone here played Resonance of Fate?
Saw a friend play it a little. Battle system looked really unique. Weird world map too.

>Ally AI
Is there any way around this? This was a huge problem for me in the first game and I had just as many issues in this game too. I did notice a difficulty spike around chapter 7 or so because the enemies randomly jumped up about 10 levels. Felt really lazy to me.

>VP
Yeah it’s technically turn based. Your whole party gets to all attack at once so it looks real time but it isn’t. The sequel is a little different though, that’s harder to classify. I actually might play it tomorrow just to see because this is a very interesting point I’ve never thought about. You can move around the arena freely but all enemies have an area in front of them that will trigger their attacks. Enemies only move when you move, and depending on your positioning you can kill enemies before they get to take a turn while you can get several. I don’t know...maybe it’s another game for notes.

>NamcoXCapcom
I would call that at least partially turn based, since it has a grid. This is interesting to think about.

The only solution seems to be to equip them with the best stuff, give them food that boosts def against whatever you're fighting, and do something with the tactic tweaker (never bothered with this myself).

There are no commands for the AI or any way to set behavior that I know of. They can't seem to use the new abilities like the Bayo dodge either.

You can switch characters any time but that would still be near impossible to constantly get them out of danger, and as soon as you switch you're previous character will just run into the boss whose charging energy for a super attack.

Strange, I recall them acting more defensive before the DLC. When I boss charged up I'd see them start blocking and rolling around but they rarely do that now.

>AI
That was my big problem, I switched characters to make sure they would get out of a big attack, but then the character I normally control would be the one to rush in and die. I got really tired of it when I stopped playing.

Is the tactic tweaker the section with what looked like slide bars? I thought that was an interesting concept.

Should I bother revisiting it for the DLC? I have the season pass(I bought the Collector’s Edition, I had high hopes for this game), but haven’t played the game since it came out.

If you've got the season pass, I don't see why not.

Anyone played The Witch and the Hundred Knight?

I got it on sale for $19.45 from PSN (down from $60), and I had $30 in my account from a card my sister gave me for Christmas.

It was first released on PS3 which is where I first saw it, but it was never a high priority. It was re-released on PS4, called 'Revival Edition' with extra stuff.

Giving it a shot now. Will post thoughts later.

Edit: Will post in a new topic because I've got a bit to say.

How's Odin Sphere Lefthgjjsfbkj?

Got it on sale on the EU PSN for $28.95 (down from over $100 lol wtf?). Wasn't actually planning on it but today is the last day of the sale and it's impossible to find the physical version in my country.

I did play the demo like 2 years ago I think it was. I used the girl with the bow because as you know, I love ranged classes in RPGs.

Will probably be a while before I touch it though.

I loved the ps2 game, but I wasn't a huge fan of the little changes to the rpg mechanics in looftrhaseeerrr. The combat seemed totally fine, it just didn't grab me. Which is weird, because I love Muramasa and Dragon's Crown. When there is hype for the next VanillaWare game coming out, I will probably play through it all and hopefully enjoy it more.

PS: cutscene HEAVY. Some of it is interesting, but a lot of it is boring anime fluff that goes nowhere.

Sent from Topic'it App

What were some of the changes?

Speaking of JRPGs, I finished KH3 a while ago. I actually thought about making a separate thread for it but the game isn't really worth it.

How is it?
I'm seeing a lot of complaints and that it's a disappointment.

I don't care for graphics or story. How is the gameplay?

Really underwhelming, it just feels mediocre from the start till the end, it has some new mechanics like lolatractions which just break the flow of combat. Overall the game feels too easy and the bosses feels poorly designed when compared to 2(and it't not even in the same dimension as kh2fm).

Can you still do that Lv1 thing?

Yeah though if you came from KH2FM lvl1 critical or even proud mode I doubt there's much to see here. If anything KH3 is more interesting to speedrun instead of challenge running it.

I liked Odin Sphere for PS4, but it has tons of padded content and needed more difficulties. It was fun for the 30 or so hours I played it.

>KH3
I’m not far into this but the combat seems like it’s all over the place. Not sure if I’m not understanding something.

>combat seems like it’s all over the place.
It felt that way for me too, it just seems like an amalgam of all the gimmicks presented into the series so far and it feels.. off? I think formchange is the only interesting mechanic in the game and even it's just replacing Drive which wasn't broken in the first place.

It's a great example of how more =/= better, in the end I feel like 2 while it had less options it had a more complete combat and bosses felt more unique thanks to reaction commands.

https://stinger.actieforum.com/t352-kingdom-hearts-3#5104

Let's continue this in depth KH3 talk here, got some notes from SBK on it, should make for interesting data!

Anyone played God Eater 3? I have zero knowledge of this series but I've heard comparisons to MH.

I bought 2 on a whim a few years back.It didn't grab me at all. Grindy, limited combat options, and just seemed like a budget monster hunter. I think co-op is the only way to enjoy it, but I played solo.

Sent from Topic'it App

How about The Last Remnant?

My experience with God Eater was basically the same as hedfone’s. Really didn’t seem like my type of game.

They’re not action jrpgs but did anyone here ever get into SMT or Persona series?

Yes! I am a HUGE SMT fan. Nocturne and Persona 3 are some of my top games of all time easily.
Any questions on the series, I got you.

On topic side note-
The second Raidou game on ps2 is a fantastic action JRPG. Imagine Tales, but you can pause the game to issue spells. That being said, enemies will dodge them if they aren't set up properly. So you really have to use the perfect balance of rpg and action combat.
Also you can hold down a button to make your party invulnerable. That alone makes that game, such a great Idea, and no one has done it since.

Sent from Topic'it App

>Raidou
Very cool, I’ll have to check it out soon, thanks. Should I play the first game?

I loved Nocturne so much from what I played of it. It was pretty difficult too and it was really refreshing, too many jrpgs are a joke even without extra leveling.

Did you play Digita devil saga?

>Raidou
I played the first one, but just because I am one of those maniacs that can't jump in mid series. The combat is mediocre at best. The story is ok, playing the first one definitely gives more context for 2. But at the start of two, it basically says, "This is a new case, it's cool if you didn't play the first"
It is a JRPG, so if you have 25+ hours and can put up with a janky ps2 game, I say go for it.
When I played it I had that kind of time lol. But that was years ago, and I don't think I will ever play the first game again. I could load up 2 right now.

>DDS
I love everything about the first DDS! I actually want to get a tattoo of either Gale or Heats mark from the game. 2 has a lot of good fights. There is a lot of good press turn gameplay there, if you want that. Unfortunately, the story didn't grab me at all, until the late game. Story is big for me in a JRPG. If I don't have those cool cutscenes and story bits to look forward to, I can't enjoy the grind.

Ni No Kuni 2 DLC coming soon. Looks like they're finally adding something to the Higgledies.

Damn, I can't believe they are still putting out DLCs. I wish all of this was in the game I already bought though. You should definitely play the second Raidou game on ps2 if you haven't. I think that is the Higgledies experience you are looking for.

Played the DLC a bit last night.

Level cap has been raised to 150, a battle arena, and two new martial methods.

The magic one is interesting. When you cast, time slows and a sort of QTE starts. The face buttons come up with a few icons. One adds power to the spell being cast, one sends out a small shot of the spell you're casting right there as you cast, and one is an X which means you can't press anything for a few seconds. Each time you enter one of these the face buttons change so you just keep going until time runs out, then the spell will cast with any of the power ups you hit. You can evade while casting but you'll lose the MP.

The higgledy one is pretty disappointing. Your normal melee attacks cause more higgledy orbs to appear, which gives your teams more members. Now, holding R1 causes the higgledies to be absorbed into the character, creating a spirit bomb. The longer you hold, the stronger and larger it gets. Otherwise, higgledies function the same. Oh, and when you equip this you lose your ranged attack.

There should be upgrades for these styles but I haven't had time to look into them yet.

There are more abilities for higgledies when equipping this method. You can use points to power up the 'spirit bomb', or strengthen their normal functions. This might mean they become far more useful.

How about Valkyria Chronicles 4 and Path of Exile. Not sure if that one counts as action RPG though. It's free on the EU PSN.

Looking at a few vids, seems like it has a lot of build options, but looks overwhelming as well.

I've played the first Valkyria Chronicles years ago, thought it was ok but was never hugely interested in the series.

I love loot games and have tried multiple times to get into POE, but it just never drew me in. I think the skill tree is needlessly complicated for no reason. They clearly wanted to just do the exact opposite of diablo 3 to get the hardcore kids on board. I do want to try it again, since they have changed and added so much since i last played years ago.

I'm looking into Valkyria Chronicles 4 now. Might grab the first one which was remastered on PS4 too.

How's Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet?

Saw someone playing it today. Looked pretty basic but could be decent.

He only made it through the tutorial before I had to leave, so I don't know how much depth it has.

I know you can allocate stats points like Souls and you get an AI partner you can customize too.

I think I have that on my steam wishlist, I love Japanese shooters, they are always so weird. Just not ready to drop 40 bucks on something that might be trash.

Sent from Topic'it App

This is a good video showing how a lot of stuff works. Gotta admit, I'd love being a sniper, just don't have time for another multiplayer game.



I got Valkyrie Chronicles Remastered, and I like 4 too, but it's still super expensive. Might grab Revolutions despite how crappy people say it is. It's pretty cheap these days too.

Downloaded a "demo" of fatal bullet, will post impressions soon.

Edit:
Played a bit. It controlled well, and had a lot of options. Full customizable controls, camera side swapping, ledge grabs. It all felt good. You couldn't move and shoot while crouching which was a little lame, but you can kind of vanquish flip back and forth from crouch to dodge. Also I started with three different dodge moves at the start, one was a cooldown skill, not sure the difference between them all. There is an auto aim mode and free aim, hopefully the free aim lets you target weak points better or something, aim assist felt very OP and mindless. It felt good to play with the little I messed around. It would all depend how deep the builds are and the replayability/difficulty long term. But controls were solid.

Did you play the demo to the end? How far does it go? I got up to the part where you get the AI partner.

Played it a bit more. Demos are pretty extensive these days.

I just bought a sniper rifle so we'll see if long range is fun enough to make me want to play this.

Tons of annoying systems to learn though. It's MHW all over again where you need a wiki open to know what the hell all these stats and shit mean. This rifle has OPT (optical damage), and it's less than physical, but I read it's a different type that does solid damage even when not hitting weak points, but is lower overall. It has other bonuses like being cheaper and the weapons for it lighter or something.

Edit: Damn it...
It's simple but fun. You can snipe from miles away, just how I like it. I can imagine the builds based around this.

Didn't end up continuing with this. Once I got into the upgrading system I didn't like it. Too much nonsense.

Looking into Death end re;Quest. The battle system seems interesting but the character design is awful.

Played Valkyria Revolutions last night. Did not enjoy it at all.

I only did the tutorial which ends with a boss but felt no will to continue. Might look up whether or not the combat gets better.

Here are some basics.

*There's no limit to movement.
*Everyone has melee weapons now. Guns are sub weapons.
*Attacking uses a meter. Pressing attack one made my character do a 3 hit slash. Used all the meter
*Meter refills fast, but when you run out, you can't attack. You can block and roll without cost though.
*You have magic on a menu that freezes the game.
*You have a party and can give orders but I haven't figured them out yet.

It plays like a very basic action game with severe limitations. There are some other Valkyria Chronicles elements like crouching behind cover.

What do you guys think of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake? At least with gameplay.

Looks pretty generic.

Depends how much customization materia offers.

Not really interested in an episodic game. Never really interested in FF7 either. Maybe when it's complete I'll take a look.