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Inspired by the Game Boy Club, I am implementing a similar monthly JRPG club. Every month, we will play through an JRPG. We’re going to try to avoid the comfort zone of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quests. We’re gonna play an array of classics, oddballs, and underappreciated titles. I will try to choose games on systems that are widely available, or easily emulatable. Original copies of JRPGs tend to become expensive over time due to scarcity and popularity. I don’t want anyone to run out and spend $2000+ to play Panzer Dragoon Saga. You should be able to play these games however you’d like. Emulators, original hardware using the original discs/cartridges if you have them, Flash carts/ODEs, all welcome. And if you like the game and do decide to hunt a copy down, go for it. It’s your money. For the most part, I’ll probably be keeping the console range from NES through PS1 eras, handhelds GB through DS eras. I really haven’t dabbled in PSP or Dreamcast emulation. If you do decide to participate, let me know if you’d be able to play/emulate Dreamcast, PSP, GameCube. But for the most part, I think everyone will able to play through NES-PS1 and GB-DS with no issue. That said, I think the games will overall favor SNES and PS1. I’ll also try to mix it up. There might be some first-person dungeon crawlers, roguelikes, tactical JRPGs, who knows? I’ll try to post the next month’s game a day or two before the month turns to give everyone a chance to get their game ready. March's game:  FEBRUARY: Shin Megami Tensei If… MARCH: Suikoden 2 Detective No. 27 fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Feb 28, 2022 |
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Jan 29, 2022 16:05
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 09:36 |
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Hell ya can't wait
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Jan 29, 2022 16:30
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I am in because I have a bad habit of starting jrpgs and sort of putting them down after a few weeks Is the expectation to pick games that are reasonably complete-able in a month given the average persons day? It would be nice to get to the endgame and be able to discuss it. I also get that I’m asking a super subjective question based on everyone’s differing free time and their ability to get through a game so it’s fine if the answer is “maybe?” Beve Stuscemi fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Jan 29, 2022 |
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Jan 29, 2022 16:39
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Pretty stoked for this!
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Jan 29, 2022 16:43
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Will you be doing fan translations? There's a bunch of these for Famicom/FDS that I'd love to try now that I have real hardware/CRT again.
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Jan 29, 2022 17:42
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Yeah, I'll be doing fan translations. And if a featured game has a ROM hack to improve stuff or make it easier or harder or whatever, I don't see the harm in playing it. As long as it's still the same game rather than like, a fan sequel using the original game or something like that.
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Jan 29, 2022 17:48
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I'm def into this! I probably won't be able to dig super deep into anything that gets chosen since I'm pretty busy these days but I'm excited to take some titles for a spin, at least.
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Jan 29, 2022 17:53
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gently caress yeah, thanks for putting this together!
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Jan 29, 2022 18:19
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:I am in because I have a bad habit of starting jrpgs and sort of putting them down after a few weeks I'll be checking the average play time on How Long To Beat's site. I think a month is a pretty reasonable time to play through most of the JRPGs I've got in mind. But it's not like there's any incentive to beat them. No one's being paid or getting college credit here. And if you end up playing half the game and not liking it there's nothing stopping you from ending it there. You do have a good point on end game discussion. Since these games are pretty story heavy, spoilers are gonna be unavoidable. I think for most of the month, use your best judgement when it comes to spoilers and using tags, and then maybe a few days before the month ends, end game spoiler discussion will just be out in the open.
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Jan 29, 2022 18:29
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I just got a shiny new Retroid Pocket 2 so I'm down for this
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Jan 29, 2022 18:46
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I'll try to join. Not sure about my ability to finish whole jrpg games but I'll definitely at least attempt them. Will be down for using my rgb351 and that'll cover nes to ps1.
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Jan 29, 2022 18:57
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Probably won't be able to finish any games, because I can only really game on my days off (12 hour shifts, yaaaay), but I'm down to at least try. I can reasonably emulate most systems up to the PS2 era.
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Jan 29, 2022 19:02
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Thanks for spinning this up, OP. Don't know how many I'll finish but absolutely keen to try some!
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Jan 29, 2022 22:41
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Absolutely sign me up. I'm fairly certain I can emulate anything PS2 or older. Iron Chef Ramen fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Jan 30, 2022 |
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Jan 29, 2022 23:43
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Hell yeah jerpiggs
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Jan 30, 2022 00:52
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I am in on this, but right now I am playing Legend of Dragoon.
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Jan 30, 2022 02:01
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To say I've never been into JRPGs is putting it mildly, I think the total time I've put into the genre can be measured in minutes. But I've also been building up a game library for years, and there's a good chance I'll already (digitally) have whatever we go with, so hey, maybe this is finally the time for me to get JRPGy wit it.
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Jan 30, 2022 07:39
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i've had a retroid pocket 2 sitting on my desk for months that I haven't used, this thread is the perfect opportunity to remedy that!
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Jan 30, 2022 07:46
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drat I just started Radiant Historia. Will probably join in later since I can only handle 1 JRPG at a time
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Jan 30, 2022 08:24
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I like JRPGs but I also find it very hard to play them due to the time commitment. I figure this thread should be good enough motivation to get through one.
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Jan 30, 2022 09:03
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I definitely wouldn't be upset if this club went through a bunch of SNES Final Fantasies since I've been meaning to do that at some point anyway...
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Jan 30, 2022 09:16
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Hell yeah, I'll give this a go. I feel like the only thing stopping me from playing these old games is the willpower, though I find I need a lot more than I have to get through the 50 hours of padding these games often have. I actually started playing Grandia last month. Has some really fun ideas and enjoyable writing but at the 20 hour mark I made the mistake of checking to see how far through I was on gamefaqs since surely I was right near the end of the first disc. No, I was barely a quarter of the way through that thing, and I haven't touched it since. I think that time commitment is going to be a big issue for people getting in on this. Maybe we should make the main goal of the thread to play enough to get a feel for the storytelling, design and systems and leave completing the game for, I dunno, expert mode or something. Beartaco fucked around with this message at 10:36 on Jan 30, 2022 |
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Jan 30, 2022 10:32
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This month’s title: SHIN MEGAMI TENSEI IF…   SNES Translation patch quote:
Why Shin Megami Tensei If? A few reasons. February is the shortest month of the year so I figured it should be a short RPG. My typical reference point for short RPG is Chrono Trigger, which I consider a 20 hour game. How Long To Beat shows an average playthrough of SMTIF at 21.5 hours. I am also certain a number of us have played through SMTV recently and are hankering for some more SMT. Near the end of this month, NIS’s Monark is being released, which is purported to have been inspired by SMTIF with some ex-Atlus staff working on it. I considered the original SMT which has a translation patch for the SNES and GBA versions, but considering the crossover appeal between SMT, Persona, and the upcoming Monark, I figured If would ideal. As it currently stands, only the Super Famicom version has a translation patch. Gaius Marius posted:You should make it SMT if... Congrats to this person in the Retro Thread for guessing it. It wasn't going to be the game at the time, I had a different game in mind, but then I saw that Monark was coming out in Feb and not March so I changed my plans. I have no personal history with SMTIF yet. I booted it up a couple months ago and played a few minutes to check it out. But I now I wanna give it a play through. I have it on a FXPAK PRO and will probably swap between playing it on my Super NT on an HDTV and a PVM. As it currently stands, only the Super Famicom version has a translation patch. Detective No. 27 fucked around with this message at 16:29 on Jan 30, 2022 |
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Jan 30, 2022 16:03
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Ooh, nice! I actually started poking around in SMT If a month back, so I guess I'll keep at it!
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Jan 30, 2022 16:08
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drat this game is hard
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Jan 30, 2022 16:57
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Ahh! This is perfect, after playing P5 I decided to start exploring older titles in both SMT and Persona series and If was on my list. My Retroid P2+ is coming this week so I’ll get on it asap.
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Jan 30, 2022 17:51
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Oh man, no time wasted on random encounters, huh? Equip poo poo as soon as you find it, kids, don't end up like me. 
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Jan 30, 2022 18:50
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So people don't get blindsided like I did your actions in the first few moments determine the route you play on, Front mission 3 style.
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Jan 30, 2022 19:11
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I feel like you could critical path this game extremely fast since the GameFAQ's thing is like...four pages. I've played about a hour so far but then accidentally erased my save. Does the MiSTER SNES core do save states? Game was fun so far although the dungeon crawling was annoying since everything looks the same.
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Jan 30, 2022 19:30
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aperfectcirclefan posted:Game was fun so far although the dungeon crawling was annoying since everything looks the same. That's basically all the early SMT games. so so easy to get lost
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Jan 30, 2022 19:36
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Is there another save point in the early game aside from the one in the school? I keep getting my rear end beat in the first dungeon and really dread the walk back. Also, how does the respawn mechanic work. Kind of worried I'm loving myself over by dying over and over
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Jan 30, 2022 19:51
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Spoiler-taging this in case I've actually fallen into Atlus's trap... Is it, like... a bit that you get enough experience to max everything out after the first fight? Or is my ROM modded to make things stupid easy? EDIT - Went and got a different patched ROM and can confirm that, yes, the one I had been using was some kind of unlabeled Super Easy Mode hack. I'll do the real one from now on. After The War fucked around with this message at 01:24 on Jan 31, 2022 |
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Jan 30, 2022 20:28
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Zophar posted:Is there another save point in the early game aside from the one in the school? I keep getting my rear end beat in the first dungeon and really dread the walk back. Save points are a strange beast in this game. There's no terminals like in I or II. There are recorders that only save, not teleport, I believe there's one in the first dungeon on the final floor. But save rooms are very rare. Luckily getting estoma is pretty easy by the second or third dungeon. aperfectcirclefan posted:I feel like you could critical path this game extremely fast since the GameFAQ's thing is like...four pages. The game is shorter than the first two, but it's still pretty chunky. I stopped at the fifth dungeon and was at about 35 hours. Zophar posted:
First time you die you get a guardian. After that if you check status, and then hit some button maybe up, you can see the guardians states and there will be a bar that fills up. You fill it up by killing enemies, bigger bar = better demon. No idea of the specifics.
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Jan 30, 2022 20:57
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First SMT game I've ever played. So far so good, though without any sort of manual to go off or prior familiarity with the series I poked around a few FAQs to get some general pointers. Some stuff I think it's useful to know: Dying at least once isn't a bad idea, it unlocks Guardians who boost your stats/give you magic. In my case this wasn't optional anyway as the first boss flattened me.  Your main character doesn't learn magic, so give them physical stat gains. Your partner character will learn magic after dying once, so build them towards magic. Don't know if I'll have time to finish the game this month but keen to dig into it a bit more.
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Jan 31, 2022 01:10
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Getting flattened by the first boss in an SMT is a time honored tradition. 
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Jan 31, 2022 01:20
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Let's do this!
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Jan 31, 2022 01:50
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Gaius Marius posted:So people don't get blindsided like I did your actions in the first few moments determine the route you play on, Front mission 3 style. I like if... but this is really kinda a screw.
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Jan 31, 2022 06:06
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I made it to the first dungeon and called it a day. I'll play some more after work today. So I'm playing this blind and part of the reason I started this thread was to get me to play more JRPGs that I haven't played, but I realized that the game announcement post could probably have benefitted from some tips for getting started with the game. I'll play a bit of next month's title a few days before to get a feel for it and have some starting tips handy from now on.
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Jan 31, 2022 16:08
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Absolutely agreed especially if you're dipping into the obscure, older jrpgs, you probably need a section for 'how to get started, combat tips' because wow sometimes trying to find out where to go next is the hardest part.
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Jan 31, 2022 17:00
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 09:36 |
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Love the idea of the thread, and love JRPGS so I'll hop on this train on my next day off.
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Jan 31, 2022 17:30
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