Worst JRPG you've ever played?

[Tekkommo]

FF15.

/10char

[Mechazod]

I have to echo the choice of the original PS3 version of Hyperdimension Neptunia. What a freaking let down. I am glad someone else listed all my complaints with it so I didn't have to (especially the DLC bit). At least the Vita remake and sequels ranged from alright to enjoyable.

For an action RPG, probably the SNES port of Lagoon, that fucking Ys wannabe. Hydlide also if we want to go that far back (though I do enjoy to an extent the sequels on the Mega Drive and Saturn)

Dokapon: Monster Hunter on the GBA kind of pisses me off since its LITERALLY an RPG with a rock-paper-scissors battle system.

Beyond the Beyond

I have been trying to play through the game again and find some merit in it worth defending besides the fact that is basically a prototype to the Golden Sun series, but yeah it certainly has its issues. I can get around its blandness, I find it kind of charming in a way, like a 16-bit RPG that should have came out on the Sega CD or something, but oh shit that FUCKING ENEMY ENCOUNTER RATE. I do like the fact that it did integrate the timed-button press actions for attacks, but really hate that you would only even know that's a thing if you read the instruction book and also looked up exactly when and what you should be pressing for each type of character. Speaking of that, the fact that many item descriptions are in the manual, I really hate that, even Lunar 1 did that as well. I can get memory restrictions for the time if that's an excuse (if this was a NES game or something), but I mean come on, you can squeeze in something like "HP^" next to the item name.
(also Samson that cunt or whatever he is called with the curse on him that makes him constantly miss with his melee attacks, the only shit he can pretty much do)

Speaking of Lunar, I am surprised I haven't seen anyone mention Dragon Song yet.

Time & Eternity

Aw come on, how can you hate this one? Its essentially Punch-Out!! RPG!

[Kazgrel]

Quest 64.

I was legitimately only able to play it because I was a kid at the time and had no idea about plot anyway.

Oh geez...here I was about to nominate FF Mystic Quest, but even that game was nowhere near as horrible as Quest 64. Thankfully, I only rented it, used Gameshark to skip the ungodly amount of grinding mobs just to level up spells/skills to where I could actually do stuff, then proceeded to beat the game and never touch it again. Only reason I rented it was because it was one of the N64's first JRPGs (in the US at least).

[unholytestament]

Speaking of Lunar, I am surprised I haven't seen anyone mention Dragon Song yet.

I'm pretty sure that's because most people took one look at it and knew it would be shit.

Aw come on, how can you hate this one? Its essentially Punch-Out!! RPG!

Is it strange that this intrigues me?

[Mechazod]

Is it strange that this intrigues me?

It has the dodging mechanics of Punch-Out, but expect to be playing as a mood-swinging anime waifu and not hilarious ethnic stereotypes.

[The Casualty]

The ones that pop into my head are Lagoon, Granstream Saga, and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.

I never owned a N64, so I guess I dodged the bullet that is Quest 64.

[Mechazod]

I see everyone bringing up Quest 64, but not a single mention of Aidyn Chronicles.

[tehealadin]

FF13. Liked the characters, liked the battle system, loathed the setting and the story telling.

[Wondercrab]

Any thoroughly bad ones I've played have probably disappeared from my memory, and I'm pretty picky about what I play these days. FFXIII is the classic huge disappointment, though. The bland, tedious nothingness of the writing and the endless "when's the tutorial over" feeling of the gameplay made the first several hours of that game one of the most depressing slumps from excitement to boredom I've ever experienced. It was definitely one of the titles that really drove me away from AAA gaming during that era.

[Kazgrel]

I see everyone bringing up Quest 64, but not a single mention of Aidyn Chronicles.

Given the timeframe of that game's release (I had never heard of it thus I looked it up ), I was occupied with Ogre Battle 64, along with Perfect Dark and Smash Bros., to name a couple games.

[Aori]

Final Fantasy 7, it is the only JRPG I've started and not finished. I just couldn't stand the first couple hours of it, they left such a bad impression on me and I never picked it back up. Its first few hours couldn't draw me in, if anything they pushed me completely away. I also wasn't a fan of the graphics, I thought the game looked awful even then.

I'll definitely be giving the remaster a shot though.

[Harry Botter]

I don't remember teh name but it was for Gamecube and it had a card system you used in battle. And the VO work sounded like they recorded it in a tin can.

But JRPG has been my go to genre/subgenre since 92 ish when I first played FF1 and I still have my collection of NES, SNES, PS1, PS2, N64, GCN and handheld jrpg's here that take up way too much space.


I could probably make top 20 lists for almost all those systems for the ones I found to eb fantastic though.

[Aori]

Speaking of Lunar, I am surprised I haven't seen anyone mention Dragon Song yet.

Lunar remakes for PSX were my favorite games of the era. What I think made them fantastic was Working Designs localization work. I stopped caring for the franchise when Working Designs went poof. Real shame too because I loved their work with Arc the Lad too.

[stellvia]

Right now FF VIII springs into my mind. Everything about it felt odd, the main character was too emo from what I remember and the story didn't feel that good.

Agreed. I hated almost everything about the game. Most of the characters, the combat system, the draw/junction system, etc. Only FF game I've played that I didn't want to finish it.

[Mechazod]

I don't remember teh name but it was for Gamecube and it had a card system you used in battle. And the VO work sounded like they recorded it in a tin can.

Sounds like Lost Kingdoms (only other game could be its sequel or the Baten Kaitos games). The picture of the girl on the english cover still gives me nightmares. It was actually one of FromSoftware's games if I remember right.

[-aiko-]

Hyperdimension Neptunia.

It was like playing one huge joke - but I didn't get it.

[Shinzai]

Probably Infinite Undiscovery. Final Fantasy 13 I despised pretty severely too.

[dextersmith]

Please don't hurt me for saying this: Final Fantasy X

9 and X-2 was worse.

- - - Updated - - -

I find Chrono Trigger to be unplayable for me.

That, zelda 2, and phantasy star 1-3. Dragon warrior 1 was bad too.

[Deleted]

Hyperdimension Neptunia.

It was like playing one huge joke - but I didn't get it.

Haven't counted how many said this, but I have to agree here. I'm playing the PS4 one right now and it's still meh, meh and more meh.

The entire game feels like a gigantic fanservice to pander to weeaboos, and (un)fortunately I'm not a part of that crowd.

Weirdly enough it plays pretty well and is fun, but good lord, the characters, story, dialogue, bathing scenes... I feel embarassed just seeing those. I'm sorry, but I don't get off on little nude girls. I'm sure the target audience does though, so what do I know.

Apart from that the entire dialogue feels completely irrelevant to anything. I started just skipping through it so I could enjoy the gameplay and I don't feel I missed anything. 99% fluff and 1% absolutely uninteresting and dumb story.

To be honest I don't even get how you can write so, so much text for a game without having a single interesting line in it. It's like a lot of text-heavy Japanese games and I don't get how to write this stuff.
It's just a whole lot of nothing - even less content than the random conversations you would have with your friends, but it somehow has 1000% more text. Just... how? And why?

[Mechazod]

The entire game feels like a gigantic fanservice to pander to weeaboos, and (un)fortunately I'm not a part of that crowd.

Apart from that the entire dialogue feels completely irrelevant to anything. I started just skipping through it so I could enjoy the gameplay and I don't feel I missed anything. 99% fluff and 1% absolutely uninteresting and dumb story.

The thing with a lot of the dialogue and text in the Neptunia games is that its heavily laced with video game references and not just the meme-centric ones that everyone knows, but some pretty hardcore and retro gamer stuff as well as stuff that you would only understand if you were not only someone who played video games in Japan, but played games in Japan back in the 80s and 90s and kept up to date with what was going on in the industry at the time. They also lace in some references to non-gaming stuff and internet meme shit, but the majority of the dialogue is just trying to poke fun at cliches in games and make as many references as they can. A lot of times that prattling dialogue is setting up some kind of joke or reference that is coming up. Thats actually one of the reasons I really wanted to like the original game, but they meshed this idea of making a JRPG about parodying the console wars and just video game culture in general with the most maximum of weeb essence that they could muster. (plus the ass battle system in the original version and DLC BS)

Part of me wants to think of the over the top anime-type "weeabo" type cliches as them intentionally poking fun at themselves and how prevalent stuff like that is in other games and anime (in fact I am sure to an extent that is exactly why they do it at times), but if its meant as a joke, its one that goes too far and loses its comedic value after being used over and over again. I am not one to be instantly turned off by that type of stuff, god only knows I have played some shit that does it way worse, but it would be nice if they knew how to cut back a bit on that type of fan service stuff or save it for side quests. I get the feeling that a lot of fans of the series enjoy it for being filled with fan service-y anime scenes and not for its original intent of just being a big reference latent fan-service for gamers. The games still do stick to that core idea, but I tend to think the devs themselves sometimes loose track of why the majority of people liked the idea of the series to begin with.

It was like playing one huge joke - but I didn't get it.

If you are referring to what the hell was going on with the plot and dialogue, this is exactly what I mean, its meant to be a joke at its core. I like to consider myself a pretty rounded game player when it comes to some obscure ass shit in retro gaming and importing, but even some of the references in the Neptunia games went over my head at times.

If anyone out there ever has any intent to ever play these games, go into it knowing the entire set up of the plot is suppose to be a parody of the console wars. I can perfectly see how the plot and characters equate to nothing but BS if someone went into the games not knowing this or the fact that when it comes down to it, the games do not take themselves seriously.

-------------------------------------
If we are on the topic of Neptunia and NIS, Mugen Souls is another game I dont think was that great, not terrible, better then Neptunia 1 on PS3, but just not something I really ever wanted to play through a 2nd time. They just throw a shit-ton of different mechanics at you at the start of the game and while I can see how they can definitely lead to some interesting strategies, it just seemed a little over-excessive. Plus the characters and style seemed like a weird crossing point between the charm of older games like Disgaea, but with the more fan-service-y elements of Neptunia and later NIS games. I never got around to finishing its sequel.

Speaking of over convoluted battle systems, Cross Edge. Not saying overly complex battle systems are bad, but my god, that is not a game you just pick up and start playing.
---------------------------------------
And another one I will throw out just because I know a lot of people have their problems with them (though I personally don't) is the Agarest War series. They are SRPGs, but there is a reason a lot of people refer to them as "bureaucracy simulators" with how the actual flow and progression to the games can feel to a newcomer.