Games you DON'T like despite it checking the boxes of what you do like.

[Leon]

I won't dig into the other stuff, but I REALLY don't get this one.
How is SMT grindy? It is practically the gold standard of a JRPG series where even if you are low level, you can fuse a good pair of demons and solve your problems.

Not to mention, games like Nocturne literally have whole systems in the EXP formulas to prevent grinding.

Depends on what you mean by grind, to get a "perfect" summon it requires basically soft save scumming.
This is especially true in persona since making a really good persona needs at least a couple of elements on them for attacks.

 

[GardeniaSky's icon GardeniaSky GardeniaSky]

A lot of newer JRPGS...which is sad. Tales of Arise was pretty disappointing story-wise. The combat was great, but the fact that they made up for lackluster writing by forcing every party member to be paired off, and made romance the focal point of the plot...

We saw with Berseria that a story can be driven with 0 romance, then they did a total 180 and went backwards.

And then we have Star Ocean:Divine Force. It seems like they really tried hard to shoehorn in all the tropes that were successful with previous titles, but it just fell so flat. The combat was okay, and the characters were just so meh.

Maybe I'm just getting older, but it really feels like companies are repeating the same formulas instead of trying to innovate.

 

[Bakuma1997]

Maybe a possible 4th one is they tried one of the OG SMT games (1 and 2) which I believe were more grind heavy, but cannot confirm/deny as I have yet to play SMTI/SMT II

Played them, they barely need grinding






Because the encounter rate and dungeons are so friggin massive you will be overpowered if you haven't lost your sanity

 

[Tonberry]

Ever come across that game or game series that embodies so much of what you love that you in turn should totally be into them but when reality hits they fall flat and you just can't bother.

For me, everything Mega Man. It checks nearly all the boxes for me but once I start I just can't get into it regardless of which one it is.

Hollow Knight.
I’ve tried playing it three times but I get bored immediately.
The last time I gave it an honest shot I had more fun, and I had a bit more open mind. Hopefully I’ll like it more this try.

 

[CardcaptorEd2019]

The World Ends With You.
It looks like a game that i would absolutely fall in love with if i gave it a chance, but i just can't get used to the combat, having to control 2 characters at the same time in 2 different screens fucks with my brain too much, it feels like it's physically impossible for me to play this game.

I get that. A lot of times I would wonder how other people did it. For me I mostly concentrated on the bottom screen with the top screen being mostly guarding with occasional attacks, but even then it will still look like a lot especially with the number of enemies and attacks on the screens

WIth the The World Ends With You being mentioned I have to bring up the really good soundtrack! A lot of the time I would have the game on idle just having the music playing and if I wasn't playing the game I would be listening to the soundtrack on Youtube

 

[guiraran]

Octopath Traveler: choosing your own protagonist is a great idea, because you can interfere directly with the key points of the story (Trials of Mana is one of my favorites for this reason), and class-change is enough to sold me into a game. But honestly, this game is so boring, the traveling mechanics doesn't sound like a traveling mechanic at all, at least for me (play Caravan Heart), and the characters aren't enough to make me continue to play this game.

Mystic Ark: a very creative game with lots of worlds to explore, it has a rustic aesthetic instead of the shiny color scheme from most JRPG from Snes, but it's a big nope for me. Excessive backtracking, so much puzzle solving, and when you are able to control your party members none of them shows any personality trait at all, they're all blank space

Post automatically merged: Mar 11, 2025

The World Ends With You.
It looks like a game that i would absolutely fall in love with if i gave it a chance, but i just can't get used to the combat, having to control 2 characters at the same time in 2 different screens fucks with my brain too much, it feels like it's physically impossible for me to play this game.

You can play with only Neku and let the up screen on automatic mode, if I hadn't discovered it sooner, I would dropped TWEWY as well

 

[Big Finger Jim]

The World Ends With You.
It looks like a game that i would absolutely fall in love with if i gave it a chance, but i just can't get used to the combat, having to control 2 characters at the same time in 2 different screens fucks with my brain too much, it feels like it's physically impossible for me to play this game.

From what I remember, Switch version only has you control Neku, if you wanna give that a shot. You need a controller with the infrared Wii cursor thing, though.

Fighting with the two character, on top of using a mouse, makes it the hardest combat system I've played.

 

[Aeriththeflowergirl]

Sword of Mana

Action RPG
Choice to play either as male or female hero
High fantasy setting
Squaresoft

But I felt that it tried too hard to be across between Secret of Mana and Trials of Mana. I don't like how cumbersome the crafting system was. I like how in the original game Seiken Densetsu/Final Fantasy Adventure and Secret of Mana, you simply purchase gear and weapon upgrades instead of relying on seeds and grow them into fruit and vegetables. I also disliked how everything from the plot and characters felt shoehorned.

I think I prefer Final Fantasy Adventure or it's actual remake Adventure of Mana.

 

[Leon]

Monster Hunter, i can enjoy them occasionally but for the most part i just don't like them.

The last Story, while i technically don't hate the game, i do not find it that good.

Mass effect 1, not 2 or 3, both of those i like, but 1 i find EXTREMELY boring.

 

[DaxterDotEXE]

Yeah... Where They Cremate The Roadkill.
Love everything about it, but the gameplay is a punch in the nuts and everytime I bott it up I just wanna play something else. It's my favorite """Bad""" game of all time tbh. Actually no, I do actually still like it, nvm then I guess lel.

 

[Yousef]

What if I don’t have boxes.

 

[TheWanderer]

So I really like those weird Indie like jrpg games and I always make an effort to play them but there is one game called Mato Anomalies it's checks all the boxes on what I want yet I couldn't get into it

 

[Yousef]

So I really like those weird Indie like jrpg games and I always make an effort to play them but there is one game called Mato Anomalies it's checks all the boxes on what I want yet I couldn't get into it

I’ll check it out

 

[trickybus]

I should have liked The Witch and the Hundred Knight because it:

• is a hack n' slash
• is an JRPG with hardly any grinding
• is a game that lets me play as a non-human character
• has a nice artsyle and interesting character designs

This game is a dumpster fire. It was released in a buggy, unfinished state and even the remaster is buggy! The consumption mechanic's implementation is awful, the character you have to interact with the most (Metallia) is an edgy, irredeemable cunt, "new" random mobs are just copy-pasted bosses, the writing is an atrocity and the story gets deep into grimderp territory.

Some examples (do not uncover the spoilers if talk of SA will upset you):

• there are several references of characters being raped to death, one of them involving Metallia turning her mother into a rat and sending a mass of male rats to rape her.
• There's a boss fight with a horrible bug that triggers when Metallia shows up to the witch gathering. As you are fighting the boss, Metallia "powers up" which turns her into a naked giant that is supposed to help you. What she did instead is wrench the camera away from the battle arena so I couldn't see either myself or the boss as the boss continued to beat my character up.
• Metallia curses like a teen who just discovered curse words. It's annoying.