Looking For Gaming Suggestions: RPGs with unique settings (4th thru 7th console generations)

[starseeker300]

Any rpg with a setting outside the norm, the norm in this case being a standard LOTR/DND inspired High Fantasy or a Star Wars inspired Scifi

fantasy and scifi are fine just as long as they are different

Some things ive heard of and want to try:
Wild Arms
Fallout
EVO the Search for Eden and EVO The Theory of Evolution/46 Billion Year Journey: The Theory of Evolution
Earthbound/Mother
Kouldelka/Shadow Hearts
Parasite EVE

Things Ive played and Liked:
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Cross
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Series

things ive tried and did not like:
MMO's
Anything with Gacha Mechanics
Soulslikes
SMT/Persona



The weirder the better

 

[CaptainToad]

Resonance Of Fate takes place on a giant clocktower-spire thing with some fun weapon customization. I really liked it, it's one of my favourites, although it's not exactly polished.

Baroque (PS1/SAT or Wii/PS2) is a roguelike post-apocalyptic occult-cyberpunk thing where you ascend a tower to discover or kill god or something.

Okage Shadow King kinda' feels like Paper Mario infused with Tim Burton or something.

Panzer Dragoon Saga is a JRPG set in the otherwise railshooter video game series.

Faselei on Neo Geo Pocket Color is is a mecha-based SRPG very similar to Front Mission and the like, with enough depth and customization and a short enough playtime to be pretty enjoyable.

Never played Opoona, but the soundtrack is great and the characters look weird.

Never played any of the Metal Saga JRPGs but they have a tank party member in all of them that you customize in a desert post-apocalyptic world.

 

[Clippy]

Pandora's Tower for the Wii might be up your alley.

 

[Yousef]

Breath of fire won’t seem like it at first but it is an extremely unique game due to the fact you control a dragon. It makes stand out imo.

 

[ATenderLad]

Xenogears gets weirder as it goes, for sure. If you're ready to get a little galaxy-brained, and you enjoy giant robots and kung fu, it's hard to go wrong here.

Live A Live has multiple scenarios, each with a wildly different genre and setting. Very fun, easy to get into.

Since you're looking at Fallout, maybe take a gander at Shadowrun? It's not D&D, but a contemporary tabletop RPG with multiple game adaptations. It's basically cyberpunk, but with a kitchen sink fantasy layer thrown on top. There's an SNES game that was interesting, and some modern PC games from about a decade ago that are very easy to run on most any rig.

(Seriously though, Fallout 1 and 2 are phenomenal, try those out for sure.)

 

[tenkai star]

You have Koudelka on your list, I'd just jump into that. It looks and feels like a Resident Evil game with JRPG random battles and takes place in late 1800s Wales. Not too many of those around. Wild Arms is a good one for you as well.

 

[Stingy Perry]

Suikoden series
Ys series (SNES onwards)

 

[Cu-Neo]

Jeanne D'Arc for PSP it's very good tactic rpg, and also the Inazuma eleven games for DS/3DS are great rpg too.

 

[Giggle]

Speaking of unique.. Okami from PS2 comes to mind

It has great art, interesting story, funny voices, and unique battle.
I used to play it a lot back when I still had my console.

 

[Prism_Red]

Chocobo Dungeon.
Resonance of Fate.
Digital Devil Saga, it is SMT but hear me out, this has the more classic JRPG gameplay, with theme and setting similar to Fallout.
Neptunia series, weakest in terms of gameplay but you mention weird so... yeah.

EDIT: Forgot to add MS Saga, and Yu Gi Oh Duelists of The Roses (This is NOT a regular Yu Gi Oh game)

 

[Yousef]

Chocobo Dungeon.
Resonance of Fate.
Digital Devil Saga, it is SMT but hear me out, this has the more classic JRPG gameplay, with theme and setting similar to Fallout.
Neptunia series, weakest in terms of gameplay but you mention weird so... yeah.

EDIT: Forgot to add MS Saga, and Yu Gi Oh Duelists of The Roses (This is NOT a regular Yu Gi Oh game)

Nice roses mention I’d add that even standard ygo stuff is pretty good. Nice mention regardless.

 

[What's His Face]

Persona Series
Shin Megami Tensei serieseseses as well
Devil Survivor series
Persona Q 1 & 2
Wild ARMs series, which you mentioned
Xenogears
Xenosaga series
Xenoblade series
Mother/Earthbound series
Star Ocean series
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Skies series (all 20 years worth)
Koudelka & Shadow Hearts series, which you mentioned
Skies of Arcadia / Legends
Sands of Destruction
Infinite Space
Suikoden series (kinda - still fantasy but Chinese instead of European)
Super Robot Wars OG Saga
Project X-Zone series (including Namco x Capcom)
Folklore
Ar Tonelico series
Trinity Universe
Hyper NepNep series
Rune Factory/Harvest Moon serieses
Resonance of Fate
Tales of series (kinda 50/50 fantasy/wtf settings)
.hack series
Blue Reflection series
Eternights
Odin Spear
Tokyo Xanadu
Omega Quintet (first PS4 game I bought! I really should play it...)
Valkyrie Chronicles series
Metaphor
Hogwarts Legacy
Baroque
Dark Cloud series
Drakkengard series (high fantasy setting, wtmfffard story)
Front Mission series
GrimGrimoire
Kingdom Farts series
Grandia 1 & 2 (3 is skippable, as is Xtreme unless you love the battle system)
Mega Man X Command Mission
X-Men Legends / Marvel Ultimate Alliance serieses
Rogue Galaxy
Valkyrie Profile series (still high fantasy, but the story & battle system is worth it)
Evolution 1 & 2
Blue Dragon series (kinda - High-Sci-Fi Fantasy?)
Operation Darkness
Thousand Arms (Dating Sim RPG - like Sakura Wars but not)
Radiant Historia (Fantasy setting, but if you like Chrono Trigger...)
Mario & Luigi RPG series
Super Mario RPG
Paper Mario series

That's all I got from the top of my head for non-High Fantasy JRPGs for you...

 

[tenkai star]

Persona Series
Shin Megami Tensei serieseseses as well
Devil Survivor series
Persona Q 1 & 2
Wild ARMs series, which you mentioned
Xenogears
Xenosaga series
Xenoblade series
Mother/Earthbound series
Star Ocean series
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Skies series (all 20 years worth)
Koudelka & Shadow Hearts series, which you mentioned
Skies of Arcadia / Legends
Sands of Destruction
Infinite Space
Suikoden series (kinda - still fantasy but Chinese instead of European)
Super Robot Wars OG Saga
Project X-Zone series (including Namco x Capcom)
Folklore
Ar Tonelico series
Trinity Universe
Hyper NepNep series
Rune Factory/Harvest Moon serieses
Resonance of Fate
Tales of series (kinda 50/50 fantasy/wtf settings)
.hack series
Blue Reflection series
Eternights
Odin Spear
Tokyo Xanadu
Omega Quintet (first PS4 game I bought! I really should play it...)
Valkyrie Chronicles series
Metaphor
Hogwarts Legacy
Baroque
Dark Cloud series
Drakkengard series (high fantasy setting, wtmfffard story)
Front Mission series
GrimGrimoire
Kingdom Farts series
Grandia 1 & 2 (3 is skippable, as is Xtreme unless you love the battle system)
Mega Man X Command Mission
X-Men Legends / Marvel Ultimate Alliance serieses
Rogue Galaxy
Valkyrie Profile series (still high fantasy, but the story & battle system is worth it)
Evolution 1 & 2
Blue Dragon series (kinda - High-Sci-Fi Fantasy?)
Operation Darkness
Thousand Arms (Dating Sim RPG - like Sakura Wars but not)
Radiant Historia (Fantasy setting, but if you like Chrono Trigger...)
Mario & Luigi RPG series
Super Mario RPG
Paper Mario series

That's all I got from the top of my head for non-High Fantasy JRPGs for you...

This list would keep you occupied for a long long time even if you liked less than half of it. Nice list. I've always wanted to try Operation Darkness but sadly it's locked to the 360

 

[suzakuryuu]

is PS3/XBOX360 somewhere between 4th-7th gen?
If so, I'd recommend some RPGs
-Eternal Sonata (PS3/XBOX360)
-Blue Dragon (XBOX360)

Some older gen
Digimon Story Series (NDS), there's 3 of them, but story wise it's not connected (Digimon World, Digimon Dusk/Dawn, Digimon Story - Lost Evolution)
Brigandine (PSX) - it's SRPG, but if you like RPG and customization, you'll like it. There's 2 version of it, vanilla and Grand Edition, I'd recommend Grand Edition with translation, it has more content

 

[Karnik]

Well, no one mentioned the dear snes, but here I am to make up for the oversight.
G.O.D., Hourai Gakuen and Hero Chrinicle are jrpgs set in contemporary Japan.
Holy Umbrella, Demon Child Zenki and Hamelin no Violin are a cross between platform and rpg genres.
Hiouden e Chaos Seed are an interesting and original cross between strategy and rpg genres.
Finally Feda and Der Langrisser are tactical-rpg games.

 

[Num]

This list would keep you occupied for a long long time even if you liked less than half of it. Nice list. I've always wanted to try Operation Darkness but sadly it's locked to the 360

it runs well on emulation

 

[Enian]

Steambot Chronicles.

 

[mlastes1987]

Any rpg with a setting outside the norm, the norm in this case being a standard LOTR/DND inspired High Fantasy or a Star Wars inspired Scifi

fantasy and scifi are fine just as long as they are different

Some things ive heard of and want to try:
Wild Arms
Fallout
EVO the Search for Eden and EVO The Theory of Evolution/46 Billion Year Journey: The Theory of Evolution
Earthbound/Mother
Kouldelka/Shadow Hearts
Parasite EVE

Things Ive played and Liked:
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Cross
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Series

things ive tried and did not like:
MMO's
Anything with Gacha Mechanics
Soulslikes
SMT/Persona



The weirder the better

I heavily recommend 46 Okunen Monogatari: The Shinkaron, or as you listed, EVO: The Theory of Evolution. I recommend getting the Harddrive version as opposed to the fd images. Search for Eden is good, but Theory Of Evolution has a lot more RPG features, including being able to individually level up each stat to allow you to evolve into different creatures. It's a 2 to 3 hour playthrough depending on your ability to navigate it but it's well worth it and 46 Okumen did a great job translating the game. Nleseul retranslated Search for Eden so I would recommend that version. It's more action RPG than turn based like Theory. I also recommend all the ones you listed that you want to try.

 

[E0N]

Skies of Arcadia (Gamecube)
Rogue Galaxy (PS2)
Nostalgia (NDS)

These are all exploration focused JRPGs and pretty great.

 

[dropsmegamega]

Want a really weird RPG? Try Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

 

[freebie#47]

Super Robot Wars Series. OG on nds are JRPGS instead of SRPGs the entire series is best known for, but you can play them too, some are english.

If you want a short rpg game experience, cococucumber has a couple. Ravenlok and Echo Generations. You beat both in less than a day, though you might want to buy them when they are on sale.

 

[SLEDGE_DOG]

Anachronox. Basically a sci-fi JRPG made by people who worked classic PC FPS games. Tone is somewhere between Blade Runner and Hitchhiker's Guide, very good story and world and can be dramatic at times but never takes itself too seriously.

Not really a suggestion because it's basically impossible get access to the original version anymore (Legends is trash), but I'll mention it anyways. The Secret World had one of the coolest settings for an RPG I've ever found. Modern, real world but every conspiracy, myth, folklore, urban legend, etc. are all true. Some quests require leaving the game and doing real-world research. Incredible game. Really should have been some sort of offline/co-op thing. At least worth taking a look at even if you don't play it.

 

[kanesha]

Arc the Lad Twilight of the Spirits - one nation is drowning in high fantasy, while the other has like guns and robots and stuff, and nobody seems to care, it's normal.

Ecsaform

wtf is she holding? I beat the game and still don't know...

 

[Lime]

It might sound strange because the later elder scrolls games moved towards more generic medieval fantasy settings, but Morrowind is one of the first games that comes to mind when I think of an rpg with an alien setting, and it was on the original Xbox so I think it fits in 4th-7th gen. The mechanics might be hard to get used to though.

 

[cjl8336]

The original Xbox 360/PC release of Mass Effect that Bioware published (NOT the Electronic Farts rereleases) for gen 7 - the sequel was one of the biggest letdowns since I enjoyed the first game and replayed it a couple times