Metal Max and other lesser known JRPG series

[Zerodelgato]

I'm a huge fan of the Metal Max series, it being a post apocalyptic sandbox rpg is one of the most unique settings i've seen in the genre. What are y'all's thought on it and what are some more obscure series i should check out?

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

It’s not a series just a single entry. This TRPG has a bit of Front Mission and SRW aura into it.

 

[Appiplyer]

It’s not a series just a single entry. This TRPG has a bit of Front Mission and SRW aura into it.
View attachment 180398View attachment 180399View attachment 180400

Wait i need to play this

Post automatically merged: May 2, 2026

I'm a huge fan of the Metal Max series, it being a post apocalyptic sandbox rpg is one of the most unique settings i've seen in the genre. What are y'all's thought on it and what are some more obscure series i should check out?View attachment 180396

Ngl Metal Max are indeed super unique the fact that we can have vehicle and our own unit to play

Also considering the class system this thing are pretty solid. AND i just like the vibe of the enviroment it's like you're playing mad max

 

[Morgan Katarn]

Im curently playing metal max on nes then plan on the snes and so on. I dicovered metal max for ps2 in 2012-13 in a local game store and I bught it.

Or as it is called Metal saga. And i love the series sense.

 

[Antaeus]

Played a bit of Metal Saga 2 years ago i tought that was a spinoff of Metal Slug because it has ''Metal'' on the name lol

 

[RageBurner]

Love the Metal Max series, it's definitely underrated. While I'm glad most games are either in English officially or fan patched, it saddens me that the series has been dormant for so long.

 

[RedCometHarry]

I absolutely adore the Summon Night series, shame most of the games are completely untranslated.

 

[diapered]

It’s not a series just a single entry. This TRPG has a bit of Front Mission and SRW aura into it.
View attachment 180398View attachment 180399View attachment 180400

Oh! that looks interesting! I Front Mission ^_^

 

[Moreno909]

Slayers SNES game
BRANDISH

 

[prostheticleg]

this definitely looks very interesting, never heard of that ! would love to give it a try. the obviously japanese character design is already tempting me and the gameplay looks quite interesting too.

on the topic of other obscure series, i think little tail bronx is one i can talk about for hours. at the same time i feel like its not exactly the same 'genre' as metal max so people might not like it as much, but its definitely obscure enough to have some sort of a fanbase.
it is generally colorful, childish, meant to be played by kids, obviously, so it might not scratch the itch for some players but i loved it.
tail concerto, the first game, is not exactly liked because of its finicky controls and poor platforming, the storytelling is pretty poor, you cant exactly tell whats going on, but it is definitely very, very charming. it lacks behind as a ps game, the graphics could be better, but i think the strongest title in this series is solatorobo, my most favorite one.

solatorobo is a default jrpg - run around, complete quests, level up, kill bosses, progress through the story. the game is EXTREMELY (in my opinion) impressive for a ds game. it is very detailed, somewhat short (approx. ~20hrs, but it took me a while to play through) and has a lot, a lot of text. the worldbuilding is very impressive. it uses a mix of 2d and 3d graphics that i find quite charming. the ost is very good as well. they definitely outdid themselves, and you can clearly see it. the game won multiple jrpg awards, too. has some robo/mecha themes in it as well.
theres a lot of short stories and mangas as a continuation to the game story if you finish the game and crave for more. it is very, very heartwarming to see the devs put so much soul and thought into the series, so much that theres about 20+ short stories to read.

the series take a darker turn in fuga: melodies of steel. the game is less polished, crashes sometimes, not exactly of the best quality but i had to play because of my love for the series. the setting is much more crushing, and it definitely felt somewhat depressing. fuga: melodies of steel is a strategy game, with a lot of storytelling as well. a lot of cutscenes, a lot of character interactions (although very, very cliche sometimes). personally - not my most favorite, but i definitely felt attached to it after playing it for 30+ hours. its not that good but i loved it and missed it afterwards.

generally, i feel like little tail bronx is definitely a series that deserves much more love and attention, but i believe its not for everyone either! definitely obscure enough for people not to talk about it, but i believe it has the potential to make people fall in love with it with how charming the series is.

 

[FrootyLoopsSamurai]

Technically not a series but Demon of Laplace was a pretty cool RPG on the SNES. It was japan exclusive but has a fan translation. It's a paranormal/horror themed game where you explore a haunted house and fight various ghosts/demons/eldritch themed enemies. It's a bit Wizardry inspired and has a class system and freely exchangable party members. The setting is very Lovecraft themed and pretty unique to JRPG's. It's not super long, but the random encounters are a bit dense. I had fun with it.

It has other versions that were released for japanese PC's and the PC Engine, but none of them aside from the SNES game have translations. They also don't seem as good.

Metal Max is pretty cool. I've played the SNES version of 1, the DS version of 2, and Metal Saga. Currently in the middle of a Metal Max 3 playthrough. So far 2 on the DS has been my favorite. I like how the post apocalyptic setting is handled. There's a fair amount of comedy and levity in comparison to games and other media with similar settings.

 

[Badseed Badseed]

This tread makes me sad, it reminded my of when I purchased Metal Max Xeno Reborn
and I saw what they did to it. If I could score it lower than zero I would. Steam wouldn't
even refund me, they game me some BS reason. Play the English translated version of MM3
for the NDS and save yourself the heartache. A matter of fact pull out all you toenails and pour
turpentine on the open wounds, that would be much more enjoyable than MMXR.

 

[Onicat]

Try to look on this (SNES): Tengai Makyo Zero (from Tengai Makyo series), Energy Breaker, Arabian Nights and Chaos Seed. All have fan translation.

 

[nomohero7]

Does anyone play Bahamut Lagoon?
Always wander about but newer actually played

 

[Onicat]

Does anyone play Bahamut Lagoon?

I tried a little. Looks like nice and colorful tactical/japanese rpg with a bit of "terraforming" gimmick. It's quite possible that there are other interesting mechanics further on; I just haven't gotten that far yet.

 

[Badseed Badseed]

Love the Metal Max series, it's definitely underrated. While I'm glad most games are either in English officially or fan patched, it saddens me that the series has been dormant for so long.

No, you are just uninformed. Newest MM came out on steam in 2022. Called Metal
Max Xeno Reborn But if you value your time, $40 and sanity. DO NOT PLAY. If you haven't played MM3 on the NDS there's an Engrish patch, that game kicks-ass.
The "reborn" version of this game cuts almost all character interactions, cut-scenes, story, art, etc from the game, not replaced just removed. The dlc's don't actually function so you are literally throwing your money away. Or just Stick with your great memories, because sometimes there are things in life you cannot un-see.

I mean does this really make you think of Metal Max?

 

[RageBurner]

No, you are just uninformed. Newest MM came out on steam in 2022. Called Metal
Max Xeno Reborn But if you value your time, $40 and sanity. DO NOT PLAY. If you haven't played MM3 on the NDS there's an Engrish patch, that game kicks-ass.
The "reborn" version of this game cuts almost all character interactions, cut-scenes, story, art, etc from the game, not replaced just removed. The dlc's don't actually function so you are literally throwing your money away. Or just Stick with your great memories, because sometimes there are things in life you cannot un-see.

View attachment 181688 I mean does this really make you think of Metal Max?

I'm well aware of Xeno. Since then, 2 games that were on the pipeline were cancelled, though, so the series should have been more active than it is.

I don't know about DLCs but as far as I can tell, Reborn expands the game by promoting an NPC to playable, reworks the battle system and removes the ridiculous soft porn stuff related to ending the career early, something that should never been in a game like this in the first place, so for me it's a more proper MM game than the original Xeno.

All told, I agree MM2DS and MM3DS are likely the peak. It's a shame we never got MM1DS, as I very much enjoy franchise parity.

 

[Viviana Santos]

This series isn't exactly well-known, and I've only played two games in the series so far, but I absolutely love SaGa Frontier 1 and 2. These two games are among my favorites from the SquareSoft era, and I'm really interested in playing the other games in the SaGa series someday.

 

[Graw]

I came to this thread to post about SaGa but you beat me to it.

I'm really interested in playing the other games in the SaGa series someday.

I've played the first three SaGa games, Romancing SaGa 1 (both versions) and 3, SaGa Frontier 1, Scarlet Grace and Emerald Beyond and barely tried Unlimited SaGa. You've already played Frontier but I'd highly recommend Romancing SaGa 3 and the remaster of Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song which is a remake of Romancing SaGa 1. Minstrel Song is probably my favourite rpg of all time, Japanese or otherwise.

Romancing SaGa 3 plays a lot like a traditional jrpg that's been chopped up into pieces and you can mostly just pick up the pieces in any order you want. There's some stuff locked behind HP level and some other stuff locked behind defeating one of 4 bosses but otherwise you can you can do things in pretty much any order you want. There's no overworld instead you have a world map and unlock new locations by talking to NPCs or traveling to them by ship from ports in different towns. There's a ton of party members you can recruit. A few optional mini-games that are actually pretty decent. The main story's kind of standard for a jrpg but the side quests and characters get kind of crazy and there's some really weird ones that are of the weirdest I've seen in what is otherwise a fairly standard jrpg fantasy setting. The game can be pretty obtuse at times. But there's a ton of content buried in there. And by obtuse I mean, I spent a bunch of time going from town to town wondering where I was supposed to go and what I was supposed to do and how I was supposed to get more money after spending it unlocking towns trying to find anything. Eventually though I started finding things and figuring things out though and then suddenly there was just a ton of things to do. I do find the pacing of the game feels a bit jarring though. Most quests just suddenly end without much followup outside any rewards or treasure you got or new party members you unlocked or maybe a new NPC or different dialog in town. It can feel a bit weird going through a big dungeon with a bunch of story buildup and fighting a boss only to just be transported back to town at the end and that's it done. Even the main quest bosses are like that. It does make the game feel a bit disconnected and maybe a bit less epic than it should feel considering how much you actually do in the game. It's honestly a shame it took so long for it to get localized in the west because it easily stands alongside the best of the snes jrpgs.

Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song is similar to Romancing SaGa 3 in that it's an open world jrpg where you pick locations from a world map but it plays out completely differently. It uses an event rank system where basically as you fight battles, your event rank slowly increases and time passes. As your event rank increases, different quests and events become available or unavailable until eventually one of three final endgame quest unlocks based on your actions throughout the game. It's pretty much left up to the player what they do. There's several main characters you can select at the beginning that sort of nudge you in a certain direction but you can pretty much just ignore that and do whatever you want. It's the kind of game where it's the most fun if you don't worry about missing things or trying to do every single thing you can in one playthrough. To me it was more like an adventure simulator. Each playthrough is its own unique adventure where you choose how you want it to go. The gameplay mechanics are pretty complex. There's field skills that let you find hidden areas or treasure. Some quests require accessing areas that may be locked behind field skills so it's a good idea to use at least some of them. There's some that let you mine or gather resources that can be used for alchemy or blacksmithing. I didn't really play around too much with either of those but both systems are fairly deep and you could probably spend an entire playthrough just focused on one of them if you wanted to. There's a ton of quests in the game and many of them go on to form quest chains where finishing one will unlock others. This is why it's pretty much impossible to do everything in one playthrough unless you intentionally fight as few battles as possible, which is very difficult, and plan every detail of your playthrough, which to me, doesn't sound fun. It's probably the only rpg I've finished and then immediately started a second playthrough and played through the whole thing again. There's a pretty in depth class and magic system that allows creating new spells. The weapon ability system is probably the most complex of all the SaGa games with three different modes for your weapons on top of everything you'd typically find in a SaGa game. There's a formation system that affects many hidden things in combat and a combo system with entirely hidden mechanics that relies on a bunch of stuff like character speeds, weapons used, skill used, formation, enemy speed and none of it is ever explained. If you ever play Scarlet Grace or Emerald Beyond, Minstrel Song basically has the same timeline system but the timeline is hidden. Honestly there's just so much in the game it's hard to even think of it all. Despite all that though i actually found it to be more accessible than Romancing SaGa 3. There was never a time when I couldn't figure out something to do. I was always able to find at least one thing I could do fairly easily and never really felt lost or like I had no idea what was going on. Mechanics wise I felt a bit overwhelmed and confused at first but I always felt like I could keep making progress at something. Romancing SaGa 3 had a few points where I just could not find something I could do, usually until I inadvertently raised my HP enough to unlock some more stuff.

The DS remake of SaGa 3 was also pretty fun. It incorporates some of the gameplay mechanics from Minstrel Song which are absent in the GB original which was made by different developers than the other SaGa games. It has a time travel gimmick which is pretty neat and the monster eating mechanic isn't too bad in this one.

I played the wonderswan version of SaGa 1. It was a pretty basic but decent game for a gameboy rpg. Same with SaGa 2. I'm not really the biggest fan of the weird race system and eating monster parts and stuff like that and mostly just played with human and esper characters.

I honestly wouldn't really recommend Emerald Beyond or Scarlet Grace. The combat's fun but the games play more like interactive visual novels than actual games. I guess if you like that kind of thing you might enjoy it but I didn't really like the lack of dungeons and actual exploration. The original snes version of Romancing SaGa 1 was also pretty bad too. It was just very unfun to play. Unlimited SaGa was very confusing and I couldn't really figure out how to move or do anything. I did eventually do some things but the more I read about the game's mechanics the less appealing it sounded. The reel system is also pretty annoying.

I've heard a lot of good things about the Romancing SaGa 2 remake but I'll probably play the older remaster before I play that one.

The SaGa series can be hard to get into. All the games are sort of obtuse and can be counterintuitive at times. They don't really tell stories in the same way most jrpgs do and honestly, the stories aren't really the most amazing in most of them. The games are really about the adventures and the gameplay mechanics. They're made by someone with a weird obsession for western tabletop rpgs and he tries his best, with wildly varying degrees of success, to recreate that experience in his games for better or for worse. If you can get past all that though they're some of the most unique rpgs and in some cases, Unlimited SaGa, unique games out there.

 

[Viviana Santos]

I came to this thread to post about SaGa but you beat me to it.

I've played the first three SaGa games, Romancing SaGa 1 (both versions) and 3, SaGa Frontier 1, Scarlet Grace and Emerald Beyond and barely tried Unlimited SaGa. You've already played Frontier but I'd highly recommend Romancing SaGa 3 and the remaster of Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song which is a remake of Romancing SaGa 1. Minstrel Song is probably my favourite rpg of all time, Japanese or otherwise.

Romancing SaGa 3 plays a lot like a traditional jrpg that's been chopped up into pieces and you can mostly just pick up the pieces in any order you want. There's some stuff locked behind HP level and some other stuff locked behind defeating one of 4 bosses but otherwise you can you can do things in pretty much any order you want. There's no overworld instead you have a world map and unlock new locations by talking to NPCs or traveling to them by ship from ports in different towns. There's a ton of party members you can recruit. A few optional mini-games that are actually pretty decent. The main story's kind of standard for a jrpg but the side quests and characters get kind of crazy and there's some really weird ones that are of the weirdest I've seen in what is otherwise a fairly standard jrpg fantasy setting. The game can be pretty obtuse at times. But there's a ton of content buried in there. And by obtuse I mean, I spent a bunch of time going from town to town wondering where I was supposed to go and what I was supposed to do and how I was supposed to get more money after spending it unlocking towns trying to find anything. Eventually though I started finding things and figuring things out though and then suddenly there was just a ton of things to do. I do find the pacing of the game feels a bit jarring though. Most quests just suddenly end without much followup outside any rewards or treasure you got or new party members you unlocked or maybe a new NPC or different dialog in town. It can feel a bit weird going through a big dungeon with a bunch of story buildup and fighting a boss only to just be transported back to town at the end and that's it done. Even the main quest bosses are like that. It does make the game feel a bit disconnected and maybe a bit less epic than it should feel considering how much you actually do in the game. It's honestly a shame it took so long for it to get localized in the west because it easily stands alongside the best of the snes jrpgs.

Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song is similar to Romancing SaGa 3 in that it's an open world jrpg where you pick locations from a world map but it plays out completely differently. It uses an event rank system where basically as you fight battles, your event rank slowly increases and time passes. As your event rank increases, different quests and events become available or unavailable until eventually one of three final endgame quest unlocks based on your actions throughout the game. It's pretty much left up to the player what they do. There's several main characters you can select at the beginning that sort of nudge you in a certain direction but you can pretty much just ignore that and do whatever you want. It's the kind of game where it's the most fun if you don't worry about missing things or trying to do every single thing you can in one playthrough. To me it was more like an adventure simulator. Each playthrough is its own unique adventure where you choose how you want it to go. The gameplay mechanics are pretty complex. There's field skills that let you find hidden areas or treasure. Some quests require accessing areas that may be locked behind field skills so it's a good idea to use at least some of them. There's some that let you mine or gather resources that can be used for alchemy or blacksmithing. I didn't really play around too much with either of those but both systems are fairly deep and you could probably spend an entire playthrough just focused on one of them if you wanted to. There's a ton of quests in the game and many of them go on to form quest chains where finishing one will unlock others. This is why it's pretty much impossible to do everything in one playthrough unless you intentionally fight as few battles as possible, which is very difficult, and plan every detail of your playthrough, which to me, doesn't sound fun. It's probably the only rpg I've finished and then immediately started a second playthrough and played through the whole thing again. There's a pretty in depth class and magic system that allows creating new spells. The weapon ability system is probably the most complex of all the SaGa games with three different modes for your weapons on top of everything you'd typically find in a SaGa game. There's a formation system that affects many hidden things in combat and a combo system with entirely hidden mechanics that relies on a bunch of stuff like character speeds, weapons used, skill used, formation, enemy speed and none of it is ever explained. If you ever play Scarlet Grace or Emerald Beyond, Minstrel Song basically has the same timeline system but the timeline is hidden. Honestly there's just so much in the game it's hard to even think of it all. Despite all that though i actually found it to be more accessible than Romancing SaGa 3. There was never a time when I couldn't figure out something to do. I was always able to find at least one thing I could do fairly easily and never really felt lost or like I had no idea what was going on. Mechanics wise I felt a bit overwhelmed and confused at first but I always felt like I could keep making progress at something. Romancing SaGa 3 had a few points where I just could not find something I could do, usually until I inadvertently raised my HP enough to unlock some more stuff.

The DS remake of SaGa 3 was also pretty fun. It incorporates some of the gameplay mechanics from Minstrel Song which are absent in the GB original which was made by different developers than the other SaGa games. It has a time travel gimmick which is pretty neat and the monster eating mechanic isn't too bad in this one.

I played the wonderswan version of SaGa 1. It was a pretty basic but decent game for a gameboy rpg. Same with SaGa 2. I'm not really the biggest fan of the weird race system and eating monster parts and stuff like that and mostly just played with human and esper characters.

I honestly wouldn't really recommend Emerald Beyond or Scarlet Grace. The combat's fun but the games play more like interactive visual novels than actual games. I guess if you like that kind of thing you might enjoy it but I didn't really like the lack of dungeons and actual exploration. The original snes version of Romancing SaGa 1 was also pretty bad too. It was just very unfun to play. Unlimited SaGa was very confusing and I couldn't really figure out how to move or do anything. I did eventually do some things but the more I read about the game's mechanics the less appealing it sounded. The reel system is also pretty annoying.

I've heard a lot of good things about the Romancing SaGa 2 remake but I'll probably play the older remaster before I play that one.

The SaGa series can be hard to get into. All the games are sort of obtuse and can be counterintuitive at times. They don't really tell stories in the same way most jrpgs do and honestly, the stories aren't really the most amazing in most of them. The games are really about the adventures and the gameplay mechanics. They're made by someone with a weird obsession for western tabletop rpgs and he tries his best, with wildly varying degrees of success, to recreate that experience in his games for better or for worse. If you can get past all that though they're some of the most unique rpgs and in some cases, Unlimited SaGa, unique games out there.

Wow!!! Thank you so much for analyzing the other games in the SaGa series (except for Frontier). I have Romancing SaGa 1, 2, and 3, The Collection of SaGa, and Minstrel Song on my Steam wishlist, so I’ll definitely buy them someday!

 

[Noon]

I’ve been super obsessed lately with Idea Factory’s Spectral Series. Idea Factory was founded by former Data East people, who were the makers of the original Metal Max games. It’s a totally different beast from Metal Max but the scale, complexity, and writing are so good, it’s pretty tough to get into at first though. Really big series with lots of entries.

 

[Yeti21]

It's not really lesser known in the JRPG space but Shadow Hearts. But it's been so long that plenty of people newer to the genre haven't played it. It needs a new release.

I picked up Shadow Hearts covenant on a whim probably 15 years ago and fell in love.

 

[snes9x]

this definitely looks very interesting, never heard of that ! would love to give it a try. the obviously japanese character design is already tempting me and the gameplay looks quite interesting too.

on the topic of other obscure series, i think little tail bronx is one i can talk about for hours. at the same time i feel like its not exactly the same 'genre' as metal max so people might not like it as much, but its definitely obscure enough to have some sort of a fanbase.
it is generally colorful, childish, meant to be played by kids, obviously, so it might not scratch the itch for some players but i loved it.
tail concerto, the first game, is not exactly liked because of its finicky controls and poor platforming, the storytelling is pretty poor, you cant exactly tell whats going on, but it is definitely very, very charming. it lacks behind as a ps game, the graphics could be better, but i think the strongest title in this series is solatorobo, my most favorite one.

View attachment 180724

View attachment 180725

solatorobo is a default jrpg - run around, complete quests, level up, kill bosses, progress through the story. the game is EXTREMELY (in my opinion) impressive for a ds game. it is very detailed, somewhat short (approx. ~20hrs, but it took me a while to play through) and has a lot, a lot of text. the worldbuilding is very impressive. it uses a mix of 2d and 3d graphics that i find quite charming. the ost is very good as well. they definitely outdid themselves, and you can clearly see it. the game won multiple jrpg awards, too. has some robo/mecha themes in it as well.
theres a lot of short stories and mangas as a continuation to the game story if you finish the game and crave for more. it is very, very heartwarming to see the devs put so much soul and thought into the series, so much that theres about 20+ short stories to read.

the series take a darker turn in fuga: melodies of steel. the game is less polished, crashes sometimes, not exactly of the best quality but i had to play because of my love for the series. the setting is much more crushing, and it definitely felt somewhat depressing. fuga: melodies of steel is a strategy game, with a lot of storytelling as well. a lot of cutscenes, a lot of character interactions (although very, very cliche sometimes). personally - not my most favorite, but i definitely felt attached to it after playing it for 30+ hours. its not that good but i loved it and missed it afterwards.

generally, i feel like little tail bronx is definitely a series that deserves much more love and attention, but i believe its not for everyone either! definitely obscure enough for people not to talk about it, but i believe it has the potential to make people fall in love with it with how charming the series is.

View attachment 180728

Going from lighthearted furry beat em ups to PTSD furry war orphan strategy rpg was an interesting choice to say the least. I still need to beat Tail Concerto. The only thing hard mode really does is make boss fights ten times as long and I kinda tapped out. I always kick myself when I think about all the chances I passed up Solatorobo at gamestop for $20.

 

[Bakuma1997]

The "Soul Trilogy" of ARPGs from SNES, it consists of Actraiser, Illusion of Gaia/Time (depending of region) and my beloved Terraningma, all of them has unrelated plots and can be played in any order, but they share themes and they are some hidden callbacks that "connects" them,

 

[prostheticleg]

Going from lighthearted furry beat em ups to PTSD furry war orphan strategy rpg was an interesting choice to say the least. I still need to beat Tail Concerto. The only thing hard mode really does is make boss fights ten times as long and I kinda tapped out. I always kick myself when I think about all the chances I passed up Solatorobo at gamestop for $20.

i think tail concerto is already somewhat hard considering the controls. sadly i dont remember my experience playing it but i remember it being tedious enough for me to get tired of it so i believe you.

on the topic of how the story evolved - if im being honest - i do like the premise a lot, as well as the gameplay, but i feel like this game should have stayed japan only OR they should have localized it better. im not sure if you played fuga, but the humor/storytelling/characters are comically stereotypical. the overweight character only talks about food, the traumatized character only talks about her trauma, the 'rich'/'cultured' character mostly talks about missing his life in the city, the grieving character talks mainly about revenge, the smart character just talks about tech. at one point i found it somewhat annoying since the characters felt not exactly developed/well written and the 'world' felt less alive because of that. i dont mean for this reply to be heavy, but some cultural representation seemed dated and felt somewhat offending in a way which just made me feel off somewhat. i really do like the game, it is very much addictive and immersive because of the gameplay + ost combo, but the misrepresentation thing just made me feel like this game mostly belongs in the japanese market, not european/american ones.
if you havent played fuga then i dont feel like youre missing out much. its a good game, but you dont need much brain capacity for it, its not that much of a 'strategy' game, so it just really boils down to beating the same 4-5 groups of enemies for like 20 hrs straight with ocassional cutscenes. i think its very much interesting to those that wanna know more little tail bronx lore like me (the story is somewhat mediocre but still) although it offers like zero lore.

and yea solatorobo cartridges do sell for a lot sometimes ... especially us/eu ones. i ordered a japanese one for 30 dollars and that was the cheapest one i could find, they usually sell for much, much more, like 70-100+ especially if its in good condition. it is genuinely a nice game to have in a collection. although the cartridge i got is jp and its of less value than the eu/us ones im still quite glad to own it. dont beat yourself up over it though!! good thing you can get good games like that from repo and physical jp versions are really dirt cheap and theyre good collection-wise, but i understand and i feel the same way about some nds/ps2/ps3 games too ... they were selling for dirt cheap back in the day but you have to pay like 50-70 dollars for a copy now