Best jrpg you have ever played?

[doncosmo]

Terranigma, easily.

[instantreplay]

Persona 4: The Golden

[evilnick]

Xenoblade Chronicles--and I think that's because it dumped a lot of JRPG tropes in favor of a lot more more Western design concepts.

[BarbaricAvatar]

Valkyrie Profile 2

Nothing comes close because it fixed the one thing that all JRPG's have wrong with them: The combat. Every battle and random encounter is a joy to play and never a chore.

[disgaeniac]

Valkyrie Profile 2

Nothing comes close because it fixed the one thing that all JRPG's have wrong with them: The combat. Every battle and random encounter is a joy to play and never a chore.

how does VP2's combat play out; turn-based?

[argyle]

Xenoblade Chronicles--and I think that's because it dumped a lot of JRPG tropes in favor of a lot more more Western design concepts.

It's my favorite as well, and I like to say it took the best of both worlds - JRPG & WRPG design. My only complaint was the poor inventory management system, but that's so minor in light of everything that game does right that it's hardly worth mentioning. 

[krelyan]

FF6
FF7
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Cross (I wish this got as much love as Trigger, it's just as good IMO)
DQ4
Persona 3
SMT: Nocturne
Suikoden 2
Xenogears
Final Fantasy Tactics
Xenoblade Chronicles
Crystalis (might be a stretch to call it a JRPG)
EO4

If I had to pick one, Xenogears probably edges them all out.

[davifus]

FFX

[azure]

Narrowing down one game its too difficult for me so I'll just go with a whole franchise, that being Shin Megami Tensei.

[bikingjahuty]

Final Fantasy VII will always be the gold standard for me. The only JRPG to even come close for me was Chrono Trigger.

[evilnick]

Xenoblade Chronicles--and I think that's because it dumped a lot of JRPG tropes in favor of a lot more more Western design concepts.

It's my favorite as well, and I like to say it took the best of both worlds - JRPG & WRPG design. My only complaint was the poor inventory management system, but that's so minor in light of everything that game does right that it's hardly worth mentioning. 

Yeah, most of my complaints were very minor gripes.  The inventory system was cumbersome and I would have liked a more Kingdoms of Amalur-style quest system, but it was nice not having to revisit certain characters for quests to be considered completed.

I was particularly pleased with how much insane depth there was to the game, and even 20 hours in, I was still discovering stuff to do--like the specific collection system for each area, and the branching shared abilities and perks system.  Had I discovered that before I'd spent 30 hours or so making Shulk "great with anybody on the team," I'd unfortunately failed to make too many other characters stronger with each other.

[ffxik]

Valkyrie Profile 2

Nothing comes close because it fixed the one thing that all JRPG's have wrong with them: The combat. Every battle and random encounter is a joy to play and never a chore.

how does VP2's combat play out; turn-based?

It's very much turn based.  They just try very hard to disguise it.  It uses a system that is a hybrid of Valkyrie Profile Lenneth and Star Ocean.  Using the free roam of Star Ocean while heavily utilizing mechanics from it's predecessor, modifying a lot of them for the worse and adding some new yet ultimately broken mechanics to it as well. 

VP2's combat is one thing I absolutely abhor about that game.

[argyle]

Valkyrie Profile 2

Nothing comes close because it fixed the one thing that all JRPG's have wrong with them: The combat. Every battle and random encounter is a joy to play and never a chore.

how does VP2's combat play out; turn-based?

It's very much turn based.  They just try very hard to disguise it.  It uses a system that is a hybrid of Valkyrie Profile Lenneth and Star Ocean.  Using the free roam of Star Ocean while heavily utilizing mechanics from it's predecessor, modifying a lot of them for the worse and adding some new yet ultimately broken mechanics to it as well. 

VP2's combat is one thing I absolutely abhor about that game.

Huh, I loved VP2's combat but I'll admit that I've never played the original. The only real complaint I had about the game is that it's almost necessary to follow a guide or else the end game will be a LOT more difficult than it already is.

[ffxik]

Valkyrie Profile 2

Nothing comes close because it fixed the one thing that all JRPG's have wrong with them: The combat. Every battle and random encounter is a joy to play and never a chore.

how does VP2's combat play out; turn-based?

It's very much turn based.  They just try very hard to disguise it.  It uses a system that is a hybrid of Valkyrie Profile Lenneth and Star Ocean.  Using the free roam of Star Ocean while heavily utilizing mechanics from it's predecessor, modifying a lot of them for the worse and adding some new yet ultimately broken mechanics to it as well. 

VP2's combat is one thing I absolutely abhor about that game.

Huh, I loved VP2's combat but I'll admit that I've never played the original. The only real complaint I had about the game is that it's almost necessary to follow a guide or else the end game will be a LOT more difficult than it already is.

As far as the original goes.  Remove the free roam and that will pretty much cover a huge swath of it.  Which is just fluff anyway, since you get close enough to an enemy on field it will switch to the Lenneth style of combat.  My gripes come from some rather odd design choices.  Such as putting the entire party on one action timer instead of each person having their own.  The cool down on accessing the menus.  That really hurts knowing spells like Might/Guard Reinforce or Heal which were AoE are now single unit.  Pair that with a cool down and I lost many a boss battle thanks to this.  Among others I just get annoyed thinking about it. :/

My only other gripe is the cookie cutter party members.  Lenneth made them unique.  You had to adjust your combat timing for each new addition since no two characters had the same attacks or finishing blows.  Can't say the same for VP2.

On the plus side the graphics were gorgeous and the addition of shops and currency was a very cool move.  The removal of the "periods" or the timer between chapters was awesome.  Although if done properly you could exploit that in Lenneth.

[disgaeniac]

Either of you guys played VP: CotP (DS)?

I've heard a lot of mixed opinions on that one too (sitting in my backlog)...