RPG advice - driving me mad!

[Crown Prince]

Ok, I'm looking for opinions and suggestions for my next RPG fix. Just about to finish Persona 4 and am most into JRPGs. Eternal Arcadia, best RPG I've played bar none. Anyway, I'd prefer a current-gen game this time, so this is what I've shortlisted (with reported flaws)

Eternal Sonata (basic combat/very short)
Star Ocean Last Hope International (cack story/long cutscenes)
Final Fantasy XIII (no exploration or towns/too many cutscenes)
Resonance of Fate (inaccessible/not enough visual variety)

However, I've not really thought about Mass Effect 1/2, Dragon Age or Fallout 3. Do these qualify as RPGs? Levelling up, exploration, turn-based battles, etc? One thing: I'm not interested in sandpit games, which is why Oblivion goes untouched.

Anyone want to suggest titles I've missed? I want something shiny and new but maybe I should suck it up and pick FFVII, Xenogears or any of the other PSX RPGs I never played...

Ta muchly.

[sj33]

Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Fallout 3 certainly won't fit your requirements. Whilst none of them are as sandbox as Oblivion, western RPGs generally tend to prioritise player freedom and development of character interactions over an overarching plotline (which tends to require a linear development of the plotline).

The best game in the world ever would be one that mixes the two styles together. Nothing has really come close to this (except maybe FFXII).

[vanpeebles]

Enchanted Arms

[Flabio]

Lost Odyssey.

And Xenogears. Go on. Do it.

[Crown Prince]

Noted - which is what I suspected. However, if you told me Mass Effect 2 looks fantastic; has lots of character/story development; is imaginative, engrossing and thrilling; and worth experiencing simply by virtue of being an exemplary example of the medium, I'd be happy to check it out. After all, if it's a good game, it's a good game. And that seems to apply to all three of those.

Right or wrong?

Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Fallout 3 certainly won't fit your requirements. Whilst none of them are as sandbox as Oblivion, western RPGs generally tend to prioritise player freedom and development of character interactions over an overarching plotline (which tends to require a linear development of the plotline).

The best game in the world ever would be one that mixes the two styles together.

[Crown Prince]

Really? I heard it was average at best.

Enchanted Arms

[vanpeebles]

Well do you like JRPGs or not? It's a solid, entertaining JRPG

[Crown Prince]

Interesting. LO passed under my radar.

And Xenogears > FFVII? I kinda feel I should try the latter for myself, for all the copies I sold when I was in retail!

Lost Odyssey.

And Xenogears. Go on. Do it.

[Crown Prince]

Well do you like JRPGs or not? It's a solid, entertaining JRPG

Yes - but only good ones! I'll do some more reading...

[prinnysquad]

Last Remnant?

[sj33]

Noted - which is what I suspected. However, if you told me Mass Effect 2 looks fantastic; has lots of character/story development; is imaginative, engrossing and thrilling; and worth experiencing simply by virtue of being an exemplary example of the medium, I'd be happy to check it out. After all, if it's a good game, it's a good game. And that seems to apply to all three of those.

Right or wrong?

Mass Effect 2 is probably my favourite game of the past 5 years, you might actually like it. Exploration and the like is downplayed, it's much more 'structured', the plot and characters take much more of a central role. Combat-wise it's probably closer to a shooter than and RPG though, it's one of those awkward games that doesn't really fit nicely into any genre. I think even the most dedicated JRPG player would like it.

One barrier to entry is that it follows directly after the original, which has obvious implications in terms of plot and knowing who the characters are. The original game is very good, but a bit less focused and much more of a marmite game. The sequel basically fixed everything.

[Crown Prince]

New one to me - will look into it, ta.

Last Remnant?

[Crown Prince]

I did think about playing the first one, well, first. I'll look again at these two.

Anyone got opinions on the ones I shortlisted?

Mass Effect 2 is probably my favourite game of the past 5 years, you might actually like it. Exploration and the like is downplayed, it's much more 'structured', the plot and characters take much more of a central role. Combat-wise it's probably closer to a shooter than and RPG though, it's one of those awkward games that doesn't really fit nicely into any genre. I think even the most dedicated JRPG player would like it.

One barrier to entry is that it follows directly after the original, which has obvious implications in terms of plot and knowing who the characters are. The original game is very good, but a bit less focused and much more of a marmite game. The sequel basically fixed everything.

[prinnysquad]

Infinite Undiscovery? That and Last Remnant got iffy reviews, but their strengths may be your type of thing, and weaknesses not important to you. Best read some reviews, especially from RPG fans.

Lost Odyssey is the best 360 jrpg this gen. The dream stories alone are super.

[sj33]

I really liked The Last Remnant, though I played the PC version. I hear the 360 version is very buggy and suffers from poor performance. The PC version was supposed to be the basis for the canned PS3 version, so they've fixed a lot of things, rebalanced a lot of the enemies, weapons, added Japanese voices etc.

It's a SquareEnix game and it feel very much like one, and turn-based, though it's somewhat unique in that you control 'units' of people rather in individual characters.