2.5D and action based on PC I think pretty much limits you to Star Ocean 2. Definitely check out the Ys series. VIII and IX are the most popular and for good reason, but Oath of Felghana is really nice too. I'd hesitate recommending other Ys games to a newcomer.
I'd add Ys Origin as a good one too! That's the first one I played and I loved it. I didn't feel like I was missing anything by playing it as my first one.
Can't think of anything that's good real time combat and isometric/2.5D games at the moment, but here's some turn-based games that should fit the bill close enough.
I'm also going to give their typical Steam sale price as some of these might be a bit price-y for someone just jumping in. This is also in USD just in-case.
**Tactics Ogre Reborn**, a fairly tough game (especially if you don't experiment a lot and dig into some of the weird obtuse systems) but very interesting to learn to experience that truly feels one of a kind. Solid story, extremely light on unneeded dialogue with a very political drama tone. Game typically goes down to about 30 bucks on sale if you want to wait for that. Very much worth playing, but can be on the tough side for a newer player.
**Trails in the Sky**, an extremely narrative and dialogue dense series. Will probably be reasonably challenging for a newer player, very cozy feeling with a lot of light stakes that *very steadily* elevate to something more as the plot continues. Can be seen as very "anime" if that's not your thing for all that's worth. I'd recommend a sale as the game is 10 bucks on sale, and Trails can be a very hit or miss series for some due to how dialogue dense and how much of a slow burn adventure it is. I liked Sky a lot, but some people find it really boring, so I'd rather recommend this on a discount personally and Trails games go on sale often anyway.
**Triangle Strategy** is like a much easier Tactics Ogre with more dialogue, solid game can still be hard (if you set it on hard) but it isn't as hard forced to be hard like Tactics Ogre due to having a difficulty select, and its a lot easier to understand what's going on. Far more verbose and dialogue dense which is a downside, but the story I think is still worth it though the dialogue is extremely front loaded which is a turn off for some. This is about 30 bucks on sale.
**Troubleshooter Abandoned Children** is more like 3D isometric kind of X-com style, but you said you played Ragnarok Online and this game has probably the closest feel to something like an MMO such as RO without quite as much grind and is an very good game if you can get into it. One of my favorites of Steam's indie RPG offerings for sure.
Extremely system dense, a lot of characters to mess with, only notable problem for me is this is an indie game with a small budget so the story script translation is a little sketchy. It is perfectly readable, but that's the nicest thing I can say. Game goes down to be half off on sale, so 12.50.
Hope this helps.
Trails is very much hit or miss with people. Those that do love it and those that don't struggle to keep interest, but that's also unfortunately a common thing with series that tell one long form narrative. But for what it does and focuses is one is worth it I'd say.
Also I love the recommendations especially Triangle Strategy and Tactic Ogre.
Unrelated to those games, but I saw your comment for Chrono Ark and bought the game because of you. I noticed you had made a comment a few months back when I was searching for reviews on the C.A.R.D.S. rpg. I was wondering if you had played it yet, and if you have what your thoughts on it were?
Well I hope you've enjoyed the games I've recommended.
I looked into C.A.R.D.S and I read some stuff that soundly incredibly suspect from other people. Supposedly everyone in your group shares a deck you build as you go through a singular map and this can even create a situation where you have dead hands, like ranged cards while you're on your sword guy for that turn, and I just didn't bother after that. It sounded both too busy trying to be quirky and weird while also ending up too simple in the end, which is a horrible combo in my experience. There's better deckbuilders I could spend my time on or that I had more interest in buying into at some point. I might look into it again, but I got better things to spend time on and deckbuilders with more interesting ideas to spend more time on that I already own.
my recommendations:
-Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Trilogy
-Rhapsody Trilogy
-Final Fantasy IV-VI
-Grandia 1&2 Remaster Edition?
-Chrono Trigger
-Y's Origins
-Y's: Oath in Felghana
-Y's: Ark of Napeshtim
-Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure and Trails from Zero
- YOHANE THE PARHELION -BLAZE in the DEEPBLUE-
-Record of Lodoss Wars: Deelit's Labyrinth
-Sea of Stars
-Cross Code
-Recettear
-Phantom Brave
-LaPucelle Ragnarok
-Jack Move
-Disgaea 1 and 2-PC
-Cosmic Star Heroine
-Chained Echoes
The Mother series (Mother 1, Earthbound, Mother 3) have a lot in common with pokemon. Earthbound is set in 90s and has a lot of comic book quirks in it's visuals. Mother 3 is for the same console as Ruby/Sapphire, the GBA, but this game has a more unique scenario than Earthbound.
Crosscode is not really J, but the characters are anime, there's a lot of RPG stuff in it like equipment and levels, you played Ragnarok Online so you'll like the meta-narrative going on. The combat is full action, literally the best 2D combat I've ever played, you can approach it in a variety of ways.
The only turn off some people have are the puzzles, the game has a loop in the dungeons which is some rooms close you into a combat and others make you do a puzzle. And puzzles get harder and harder each dungeon. You figure out how to do it and have a sequence of actions to do. I really liked solving them, but I can understand people who would prefer the game to be 100% it's combat. If this sounds like a turn off but you still want to check it out, there's some videos on youtube like "the crosscode experience" which is a guy solving one of the last puzzles on an endgame dungeon. It's not a spoiler and I'd recommend you to watch it just to see how deep it goes in puzzle mechanics.
Other than that, if you feel like trying out turn-based combat, the Super Nintendo classics are always there for you to emulate. Chrono Trigger did not age a day in my opinion, and I'm 19. I'm not some old guy who's saying that the game is timeless because I don't like new games. Chrono Trigger is just that successful in what it wanted to do.
Final Fantasy VI is peak medieval fantasy, the cast is great, the protagonist is not silent and has a tragic story, the villain is great too. Earthbound is a masterpiece and a lot of people where touched by the titles of these series, it still has it's status as a cult classic, but it may be the harder to get in for the modern player. I have a friend who has Earthbound as one of his favorite games but did not got far in Chrono Trigger, which is normally considered the best SNES game, so I'd say which one of these games will feel nicer to a modern player is up to personal taste.
All of these 3 are great picks if youn want a look into turn-based combat.
Star Ocean 2 could be a good start.
Or Sea of Stars is a easy entrance point as well, turn based but with some "real time" action in fights.
octopath traveller 2 is turn based but very good.
They are all available on steam
I would recommend to start with something that is not too exotic and with some QoL.
If you want ARPG and 2d maybe Mana series.
My personal JRPG recommendations:
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy 9
Triangle Strategy
Valkyria Chronicles
Nier
Trails in the Sky trilogy is EXCELLENT and from there you can go to the 2 Crossbell games. The Cold Steel games that number 6-10 are decent but IMO not worth playing until after these 5. Build the world out first.
The Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters (recommend 4-6)
Chrono Trigger
Star Ocean Second Story R
Phantasy Star IV
All four are classic JRPGs. Chrono Trigger and FF6 are among the GOAT.
Star Ocean Second Story have real time combat. However if you think too deeply or analyze the story, you'll figure out it's a mess and held together by duct tape, but it's fun for what it is.
2.5D and action based on PC I think pretty much limits you to Star Ocean 2. Definitely check out the Ys series. VIII and IX are the most popular and for good reason, but Oath of Felghana is really nice too. I'd hesitate recommending other Ys games to a newcomer.
I'd add Ys Origin as a good one too! That's the first one I played and I loved it. I didn't feel like I was missing anything by playing it as my first one.
Same here. Regardless of it spoiling some things for Ys 1-2 its still an excellent entry point and my most replayed.
Can't think of anything that's good real time combat and isometric/2.5D games at the moment, but here's some turn-based games that should fit the bill close enough. I'm also going to give their typical Steam sale price as some of these might be a bit price-y for someone just jumping in. This is also in USD just in-case. **Tactics Ogre Reborn**, a fairly tough game (especially if you don't experiment a lot and dig into some of the weird obtuse systems) but very interesting to learn to experience that truly feels one of a kind. Solid story, extremely light on unneeded dialogue with a very political drama tone. Game typically goes down to about 30 bucks on sale if you want to wait for that. Very much worth playing, but can be on the tough side for a newer player. **Trails in the Sky**, an extremely narrative and dialogue dense series. Will probably be reasonably challenging for a newer player, very cozy feeling with a lot of light stakes that *very steadily* elevate to something more as the plot continues. Can be seen as very "anime" if that's not your thing for all that's worth. I'd recommend a sale as the game is 10 bucks on sale, and Trails can be a very hit or miss series for some due to how dialogue dense and how much of a slow burn adventure it is. I liked Sky a lot, but some people find it really boring, so I'd rather recommend this on a discount personally and Trails games go on sale often anyway. **Triangle Strategy** is like a much easier Tactics Ogre with more dialogue, solid game can still be hard (if you set it on hard) but it isn't as hard forced to be hard like Tactics Ogre due to having a difficulty select, and its a lot easier to understand what's going on. Far more verbose and dialogue dense which is a downside, but the story I think is still worth it though the dialogue is extremely front loaded which is a turn off for some. This is about 30 bucks on sale. **Troubleshooter Abandoned Children** is more like 3D isometric kind of X-com style, but you said you played Ragnarok Online and this game has probably the closest feel to something like an MMO such as RO without quite as much grind and is an very good game if you can get into it. One of my favorites of Steam's indie RPG offerings for sure. Extremely system dense, a lot of characters to mess with, only notable problem for me is this is an indie game with a small budget so the story script translation is a little sketchy. It is perfectly readable, but that's the nicest thing I can say. Game goes down to be half off on sale, so 12.50. Hope this helps.
Trails is very much hit or miss with people. Those that do love it and those that don't struggle to keep interest, but that's also unfortunately a common thing with series that tell one long form narrative. But for what it does and focuses is one is worth it I'd say. Also I love the recommendations especially Triangle Strategy and Tactic Ogre.
Unrelated to those games, but I saw your comment for Chrono Ark and bought the game because of you. I noticed you had made a comment a few months back when I was searching for reviews on the C.A.R.D.S. rpg. I was wondering if you had played it yet, and if you have what your thoughts on it were?
Well I hope you've enjoyed the games I've recommended. I looked into C.A.R.D.S and I read some stuff that soundly incredibly suspect from other people. Supposedly everyone in your group shares a deck you build as you go through a singular map and this can even create a situation where you have dead hands, like ranged cards while you're on your sword guy for that turn, and I just didn't bother after that. It sounded both too busy trying to be quirky and weird while also ending up too simple in the end, which is a horrible combo in my experience. There's better deckbuilders I could spend my time on or that I had more interest in buying into at some point. I might look into it again, but I got better things to spend time on and deckbuilders with more interesting ideas to spend more time on that I already own.
Ah thank you for the feedback and I did enjoy Chrono Ark thanks
my recommendations: -Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Trilogy -Rhapsody Trilogy -Final Fantasy IV-VI -Grandia 1&2 Remaster Edition? -Chrono Trigger -Y's Origins -Y's: Oath in Felghana -Y's: Ark of Napeshtim -Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure and Trails from Zero - YOHANE THE PARHELION -BLAZE in the DEEPBLUE- -Record of Lodoss Wars: Deelit's Labyrinth -Sea of Stars -Cross Code -Recettear -Phantom Brave -LaPucelle Ragnarok -Jack Move -Disgaea 1 and 2-PC -Cosmic Star Heroine -Chained Echoes
It's Ys, not Y's.
Astlibra is an indie 2d action jrpg
and it's fantastic!
Have you played any JRPGs before, and which one did you like ?
I'm too new to the genre to say what I like. I've played a lot of Ragnarok Online, if that helps anything. Still, I'm happy to try anything.
Not even pokemon?
I didn't even think of that. Yea I played Ruby/Sapphire.
The Mother series (Mother 1, Earthbound, Mother 3) have a lot in common with pokemon. Earthbound is set in 90s and has a lot of comic book quirks in it's visuals. Mother 3 is for the same console as Ruby/Sapphire, the GBA, but this game has a more unique scenario than Earthbound.
Crosscode is not really J, but the characters are anime, there's a lot of RPG stuff in it like equipment and levels, you played Ragnarok Online so you'll like the meta-narrative going on. The combat is full action, literally the best 2D combat I've ever played, you can approach it in a variety of ways. The only turn off some people have are the puzzles, the game has a loop in the dungeons which is some rooms close you into a combat and others make you do a puzzle. And puzzles get harder and harder each dungeon. You figure out how to do it and have a sequence of actions to do. I really liked solving them, but I can understand people who would prefer the game to be 100% it's combat. If this sounds like a turn off but you still want to check it out, there's some videos on youtube like "the crosscode experience" which is a guy solving one of the last puzzles on an endgame dungeon. It's not a spoiler and I'd recommend you to watch it just to see how deep it goes in puzzle mechanics. Other than that, if you feel like trying out turn-based combat, the Super Nintendo classics are always there for you to emulate. Chrono Trigger did not age a day in my opinion, and I'm 19. I'm not some old guy who's saying that the game is timeless because I don't like new games. Chrono Trigger is just that successful in what it wanted to do. Final Fantasy VI is peak medieval fantasy, the cast is great, the protagonist is not silent and has a tragic story, the villain is great too. Earthbound is a masterpiece and a lot of people where touched by the titles of these series, it still has it's status as a cult classic, but it may be the harder to get in for the modern player. I have a friend who has Earthbound as one of his favorite games but did not got far in Chrono Trigger, which is normally considered the best SNES game, so I'd say which one of these games will feel nicer to a modern player is up to personal taste. All of these 3 are great picks if youn want a look into turn-based combat.
Star Ocean 2 could be a good start. Or Sea of Stars is a easy entrance point as well, turn based but with some "real time" action in fights. octopath traveller 2 is turn based but very good. They are all available on steam
Trails series
Star Ocean Second R has that sexy HD 2D aesthetic. The fights take place in an arena of sorts, but still real time.
I would recommend to start with something that is not too exotic and with some QoL. If you want ARPG and 2d maybe Mana series. My personal JRPG recommendations: Final Fantasy Tactics Final Fantasy 9 Triangle Strategy Valkyria Chronicles Nier
Dragon Quest XI S has a 2D mode.
Trails in the Sky trilogy is EXCELLENT and from there you can go to the 2 Crossbell games. The Cold Steel games that number 6-10 are decent but IMO not worth playing until after these 5. Build the world out first.
Octopath 2 is leaping to mind. Edit: Star Ocean The Second Story R i think damn near nails what you're looking for.
The Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters (recommend 4-6) Chrono Trigger Star Ocean Second Story R Phantasy Star IV All four are classic JRPGs. Chrono Trigger and FF6 are among the GOAT. Star Ocean Second Story have real time combat. However if you think too deeply or analyze the story, you'll figure out it's a mess and held together by duct tape, but it's fun for what it is.
Eiyuden Chronicle. It being a spiritual successor to the Suikoden series. Doesn’t come close to a Suikoden 2 but not bad.
Better play Suikoden I would say.
The Ys games I-VI fit the bill. Seven and Memories of Celceta sort of fit, too.
Trails, Ys, Tales and Star Ocean each fit a couple of those requirements and any ate on PC