8 Kind Of Great JRPGs That Didn't Reach Their Full Potential

[@GamingBroductions]

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[@imackamoo2]

Thanks for teleporting me to an alternate reality where i'm sitting back at home as a kid watching toonami meets G4TV. Great vibes as always my guyyy~

[@Demogarose]

I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out why I like their editing style and presentation so much and you fucking nailed it.

[@murky16]

G4😢😢 man those were the days. What was that one called attack of the show or something? Good times😂

[@RikyoZERO]

Definitely Toonami vibes 😂

[@GamingBroductions]

These are the type of comments we love to see 💯

[@rhysegozun]

I think Grandia 3 would also fit this list. This was the first game to have the protagonist's mom be a playable character and it baffles me that they axed her and another character on the 10 hour gameplay mark. The decision was so bad because those 2 had way more personalities and acted as both a parent and mentor figure to our main leads to only be replaced with even more bland and uninteresting party members. You could also feel the tonal shift once you reach that point and the plot just takes a nose dive to being awful. It was obvious that the game was rushed as they were remnants of areas that were meant to be explored and more mini games you could participate in to get valuable goodies. If there were an alternate universe I wish the devs were able to remake this game and fix some of the low points I mentioned above. It's such a shame because we got a really good entry for Grandia 2 only to be followed up with this shallow game.

[@adamcampbell3263]

Totally agree about the story in Final Fantasy XV. I didn’t really care about Noctis’s dad or Lunafreya dying because he only has like one scene with both of them! The vibe of being on a road trip with the bros really carried the game for me though.

[@GamingBroductions]

Exactly, deaths mean nothing if we’re given no reason to care about that character’s death in the first place

[@jedirayden]

​@@GamingBroductionsdepending on the player, even deaths of characters you have a reason to care about may mean nothing. I fully agree with the point that you made, to be clear, but I always think of the death of Aerith in FF7. I was 18 or so the first time I played that game, 25 years ago or so, and I am the only person I know who did NOT find that death meaningful on any sort of personal level whatsoever. Obviously it has story significance and is relevant to the other characters, but when I first experienced that moment I actually thanked Sephiroth for removing dead weight from my party. Not trying to be cruel or cool or edgy, just relating based on my own experiences that for some players, even meaningful deaths will carry no emotional weight. But to your point, it's difficult to care about the deaths of characters that you've spent no time with over the course of a game.

[@13Carrey1]

The Look of The Last Remnant always reminds me to FF 12. Never played The Last Remnant but have it on my wishlist for the switch.

[@RaymondTywaif]

The Last Remnant is honestly one of my most fav games of all time. The unique battle and party member systems were so addictive for me once I got the hang of it and knew how to strategize team formations and positions and trigger specific options of command, there are many optional unique playable characters that have their own special abilities and synergies too. But I could see why it's complex and niche and feels kinda random as there're not a lot of in-game manuals and clues for players to maximize/optimize what you can do, optional monsters and weapon upgrades are a challenge too, it's definitely complex and a learning curve that requires some time and patience unless one decides to just use a guide, so casual players who don't really care about optional stuff wouldn't really resonate well with this game I suppose. I'd like to play a game with such battle and party systems more, where it's a mini-war moving as units that take positioning and quick-time-actions into considerations instead of 3-6 individual party members making moves individually in turns, SaGa series is similar in some aspects but overall it's not really that similar too, I can't think of any game with this style of gameplay systems... Really wish there'll be prequel sequel or successor to this game, or original games that take inspirations from this concept.

[@Mr69hammertime]

Always love seeing last Remnant get more love. Once you grasp the mechanics it is addicting as hell. Did not know about the Saga connection tho. I always felt a FF12 ivalice vibe from it.

[@RaymondTywaif]

@@Mr69hammertime Yeah, it's such a shame because clearly it's quite a polarizing game. I recognized its imperfection and overall flaws, but its gameplay concept was one of the most memorable and interesting aspects that has stayed with me. The mechanics were fun and engaging with some level of necessary strategizing and attention for quick time event. It really feels like it's not meant for casual players, traditional jrpg players or non-jrpg enthusiasts the more I think about it, no wonder it's so niche and polarizing lol. I'm not sure what's the SaGa connection too but I did see it mentioned online, probably mainly because of some devs and a few similar concepts and references. I agree it has a FF12 Ivalice vibe too, due to the warring tension, the non-human races living together like it's a normalized diversity, the ecosystems, the architectures, and the general aesthetics. It feels like there are rich cultures and histories in the world, making it "alive" (even though the story didn't fully explore the depth and push the boundaries in terms of making those cultures and histories even more relevant, but it's adequately satisfactory for me personally anyway lol).

[@gaspump]

@@RaymondTywaif TLR was in development initially as SaGa Frontier 3 and was produced by Akitoshi Kawazu leading a team of SaGa and FF devs. For those who haven't played it, if you're a SaGa fan having a gorillion unexplained mechanics will be nothing new to you, and at least for me is part of the draw. I love poking and prodding to figure out what's going on under the hood. And not for nothing, Kawazu also co-produced FF12 after Yasumi Matsuno (Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, FFT) bounced out due to health issues. Kawazu is just one of those dudes who's been around Square forever and has his hand in a surprising number of projects. But you can always kinda tell when it's him running the show on one of them. I mean, you probably wouldn't think he'd have had much of a hand in the Mana series but he was there too and when you think about the convoluted and unexplained systems of Legend of Mana suddenly it all makes sense... at least in terms of where that all came from. From the Land Make system, through pounding a nonsensical amount of fruits and garbage into a weapon to make it break the game, and all the other weird and completely optional crafting and monster ranching stuff. Needless to say I'm a huge fan of his.

[@RaymondTywaif]

@@gaspump Thanks for the info! I don't really research into devs or company histories too much so I didn't know about this. I guess maybe I'm also one of those who enjoy Kawazu's style of games, since Legend of Mana was one of my all time favs too lol FF12 also one of my top 5 FF. Haven't tried SaGa series but I suppose it'll likely speak to me too :D

[@Dzzy123]

I've thought about trying The Last Remnant. Is the story good?

[@gavinlucas9761]

I actually played Wild Arms 4 a month ago during my marathon of the seires, and in all honestly I actually really enjoy it. I personally wasn't really bothered by the visual novel cutscenes, and I actually think both the localization and presentation are way better than in Wild Arm 3 IMO. I also really enjoyed the cast as well as the HEX System being introduced and even including platforming. But for me what made me really love this title was it's themes centered around a post-World War and the struggles of living in it. such as how many of the adults believe that humankind is doomed and is predisposed to war and should embrace it as a fact of life. While the younger people such as our main characters don’t want to believe that humans crave for war or destruction and that they can strive towards peace and it’s their child-like innocence that prevents them from lying like most adults due and they see the beauty of the world for what it is and they hope to create a better future where they could all live in. And I love this because almost all of these themes are within my book that I'm trying to write, so it was neat seeing a game that was trying to deliver the exact same message like in my story. Sure I wouldn't say the game is completely perfect. I feel some of the villain characters could have been fleshed out, the game runs a little short, and there is no real overworld map, but overall I found AW4 to be a really underrated title and one I'm glad to have played.

[@DSan-kl2yc]

You might like the movie Silent Night. Sounds like what you're saying.

[@gavinlucas9761]

@@DSan-kl2yc Not true. for me I enjoy stories such as Avatar the Last Airbender, Naruto, and Kingdom where the characters find themselves either in a world that is on the brink of war or in a world that is already in the middle of war. And the characters want either the war to end or not to have another war that would bring more ruin. And so they bring upon themselves to do everything they can to end the war and to unify people. As someone who was born shortly before the 9/11 event and the war that's happening in Ukraine and seeing major conflict happening around me, I longed for these kinds of stories that show the character's desire to do what is right and try to bring balance and hope to the world and that has always stuck with me. and that's why I enjoyed WA 4's story as much as it did for me.

[@Chelaxim]

I still haven't forgiven Konami for putting Suikoden I-IV on PSN and giving up at the last second. You could argue that Suikoden IV being digitally relased on the PS3 in 2016 There was little financial incentive to put the remaining two games on there. Konami had no issue of putting completely untranslated Turbo Grafx 16 JRPGs on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2017. That is one aspect of crackhead business choices by Konami that never gets brought up.

[@pancakesean6888]

Another absolute banger. I always get very strong Toonami vibes from your videos. The music, the intro/intermission/outro is such a nice touch and provides a chill vibe you don't really see on youtube. Great work!

[@GamingBroductions]

Thank you! Like the title of our dialogue box video, it’s the little things that matter so we take that same approach with our channel

[@FirstLast-cg2nk]

The thing about the Last Remnant that always stuck with me is The Conqueror, the final boss. In a game of large-party battles, this guy can and will fight you on his own in a fight where you're likely often on the backfoot, and if you failed to capture the two strongest summons in the game, he will have them on his side. The entire game has played him up to be a nigh-unstoppable threat, and when you face him in the final battle, he fully delivers on that.

[@NeverduskX]

I loved The Last Remnant. Hearing it brought up always makes me pretty excited. The game had some issues, especially with scaling. But the world was incredibly cool, and the battle system was incredibly epic and fun once you learn it. To enjoy it, you really have to embrace that you're a commander and not a micromanager. You can strategically pair and level up your units, but you have to have to trust them once you're actually on the battlefield. Each character makes their own decisions, so you end up reacting to your own units as much as you react to your enemies. That said, they'll usually be pretty smart about things too, like trying to heal at low health or buff themselves while out of danger. By the end of the game, I could pretty much predict what would happen for each team's turn. At the same time, you can definitely remove a lot of that randomness by theming each team to focus on attack, magic, defense, healing, etc. I specifically had a dedicated speed team and a healing team, which allowed me to almost always intercept dangerous enemies or land huge heals reliably. Meanwhile, my attack and magic teams would do most of the fighting. So there's a lot of depth and once you start to think about teambuilding and combat from a macro perspective. Unfortunately, the tutorials don't convey that very well. Naturally, it's not for everyone. If you feel the need to micromanage every attack in a game, The Last Remnant might not be enjoyable. There's also a lot of murkiness when it comes to turn order, since you'll have to estimate how teams will move and clash. But for a squad-based RPG war game, there's really nothing else like it that I'm aware of. It really made me feel like a commander, forcing me to balance variables and take calculated risks with each turn. It's one of the most memorable games I've played, and I only tried it a decade after its original release.

[@Jon_East]

Just always immaculate vibes on this channel, truly appreciate it.

[@Jon_East]

And I say this as someone who considers Star Ocean one of the best JRPGs on the SNES, and who has a deep love for the (yes, very flawed) Last Remnant... a game that literally had me consider reviving my KZbin channel and dedicate a 1.5h video essay to this random obscure PS3/360 era game, haha. Subjective opinions and all that, I can very much see where you're coming from with those games.

[@GamingBroductions]

Thanks dude, really appreciate that take. A lot of people can get easily offended when you don’t share the same opinion as them so it’s nice hearing from someone who can still appreciate the content even if they don’t always agree with all of the takes. And hell yeah, if you wanna make that Last Remnant retrospective go for it! It has very little coverage on KZbin for a game that resonated pretty deeply with some people

[@rjproduction486]

Hoshigami is the dark souls of tactical RPG. If you just push and accept the grind it's actually pretty good. There are branching story line, and depending the choices you make, certain party members can be recruited and I think the story also change.

[@juliusjohnson8046]

I know one of these days that Legend of Legaia retrospective is gonna drop and I can't wait

[@Lukja08]

Really? Hope so!!

[@murky16]

3:12 I was not ready for the sound of his little pitter patter foot steps😂😂 another banger of a video💜👍

[@GamingBroductions]

Yeah too funny not to include lol. Thank you!

[@xxalucard66xx]

Great vid dude! Man I never knew they strayed from the wild west setting with Wild Arms 4. That's the kind of random, out of pocket stuff that (temporarily) kills a series. Kind of like what happened with Breath of Fire as well. Damn, now I'm sad lol.

[@GamingBroductions]

Thank you! And ah yeah don’t even get me started on what happened to BoF after 4… such a shame

[@backlogbagz2753]

goodness, that intro track is cold!! Hell yeah wit the vibes!!

[@GamingBroductions]

Thanks dude! Yeah we all about the vibes over here

[@ChicagoRetroGamer]

Great video! As a huge fan of JRPG's in general, it does help to be able to reference these kinds of lists before starting to invest 40+ hours into my next gaming adventure :)

[@Wiseman108]

Suikoden V came out pretty late in the PS2 lifecycle I believe so many might have skipped over it. As for Suikoden IV the biggest issue with that game was the high combat encounter rate by far (also the 4 character party limit). Glad you mentioned Granstream Saga, I actually really liked that game.

[@Bunni89]

"like making a dragon quest not based on medieval european fantasy" DQMJ3: hello

[@TheDiscoGenre]

Wild Arms 4 really suffered a severe case of the generic 00s anime as much as I love the battle system with all my heart. Seriously all I remember about the game is Raquel being the best character in writing and gameplay, a former bad guy punching a missile, and the main villain's sexy secretary being a Whitney's Miltank/Ultra Necrozma level roadblock due to guide dang it shenanigans in a mostly simple game.

[@TheDaytimelantern]

Definitely need a part 2 to this video, and excellent job as usual dudes!

[@GamingBroductions]

Thanks dude! We’ll definitely plan on it at some point

[@mrericanderson]

Thank you so much for jogging my memory with Granstream Saga - I rented it back in the day and thought it was okay but then never could remember it’s name

[@WesDoesGames]

Couldn't agree more about FFXV. Of course part of the reason why the story feels incomplete is because it literally was incomplete. It got pushed out the door before it could be finished. I remember characters and story arcs in the Appendix (or whatever it was called in the game, it's been a while) being mentioned that didn't appear in the game at all :O

[@TheBigBruvv]

Nothing like kicking back on a sunday and watching a Gaming Broductions video, intro is my favourite intro on YT easily another great video guys 🙌🏾

[@theflyingninja1]

Granstream Saga had this side quest where you had to collect a bunch of random cards and give them to an old man. During the course of the game, i never found a single card, and I'm very thorough. I have no idea where these cards are hidden.

[@Zaxth]

I see a new Gaming Broductions video, I watch.

[@GamingBroductions]

Ya love to see it

[@lawlyss]

I still have Hoshigami on disc, bought it after loving FFT and REALLY wanted it to be good and tried so hard to love it.

[@Lukja08]

Just started playing that again on PS1. My FIRST japanese RPG, holds a place in my heart.

[@kharyrobertson3579]

Awwwwww yeah, I love getting a notification from you guys. this should be fun

[@GamingBroductions]

Hell yeah hope you enjoy 👍

[@kharyrobertson3579]

@@GamingBroductions I surely did, and like always, your choices were spot on for the topic.

[@DreamerTrain]

I would add Dragon Quest 6 to this list. A lot of people don't realize this game was cannibalized by Chrono Trigger, compare the MC and Ashlynn/Barbara to Crono and Marle and you'll find they're very similar with some changes in hair color (even by Toriyama's standards of character reuse). The dream/real world system was also meant to be a time travelling feature (remnants of this are still apparent in the Amor vignette) where doing things in the past affects the present but that was given to Chrono Trigger instead and fully expanded there. There's also some hints, like Ashlynn's fire resistance and datamined references about the Gold Dragon that shows unused storylines. Its why 6 (my personal favorite) is often kind of an underdog among Dragon Quest fans from its apparent lack of polish, but you appreciate it a bit more when you realize why it feels unfinished.

[@Madkingstoe]

Rogue Galaxy. It was a game with alot of potential - great characters, unique setting - but just didn't seem to get much attention. Another "JRPG" I thought was very good but was largely ignored was Earthlock. I suspect it's because it wasn't made in Japan even though it was made in a JRPG style. It absolutely exceeded my expectations, but few JRPG fans seem to know about it.

[@residentgrey]

I never heard of a few of these. I am also surprised that Robotrek is not mentioned, as that is the QUINTETsential game with untapped potential. It is loved by many even with its flaws, myself included. If I could, I would gladly try to get rights to develop another game.

[@banedeath]

That intermission song is amazing.

[@juanpablobravod8431]

I played most of these games back in my day but never got to finish them because I lost interest. Thank you for making this video, it feels kind of nostalgic that someone actually also played all of them and also reviewed them.

[@pangalacticgargleblaster2610]

I totally agree with last remnant. I think I understand the gameplay a little more than you explained here, you are the battles general, eg the top guy of the entire army, so your commands "attack" "attack with mystic arts!" "attact with combat arts!" "play it by ear" is what you are telling one union to do, not the individual characters, so with that idea, it works alot better. Later you say grinding early hinders you later on, is kinda true but not quite true. you level up in 2 different ways and this is the main probalem in my opinion, you have Battle Rank and you have stats and they level independantly. I suffered with this myself, and at end game, in the Ancient ruins, I could not up my stats anymore as my BR was too high, and I could not get past the Ancient dragon, but I stuck it out and had probably my personal best gaming moment ever where I went over 50 rounds against the dragon to finally beat it, I only managed this because the ancient dragons AoE attack killed some of my characters in each union. this is good as Union HP is collective, which inturn means that AoE hits less but still the same HP, then when instructing a union to heal, I prevent reviving characters! it was indeed an epic fight. In addition the final battle gets increasingly difficult depending on what additional content you did, meaning the final boss battle is the hardest battle in the game --> I love this idea a lot, I highly recommend this game, as long as you understand what it is and not what you want it to be.

[@Lidavel]

I always found it funny that the protagonist of suikoden 4 looked weirdly a lot like Orphen, just with short shorts and neater hair.

[@Demogarose]

hey here's a video idea: Great JRPGs with smaller casts for people with FOMO.

[@stephendallas9709]

I don't mind the lax leveling/combat system in Granstream Saga. Fun for the kids, but the grownups with a tight schedule can skip as much combat to push the story! Kind of nice for the busy gamer who wants an RPG honestly.

[@imackamoo2]

Gotta' snag a copy of Granstream Saga. Looks so interesting.

[@GamingBroductions]

Yeah it’s a jank game for sure but is still unique enough that makes it worth trying, the atmosphere alone is really cool

[@drearmouse9510]

Waiiit a minute.. What're the games at 0:08 & 0:32 ? Think i might know, but don't quite recognize the spritework. Great list, btw!

[@michaelp4122]

I also want to know what these are. One looks like Pier Solar for Genesis, but it's not.

[@atonimid3204]

Don't know what game at 0:08, but the game at 0:32 is Demikids for GBA.

[@drearmouse9510]

@@atonimid3204 Oh, rad.. havent heard o that one. Thanks!

[@jrodriguez5528]

@gamingbroductions 0:08

[@GamingBroductions]

Brandish 2 at the 8 second mark

[@goncaloferreira6429]

Great video. I would like to add different way of looking at this. Jrpgs are often part of a series. Despite that it is rare for developers to focus on fixing badly implemented ideas or even reuse great ideas in another games. why do you thunk that is?

[@smichal52]

For me it was Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter. I though I'd finally get to the surface and there'd be at least another half of the game in story and finally some exploration up there, but alas... game finishes before you get to experience it :( I remember I was so mad I wanted to break my PS2 afterwards lol

[@mahna_manah]

Dark Dawn is the poster child of missed potential

[@michaelp4122]

Especially because Shining Force 3 Scenario 3 was such a masterpiece. Still upset that they never finished the original trilogy, just left you on a cliffhanger in The Lost Age and you assume it turns out alright.

[@SlyHikari03]

Suikoden 4 is great. Hell, 1-5 are pretty good too. Also, one id add here is Summon Night. I've played twin age and though it was pretty good, and considering it was one of the games that got released overseas, im surprised its not that well known.

[@FaithlessMr]

Ready for part 2!

[@GamingBroductions]

In due time 💯

[@1HomuLeo1]

I don't know if you're gonna notice this comment, but the Hoshigami section got me stuck in the Hoshigami pits again. I don't like the game at all beyond the character and generic unit designs, but after seeing you (or whomever recorded the footage) use magic in the game, I gave reading the Coin and Seal guide on GFAQs another go. I finally sort of understand the Coinfeigm system after trying to read the GameFAQs guide on it again, because as a SaGa and Star Ocean fan I am cursed to forever be addicted to stupid systems in RPGs. Again, I don't like this game, it's just kinda fascinating. Don't worry I'm currently playing like way too many JRPGs + 3(?) WRPGs so. It's fine. +1 for the Star Ocean segment, your videos that touched on SO1 were very on point, despite me loving that game. I do wanna play Wild Arms 4, but it does seem to be The Weird One.

[@stoshslaes6484]

Dope ass intro, man

[@GamingBroductions]

Thank you 💯

[@barry-allenthe-flash8396]

I really like Granstream Saga, but I get that it's not up to the quality of Quintet's 16-bit stuff. I mean, that's _peak_ 16-bit art versus _early_ 3D stuff, so right off the bat, it's got a completely different appeal... like, none, if you don't appreciate the colorful, blocky, charm of that stuff. I wish it was made for N64 instead; it EASILY would've picked up a bigger audience if it wasn't on the JRPG Behemoth that was the OG Playstation. I wish a couple of these went to alternate platforms; that's why Bloody Roar has a cult following today, or why the Tales series gained a foothold in the West - because they (Extreme/Primal Fury and Symphonia) went to the _Gamecube_ and avoided ALL competition on the Playstation 2. If only that kind of chance was taken with some of these a console generation earlier. Btw, _love_ the new intros for channel videos! It's got such heavy old-school Toonami "video package we used to replace the actual opening" vibes. So genuinely cool to see something effectively evoke that sort of video bumper again! Cozy and cool at the same time. Awesome job! I love this topic. I think you did a good job of tiptoeing around the whole, "WAIT WAIT WAIT - DON'T GET MAD! I'm NOT SAYING THESE ARE BAD GAMES!" aspect here, lol, and it's always commendable that you just want a good excuse to talk about some underloved JRPGs. Some B+ efforts instead of the A++ guys everyone already knows about. I can respect that. I say that Infinite Undiscovery, Blue Dragon, Arabian Nights (SNES), Avalon Code (DS) and Alundra 2 fill that space nicely, if you want to look into them for a sequel to this vid or another one that's of a similar theme.

[@TylerEdlin84]

Good video would want to see part 2, my picks would be dragon force 2, alundra 2, threads of fate, legend of dragon !, dark cloud, xenosaga 2,

[@GamingBroductions]

Ooh got a couple hot takes in there, I dig it. I agree with most of those (haven’t played Dragon Force 2)

[@enternaraku]

What's the song in the intermission? It slaps so hard

[@BaoZakeruga]

Congrats on reaching 50K subs, guys. It's well-deserved. Don't think I've mentioned it yet but damn is your newer intro a vibe!

[@danfortuna1984]

Great video really cool to learn about some of these games

[@GamingBroductions]

Appreciate it, glad you enjoyed it

[@bernardbautista6209]

i remember that hoshigami game , i gamesharked that game , its so hard.

[@ThisismineIguess]

Lazlo's mighty hotpants are the real True Rune of Punishment.

[@mattsumner9157]

Never heard of hoshigami. I'll have to check that 1 out. Thx

[@eddiedevereoxford4995]

The World Ends with You on the DS was my favourite JRPG, but they didn't make a sequel for 14 years!!

[@GhibliNova]

Grandia 2 and 3, Tales of Zesteria, Xenosaga 1 and 2, every Paper Mario after super

[@jkdeadite]

I don't think any game has disappointed me as much as Golden Sun 3. Something about the combat was unbalanced, so even without grinding, I never felt like I needed to be strategic with my resources like in the first two games. But the thing that really ruined it for me was how they tell the story. The first two games are pretty talky, but they repeat the same things over and over in the third game. Everyone talks twice as long as they need to. I hope someone takes another shot at the franchise someday.

[@willywitchdoctor]

I feel like the complaints you had for Star Ocean apply to all the games. Even Star Ocean 2 has a pretty poor story and main villain imo

[@bobjones4469]

Did Alucard's OG EN voice voice Star Ocean's narrator?

[@NemesisSP]

Upfront, I'll say that I greatly preferred what we were set to get with Nomura at the helm of XV as presented in 2011 and 2013 and that Square's mismanagement and blame games for this title are insane. Both Nomura and Tabata get blamed too much for how it turned out and there's a lot of misinformation going around about the development, so a lot of people really hate this kind of opinion. But wanted to get it out of the way first before I gave an opinion on the game we got. And that is that it is absolutely... fine. It's not great, it can be fun and going through the areas can be relaxing if you are just looking for a bro trip. But for a lot of us who had been there since it's announcement in 2006 and seeing what it originally was intended to be, we didn't come in for a bro trip, we came into it for an epic fantasy that took place in a modern setting and seeing how the tropes of the franchise translate to such a setting so close to our own. And that's my biggest issue. I can accept the change in heroine even if the new heroine has no real personality in the scenes we see nor any reason to care for her on a deeper level. I can accept not being part of the invasion even though that was a setpiece that was rife for fun gameplay and memorable moments. I can even accept the game not even having as many towns or locals as older games to instead just have three big cities and a bunch disparate tiny settlements with nothing but wilderness for the most part. But what I can't fathom is why, with still so much good material to work with thanks to what did survive the transition, such as antagonists and such, that we ultimately don't get anything of great substance out of them and all of it is just focused on one villain. A villain who is good, but it feels like he's literally stealing screentime from other equally interesting antagonists. And then the game completely wastes it's conceit of having the fantasy in a realistic setting by not exploring the deeper implications of character actions. Lunafreya's actions in releasing Leviathan should literally have some extremely intense pushback considering she's about to cause untold devastation to the city and she doesn't even give real reasons for why this has to be done other than vague speechifying about darkness and light. Yet the game doesn't give this more than lipservice and her speech ends with her getting a standing ovation when if this were following it's own premise more closely, would have received a much harsher reaction. But because Luna is such a controversial character because of her origins, all interesting scenes with her that could cast even more controversy seem to have been cut out and replaced with scenes where she doesn't have to be seen in a negative light. But it takes me out of the moment because for all her talk of helping Noctis save the world, she's ultimately responsible for a lot of untold devastation (even despite the evacuation, there were no doubt a lot of lives lost and even then, Altissia was destroyed and thus people lost their homes) and she doesn't have to answer for it. All this can be summed up by one phrase. Wasted potential. The only things that seem to have had any real effort put into it by the director was the road trip, but everything else just doesn't get that. So even if I hadn't gone into the game already pissed it wasn't Versus XIII, I still wouldn't have been happy because there was too much great material and ideas simply wasted.

[@Jack-nj9pi]

Hahah you touched up on so many of my favorites. To this day im a defender of suikoden 4 for reasons and while wild arms 4 was a downgrade from its previous titles, it was a nice little game with an emotional ending. Havent finished golden sun series but now u got me about to buy grandstream saga lol. Nothing beats those old crisp anime cutscenesm thank you and yes please do a part 2 that outro was amazing haha

[@gusbus12345678]

Love your videos so much, immaculate vibes

[@GamingBroductions]

Thanks dude

[@Chummy8]

I'd love to see a pt 2 if only to whittle down my emulation backlog. I had Hoshigami on my steam deck, but i guess i'll save myself some sanity and delete it in favor of something worth playing.

[@Zoeyloveswolves]

How about a video on how you feel about the fifth breath of fire game?

[@_faultee_]

Suikoden, famous for huge party member counts. Here take only a handful.

[@Shiver_Bane]

Wild Arms 4 was my first encounter with Xseed and since then a lot their games have always rubbed me wrong way. Most could have been good but there was always something holding them back. WA 4 was definitely the low point, the only reason I finished it was to see how things ended with Racquel since she was the only thing worth a damn in the game. Later Wild Arms games did get a littel better but thing that keep it from reaching top form , for me at least, was that Hexgrid battle system and Xseed's hard-on to keeping it around.

[@slashinghades7347]

Xseed doesn't develop games. They are a western distributor. Sony actually owns the rights to Wild Arms. Media Vision kinda just lost what made the original 3 Wild Arms games.

[@DrySushi]

FF15 Kingsglaive was pretty decent. Would have been interesting if that was the actual opening for the game, having to watch a full movie before getting to drop into the world.

[@Zanji1234]

still rember the comments under youtube videos and on reddit of fans claiming that this movie is "optional" to watch if you want to be more "involved" in the story :-D

[@gars129]

I feel the SNES Tales of Phantasia also fits in here. The PS1 version highly improves on the battle system but the random battle dungeons are still an issue.

[@milkweedreflections]

The only thing holding back Last Remnant is the absolutely terrible leveling system that basically wants you to go through the entire game NOT fighting anything.

[@mkjazz3418]

I loved star ocean 1 on sfc. I ordered a English repro just to play it awhile back (before I had an fxpackpro) I’m probably one of the few people that prefer it over 2. Idk why it clicked with me so much 😂

[@MC_Hammerpants]

This was a great list. The worst thing about FF 15 was the potential for greatness you could feel while playing through it. Almost every aspect was lazy, half baked, or mid but you knew if they did it right it could have been one legendary 10/10 jrpg

[@rburgan45]

One game I've played that fits this vibe is Digimon World 3. Not quite the classic jrpg but definitely not as good as I hoped it would be.

[@scoubidoubiboy]

Although it still counts to me as the best JRPG I have ever played, I have to admit that Xenogears didn t reach its full potential all thanks due to Squarenix for sabotaging what could have been an absolute masterpiece.

[@RikyoZERO]

Ugh that Wild Arms 2 horn intro just hits in the feels every single time. No matter when I hear it. 🥲 Definitely agree Wild Arms 4 was the weakest. To me it was the generic anime character designs. But they definitely brought it back around in terms of style with WA 5 and XF using the same character illustrator.

[@Sammmmmmmm617]

I honestly don't remember anything about FF XV story. Never played the DLCs and it was confusing. Instakilling the world boss with 1 move was bad ass though!

[@thunter992]

Still love FFXV. First FF since IX to make me cry lol

[@PS1Fan1991]

I don't know if this is true, but it has been said that it went through development issues and what we got wasn't the finished product. In saying that, I think that Gensou Suikoden IV had the nicest visuals overall of the 3D entries minus the battle animations. For me, I love its music only putting it behind I and II. The Dauntless was a cool HQ and being able to see the upgrades on weapons as well as having a dojo is great. I think that it had an awesome major battle system. I think that if it were not for the apparent rushed development, the story could have been much stronger. I personally like Lazlos look. I don't love it, but it is solid and I like his story as well as the Rune of Punishment. I think that Snowe is a great character. I get why he is the way that he is and it is more than just him being a spoiled brat.

[@TheGunmanChannel]

I just couldn't get along with The Last Remnant either. It looked like it had potential but man that battle system was wack 😭

[@carlosaugusto9821]

Nice video. But honestly a part of me wished to rather see a breakdown of the subject of "games that didnt reach their full potential because of certain old game design ideas or hardware limitations". It's a difference of nuance from your idea, but it's a nuance that matters. Because that's a subject i really like, and somehow i find myself thinking of it a little more often lately. That seems like a kind of common phenomenon with games that come out late in a console's life cycle. Looks like they push the "last gen" console too hard and would look better in the new gen console instead.

[@Lateralus8808]

Hoshigami started out so solid, but their progression of stats completely made the game unbearably unbalanced by like halfway through it. It gets to the point later if you're a few levels less than your enemy, you'll do like 1-20 damage each hit and they have like 1000 hp. Plus you're usually outnumbered 2 to 1 or more. If you grind a few levels higher then the enemy, then you wipe them out and they have no chance. A few simple rebalances would make this game a solid SRPG.

[@bigt4135]

Great video, as always

[@GamingBroductions]

Thank you we appreciate it 🙌🏼

[@creamsleaze4257]

Suikoden 4 was the only one I beat, and truly loved it!

[@1989red13bfc]

Suikoden 4 was better than 3 was, but both were meh anyway

[@jrodriguez5528]

@GamingBroductions what is this game? 0:10

[@GamingBroductions]

Brandish 2

[@Genethagenius]

100% agree about “FF15”. That game could have been up there with the all-time great FF’s, but SE dropped the ball.

[@GamingBroductions]

Loved the road trip type vibe so much, such a shame the execution of the story couldn’t match the potential of the premise

[@Hamstergeval]

The remnant screwed itself over where you could completely be locked out of the post game if you missed that 1 sidequest at the very beginning of the game.

[@xenoblade6965]

I tried so hard to enjoy The Last Remnant but I could not get past the troop management and rules of engagement...oh well

[@bhoqeem1975]

What are the games in the Intro?

[@tembakaugunung6139]

I wanna ask ... the game at 00:09 ... what game is that????

[@GamingBroductions]

Brandish 2

[@douglasfraga3995]

0:08 From what game is this scene?

[@GamingBroductions]

Brandish 2

[@douglasfraga3995]

@@GamingBroductions Thanks! :D

[@rabbyd542]

I thought the Armors looked super cool in Granstream Saga.

[@nancyhoffman4784]

Sorry to bust your bubble but the granstream saga game on ps1 is over $25.00 now I checked it out because someday I may have to replace my copy of the game 🤔

[@lucasgodoy1501]

what the game at 0:08, 0:09 ?

[@James.Gatsby]

if FFXV just had more time. still one of my favorite FF.

[@Luso1221]

Octopath should be on this list. It lacks interesting narrative, characters and Square Enix flair to be a memorable series, despite the brilliant underlying engine.

[@lindenstromberg6859]

Xenosaga Episode 2, and 3, along with the Xenoblade franchise comes to mind, considering the developer. Don't get me wrong, I liked all the games (including Xenosaga Episode 2), but felt that they all came way short of their potential given what the developed had achieved in the past. Xenogears and Xenosaga Episode 1 are far from perfect games, but they did what they did so well that their flaws fall to insignificance. My main issues with Xenosaga Episode 2 and 3 were that they felt kinda half baked. Rushed out. The story was well plotted, but felt very contrived compared to all the other Xeno-games. Like they just lost the love of what they were doing... maybe three games was too much? Either way, the plotting was there, but the way the characters and themes wove through it felt super-contrived. This is quite a bit different than Xenogears and Xenosaga Episode 1, which had intricate plots, but somehow the stories managed to feel organic at the same time, because it felt like the characters were driving their own stories. The other thing was the growing inconsistency in production values of scene to scene. While this wasn't new, Xenogears disc 2 for example, you'd expect these things to become less of a problem from game to game - but they only grew, feeling like they had shorter and fewer high-quality cutscenes, and more and more really junky dialogue scenes. Xenoblade Chronicles games all continued these issues, but not quite as bad as Xenosaga Episode 2 and 3. I'm hoping in the future they can get their act together and have a Witcher 3-like production where everything is voiced, and the production values are consistent. Xenoblade Chronicles, the stories of these games aren't bad, but they are lacklustre for games by the developers of Xenogears and Xenosaga. Xenogears is about half the length of Xenoblade, but has way more in the way of significant characters, that are also more well rounded, and a far bigger story. Town-3D-dwarfism is a problem as well: or that the transition from 2D to 3D has resulted in much smaller feeling towns/cities (note how much smaller the towns of FFX feel compared to FF6, FF7, and FF8). While I think this was acceptable in Xenoblade Chronicles 1, after Witcher 3 came out, and after Monolithsoft themselves did New LA in Xenoblade Chronicles X, I don't think this was acceptable in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 or 3. I'm still waiting for cities that feel as big as Solaris, Bledavik, Norton, even Shevat (the largest cities of Xenogears) - but so far, only New LA is of that magnitude. It's doable, Witcher 3 did Beauclair, Novigrad, Kier Trolde, Oxenfurt all in one game, along with about 40-50 other towns and cities, tier 3 sized towns like Karen Muire, Crows Perch, and Vizima seem more along the lines of the size of the largest Xenoblade towns these days. I think Monolithsoft can do better. One last thing, more specific to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and 3, but they would be a lot better without the chain system. It feels more like a mini game than a battle command, and because it basically becomes necessary to use if you don't want battles to take 15 minutes each, it becomes obnoxious. The end of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was excellent, but marred by the annoying battles. Unfortunately, I didn't finish Xenoblade Chronicles 3 because of the chain attacks, I was already worn out doing them again and again and again in XC2, I didn't want to do them in three. It's somehow even more monotonous and chore-like than button mashing through hordes of random encounters in old RPGs like Phantasy Star games, Final Fantasy 5, and Seventh Saga. I wish we could have more slick battle systems like Chrono Trigger - but it seems the trend is moving toward A - action based RPGs, or B - a whole lotta gimmickry. Xenogears wasn't free of that either, it had the combo systems for attacks which some people praised, but I don't think they played this game through the 8 or 9 times I did :D Chrono Trigger, for example, is more complex than any Xeno game, but its interface is much simpler. I shouldn't dish too much on Xenogears, despite its flaws, it's still my favourite game of all time, but it would be even more my favourite with these improvements. I also think Xenosaga and Xenoblade had the potential to be the greatest RPGs of all time, ones I'd like better than Xenogears, but their flaws push them way back behind Tetsuya Takahashi's earlier games (namely Xenosaga Episode 1 and Xenogears, but also other games he had a large part in, FF6 and Chrono Trigger). Had they reached their potential, I think the Xenoblade franchise would be the most celebrated RPG franchise of the last 10 years, even beating Witcher 3.

[@carlosaugusto9821]

If this was focused on franchises instead of titles I'd like to mention Shining Force (the specific srpg branch of the franchise). SF is a pioneer from the infancy period of the srpg genre, when its rival Fire Emblem was still extremely basic on the Nes. It died tragically before getting a major mechanical overhaul and optimization, that FE got in the Gba games. Then even the last SF game (97) was still a rival of archaic FEs. The revolution of FFT (97) in gameplay and interface was too new at that time for SF to properly respond to those innovations. So SF never got a real chance to see how it matches with the more optimized srpgs from the early 00s. I have a strong feeling that a rebooted modernized SF, if fairly well written and designed, has a potential to become a relevant player in the srpg world. Because the free exploration, to a degree that's unusual for srpgs, gives it an edge over FE.

[@DSan-kl2yc]

I love Wild arms. And 4 never appealed to me. I think wild arms could branch out. Like outlaw star or cowbow bebop, a space western. Or a carribean pirates story(wild west and Caribbean pirates era had overlap). Maybe even a war like that sega game but wild arms(WA 2 had some vibes like that). Or a 20s gang war game. Lots of guns there. First one had wild west with some European castles like the 1400s. And 2 had like civil war/ mexican american war vibes. So theres wiggle room. But just a post apocalyptic world is just generic. The other games already had that and a western theme like Trigun. There's other eras related to the Wild West. Or the US or Americas relating to guns. The early frontier like pso and that one xeno game.

[@artminusme]

Eternal Sonata beautiful title, beautiful OST, beautiful graphics, awesome gameplay! story concept was originally!! BUT the story execution & character performances was trash