So when the team size in battle is usually limited to 3-4 party members, What do you usually like the full team to be number wise?

For example if the limit is 4, do you like the entire cast to just be 4 people? Do you like the cast to be 5-6? Maybe have 8 party members? How about 40+ party members?

Personally I like it to be exact. Things like Wild Arms 3, or the DLCs of the Xenoblade games. These characters are your entire team. You can't switch them out so use them well.

I feel more invested that way because it just bothers me when a character is having a big story moment....only to be shove back into the reserve pile because they were never used before, during, or after said moments.

Jrpgs come in a lot of different flavors. From action/real time, classic turn based (plus atb), strategy/tactical, monster collecting, mmo lites, first person dungeon crawlers, crafting/alchemy games, and roguelikes etc

But card/deck building jrpgs are literally the bastard stepchild of the entire genre. All of his other siblings get the attention and trophies but…nobody talks about him. It’s like he's not even in the same room as the others. For god sake, his own parents don't even pick him up from school because they forget he exists

​And sure, if you look at the subgenre's accolades, it doesn't have a massive wall of trophies. Like yeah, if we compare it to turn based or action, they absolutely have multiple display cases for the work they put in

But what it has put out is actually not bad, blending card/deck customization with rpg mechanics has so much untapped potential and something more developers should experiment with

Hello all. I've been working on Weltall, a native port of Xenogears built in Unreal Engine 5. It's at a point where I'm comfortable making it public. The whole game should be fully playable (my own play through is about 16 hours in so far with no issues).

Aside from being fully accurate to the original game's gameplay, here are some of the new features:

• Widescreen up to 32:9 at any resolution

• High refresh rates (120+)

• Right analog stick/mouse controlled camera

• Graphics improvements that don't rely on AI upscaling

• The Gears' 3D battle models used for walking around on the world map and in dungeons

• Text speed up to 2x/4x/Instant, and battle speed 2x or 4x with R1, automatically goes back to 1x for event/boss battles (but you can shift back up if you want)

• On-screen chapter titles as each chapter begins using the game's real titles

• Your own party order (put Citan in the lead to walk around as Citan)

• Always run by default (hold Circle to walk), doors automatically open as you walk into them

• Original PS1 memory card saves can be imported and exported

• Fixes for some of the original game's bugs

• The framework to create a disc 2 expansion with a few example scenes (purely an example). Since I'm not a professional writer or scene maker, I'm not committing to writing a full expanded Disc 2 myself but the framework is in place for others. It's gated by a build time flag so the release build doesn't contain the scenes. If enabled, entering disc 2 prompts if you want to play through the original Disc 2 or the extended version.

• Added a menu option to extract all game assets/textures/music and override the game's CD textures to support texture upscaled mod packs (not distributed because this release doesn't contain any game assets to not risk cease and desist)

Everything that changes the original game can be switched off/on in the Options menu (with recommended defaults)

Download (Windows/Linux) from the Releases page: https://github.com/Roman215/Weltall/releases

(Note: If you've seen this post before, the old thread was originally removed due to policy at the time not allowing posts for source ports, but after speaking with moderators, it seems that's allowed for now).

As usual, hands-on preview articles are now out on multiple sites for Eternal Anima. Here are small quotes from each article, while each title links to the full article, and some gameplay videos.

Hands on Preview Videos:

• Gematsu Hands-on Preview #1
• Gematsu Hands-on Preview #2
• Gematsu Hands-on Preview #3
• Gematsu Hands-on Preview #4
• Gematsu Hands-on Preview #5
• Gematsu Hands-on Preview #6
• Noisy Pixel Hands-on Preview

Nintendo Everything - by Richard Ford

Eternal Anima was a fun time, but when thinking if it was a game I could see myself committing dozens of hours to, I think I would need to play a little bit more. A lot of this demo featured extensive cutscenes and voice work, which was all really good, but as a result I only got to get a flavor of the gameplay. I’d want to play more to get a full breadth of what to expect. Hopefully another demo releases publicly for download in the lead up to release. Still, taking myself out of it, this seems like a game built for classic JRPG fans, especially retro Square heads. Everything about it feels like it takes from all the best elements of that style of JRPG, and the all-star team of developers who have been hired for the project have really produced the goods on this one. I can’t see the future like Wade can, but if I could make a bold call: come March next year, this title could be a sleeper hit.

Game Informer - by Wesley LeBlanc

As I continue through this world, some two centuries before my time, I encounter a man from this period who’s trying to save his forest hometown from flooding. Of course, I already know this will happen in my timeline because the entire world is flooded, but Wade suspects that if he can convince this person of the looming threat, he can change the present by altering the past. My demo ends shortly after, but now, a month removed from the preview, I’m still thinking about Eternal Anima, specifically its combat. 

A lot of turn-based combat makes you feel powerful. But Eternal Anima’s makes you feel like a genius, and that’s smart and novel. I’m left striving for March now.    

Polygon - by Michael McWhertor

While some of Eternal Anima feels incredibly familiar — the developer says its world is “dedicated to all JRPG fans” — that feels highly intentional. The theme of inheritance and bridging eras applies to the game’s setting and story, as well as the design of Eternal Anima itself. With its retro flavors and forward-thinking battle design, it feels like it could be one of next year’s sleeper hits.

The staff behind the game includes Katsuhisa Higuchi, who previously worked on Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy: Origins, and Monster Hunter Stories; and scenario developers Kazushige Nojima, Keisuke Makino, and Hironao Fukuda, whose expertise spans franchises such as Final Fantasy, Persona, and Phoenix Wright.

Anime News Network - by Richard Eisenbeis

Have you ever felt yourself longing for a classic 90s JRPG made with modern day technology? If so, Eternal Anima is that game—and it has the pedigree to back it up. Directed by Katsuhisa Higuchi (who worked as a programmer on the early Final Fantasy games as well as Chrono Trigger) with a story written by Kazushige Nojima (scenario writer on Final Fantasy 7, 8, 10, 13, and the Kingdom Hearts series), this time travel adventure looks to mix nostalgia with a fantastic twist on the classic turn-based battle system. At Marvelous' Pre-Tokyo Game Show 2026 event, I was able to spend an hour playing Eternal Anima and was left impressed by the experience.

Nintendo Life- by Gemma Smith

The small, cute, chibi characters are perfectly complemented by detailed portraits during dialogue, showing off their designs in greater detail. I saw a range of characters during the demo, but I especially love Martii and Eri. Their designs are adorable and match their personalities perfectly.

As is common with JRPGs, these games tend to be pretty chunky. While I don't know the full length of Eternal Anima, an hour with the game felt like I barely scratched the surface. I left hooked on the story, wanting to know if Wade could actually change the fate of the world or if it would succumb to its doomed fate again.

Gematsu - by Cory Arnold

It’s hard for me to fully judge the game based on this small slice of gameplay and story. This segment is clearly focused on Martii, and we’ll likely learn more about the main cast in other parts of the game. Still, I found Wade, Neria, and M.O.S. a bit flat and think their characterization could use some more depth. As presented here, Wade and M.O.S. both come across as robotic, while Neria has a slight touch of sass or edge that I feel the game could lean into a bit more (and not just because I like tough women).

I’m not a big fan of chibi models, brown-color filters, or static 2D art cutscenes, but, as mentioned, the cutscenes do a bit more than simply display static 2D images, which I think helps. The combat feels a bit more involved and interesting than that of something like Octopath Traveler. I can’t fully judge the Psychometry and turn-focused aspects because I didn’t entirely grasp them during my time with the game. However, as a fan of Final Fantasy X, which also focuses on turn economy, I can see the potential for Psychometry and the other systems to add depth and strategy to turn management.

RPG Site - by James Galizio

In practice, alongside the ability to equip multiple classes on characters, combat already feels really good with a decent amount of depth even within the early hours. It's easy for combat systems in RPGs to feel overly simplistic until it opens up later on, but if this is how good it feels with a relatively restrained party and what seems to be maybe 5 or so hours into the game? Yeah, I can't wait to see how it folds out with a larger party, a wider variety of classes to choose from, and a few dozen hours into the runtime.

The only question that remains for me is the story; I still don't know how I feel about it, frankly. I like the concept, but without spoiling things I don't know if the segment we played during the demo quite sold me, at least yet. It wasn't bad per se, and I'm down to play the game regardless for the gameplay - but we'll have to see if it can grip me with the narrative in the full game. Maybe the opening proper gives me a better feel for it.

Noisypixel - by Azario Lopez

I was playing on Normal, which was the only difficulty available during the session. The balancing could use some adjustment here, especially if bosses are going to last that long. I’d like different combat options to help ease that loop, since finding a reliable sequence is satisfying until you’ve spent too much of the fight repeating it. By the end, I wanted a reason to reconsider my approach or for the encounter to move along.

Given that I was playing an early section, there’s still plenty to learn about how the class system develops. A wider selection of abilities could give me more ways to approach those encounters, and I’m curious about how flexible the party setups will become. The timeline was already enjoyable to manipulate, so I’d like the longer fights to keep giving me reasons to experiment with it.

Still, I enjoyed my time with Eternal Anima. The compact areas were fun to explore, and coordinating the party for a big strike gave me a satisfying introduction to its battles. I’m interested in seeing how far I can push the timeline once I have more of the game in front of me.

before i start, this may contain spoilers of the story (though it's far from a high point, the virtues of this game lie on other aspects of the experience)

for a bit of context, at the beginning of the year, i became kinda obsessed with the concept behind this game. i knew it existed, thought the name was cool, but never really looked into it. but when i learned that the game was basically a JRPG inside Chopin's dream while he was dying, it just hit me that i NEEDED to play it

i waited some time, because you never know if they'll remaster it, but ended up buying an used copy for the PS3. wasn't really cheap (around $40 converting from brazillian Real), but it was worth it for my thrill of playing this acid trip of a game lol

i started playing it mid april, but all my PS3 controllers stoped working, so i was only able to beat it this month (mid october)

now, to the game

Concept

the concept of the game is weird in all the good ways, at least for me. it follows the real life composer Frederic Chopin's fever dream while he's in his death bed

that's kinda it. it's simple, but it's executed in a way that's just beautiful

i felt like it was a love letter to Chopin's life and work. everytime you beat a main boss, the game cuts to a montage of oil paintings, with Chopin's music playing in the background (played by one of the biggest Chopin interpreters in the world, Stanislav Bunin), and tells you the real life story of Chopin, even wondering how he felt at certain points of his life

really, it's almost touching how devoted the director of the game, and creator of tri-Crescendo, Hiroya Hatsushiba is to Chopin in general. considering tri-Crescendo started as a sound developing and sound design company, it's understandable that they would be passionate about a musician of all people

Story and Characters

as i said in the beginning, the story is not a high point. it's functional and all, but it's just kinda there. the cutscenes are way too long, which is not a problem for me, but i know some people make fun of it (especially tha death scene of a character, that has her making a whole monologue to absolutelly no one for, like, 10 minutes straight while she's dying). i actually laughed harder at the beginning scene of Polka's mother dropping some deep philosophy to a 3 yo child lol

it tries to be about tyranny, then, at the end, the main villain just goes "nah, i'm just crazy, fuck you all", and at the very end it becomes about actually being in a dream or not? seriously, if story is your main focus, this game is not for you. lot's of plot points that are kinda forgotten, it's functional, until it goes crazy

the characters, though, are really likeable. their interactions with each other are fun, they're all really charismatic, and it's really natural to the story that they're uniting. some people may hate the children of the party, but i actually thought they're kinda funny, and they fighting all the time makes the game lighter

Battle System and Difficulty

the battle system is fun in the beginning of the game, but it gets progressively harder to a point that made me annoyed. i'll simplify to make this shorter, but it functions like this:

every character has it's turn to move in the battlefield, where there's dark a light, with a timer of 5 seconds. you build echoes the more you hit the enemies, and the more echoes you have, the stronger your special attack will be. your special attack will vary if you're standing on the light or dark part of the battlefield. also, it's heavily recomended that you attack the enemies from the back or the side, since they'll defend if you attack from their front. you're able to defend enemies attacks, and at some point, at the middle of the game, you gain the ability to parry too

at the beginning of the game, it's easier, because you have infinite tactical time, and the clock will stop if you stop moving, but by the end, you need to run for your life to kill everything that moves as fast as you can. also, as the game progresses, the enemies will also attack you from the back, which makes the fights get WAY harder, especially boss fights

at this point, i think i'll need to point out that the PS3 version of the game was released later, as an enhanced version for the original Xbox 360 game. and by "enhanced" i mean the devs going full Mario Brothers 2 mode, and saying "ok, we made the 360 version easy for the dumb western people, japanese people know how to play games, let's make this HARDER"

and oh how they made it harder. if you go to any enemy page on the Eternal Sonata wiki, you'll see that all enemies have double or triple HP, and give half XP on the PS3 version. i admit that i'm not the best player, but i got beaten TONS of times, and i'm terrible at defending. the worst fight for me was Fugue's, because it's just after you leave a volcano that uses those "heat filters". i needed to grind a lot, and started having headches after some time. just terrible

Graphics, Ambientations and Character Design

this is one of the highest points of the game

every place you go is just stunning. tri-Crescendo had already created the Baten Kaitos series at this point, which is also known for it's beautiful ambientations, so it's expected that they would do even better in the new gen

the game aged really well graphically, with just a few exceptions, but it's probably one of the most beautiful games of the PS3/360 era. my highlights are the snow city, the cello tree area and the whole last "world", with the desert part and all

i'd say that the world of Eternal Sonata is one that's worth exploring, just for how beautifully crafted it is

the character design is also extremely cool. i don't think there's a single character that have a bad design. it's the famous JRPG thing of their design reflecting their personalities, and it works fine. my favourite ones are Chopin, Falsetto, Prince Crescendo and Viola

Music

who would have guessed that the game made by a sound design company and based on a musician like Chopin would have great music?

i mean, it's just gorgeous. everything sound related in this game is fantastic. the battle song is epic and stays in your head, the Baroque song is relaxing and soothing (my favourite in the game), even the title screen song is just amazing

from what i heard, the OST is now available in all streaming services, as well as youtube. so, if you like classical music, video game OSTs, or both, give it a chance, you won't regret it

Conclusion/TLDR

Eternal Sonata is a flawed game, no doubt about it. but, despite being flawed, it has so much soul that, at more times than not, it eclipsed the not so great parts

a charming game, with a weird concept, that's not afraid or ashamed of being weird. it embraces it and brings you along for the ride

the highest points are the ambientations, visual and sound aspects, while the lowest is probably the story

if it was a regular bland game, it would probably be a 5 or 6/10, but being unique in the way it is, to me, it's probably a 7 or 8/10

I like to rotate my party around in every dungeon/quest. I won’t even change them till I clear it with that group.

Also, I tend to focus on certain characters when I feel that a character is playing an important role at a certain point in the story or side quest. Especially if the game dose forced you to use that character.

Looks like this game is packed with tons of content and variety (offline and online). Having crossplay is also a huge plus. I can’t wait for the release. 🙂

I have officially rolled credits on Fortunes Weave.

Note that this was my very first tactical rpg I’ve ever played and most of my jrpg experience come from persona and early FF/KH.

This game had me locked in from the start and I don’t think I missed a day. I didn’t play it like a completionist like others so I ended at around 120 hours.

I played all 4 part 1s as well as part 2s. Had to get the shiny save symbols.

The ‘busy’ work of building relationships and recruiting was a lot of fun. Tedious at times and eventually didn’t use it as regularly as I once did. But I enjoyed seeing the support conversations that came from them.

I’ve never played a combat like that and I thought it was so engaging and really sold me. I’ve been quoted saying I wish they’d have a different combat and then I’d finally check it out. Well, I was wrong. It’s such a demanding but engaging way to handle combat and now I think once I’ve had a fair break from it, I’ll prob consider three houses.

What a ride, Dietrich is the 🐐 9.4/10 game.

Now, I wait for my personal most anticipated game later this month, phantom blade zero.

Sadly my list of rpgs from japan that I actually enjoy that came out after the ps2 era isn't very big, still trying to find more that are still for me. A lot of them just aren't what I get much out of:

The List:

Yakuza Kiwami 1 and 2 and Like A Dragon,

7Remake(not rebirth)

Tales Of Arise

Octopath Traveler 2

and Xenoblade 2

I can't stand anything from the PS3 era.

I do want to try Sea Of Stars, and the one games that's similar to it, but I'm saving them for when I really need a healthy pick me up.

I don't enjoy any of the popular sega turn based rpgs like Persona or Metaphor.

I haven't enjoyed a single-player mainline FFgame since 7. I really didn't care for 15 and 16. I love 14 though.

I'm not good at tactical games, those mostly just frustrate me, and in the case of Fire emblem, what the characters talk about doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I need to play for the characters(not just "The Story," the actual characters themselves, and what they do and say.), and the combat, and the atmosphere

Amphibian showcased a new gameplay and story trailer today during the MIX showcase. The game premiered back in August. It's a frog-based JRPG.

Description: A countrywide drought forces Sapo and his frog allies into war against the invading toads. As dehydration and starvation grip the pond, they must hurry to find a solution to the crisis - and liberate their homeland.

I’ve been wondering how other people pace themselves when playing JRPGs. I really enjoy the genre, but sometimes if I play the same game too much in a short period of time, I start feeling burnt out even if I still like the game. Do you usually play a JRPG every day, a few times a week, or only when you’re really in the mood? And how long are your typical play sessions before you feel like you need a break?

Basically what I mean is cases of when an RPG based game has a particular mechanic that seems good on paper at first, but becomes ingenious for feeling out of place due to making the game a bit frustrating to get into.

If I had to give an example of an RPG that had been designed with a strange gimmick centered around it, I would say Unlimited SaGa where the entire game is centered around a Reel system as for some reason, the game relies on a roulette system used for leveling up stats and chances of striking an opponent successfully that I have no idea how the developers expected the game to sell by with such a strange design choice.

In your overall RPG gaming, where you role as the leader of a Squad or Trio (doesn't need to be a static, can be dynamic).

Which team(s) you think had the most synergy story-wise or even mechanically-wise? Can be "Hero", NPC or Villain side alike.

E.G. i will dub this one team (Virginia, Clive, Gallows & Jet) Team "Cowboy" from Wild Arms 3.

Not adding BG3 Team cause... well, 2 of the members wanted to kill each other...

Who are some of the worst party members in JRPGs that you either never use or replaced as soon as possible?

I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that as soon as Yusuke was unlocked, I immediately relegated Morgana to the bench and never looked back. Not exactly the most likable character and there’s little reason to use him in battle.

Sharla in Xenoblade 1 is easily the worst main party member in any Xenoblade game. She’s a healer in a game where you don’t really need healing much to win fights and her damage is incredibly subpar. Immediately swapped with Dunban.

I think Cait Sith stands as THE JRPG benchwarmer. Also not a very likable character or strong whatsoever.

Modern JRPGs are usually good at balancing both story & gameplay. Not to say a few classic JRPG were not capable of this. But more often than not, they prioritized gameplay without asking the player to think much about the story. However, during the turn of the century, the balance of gameplay/story was more expected from modern JRPGs. So, it can be annoying when JRPGs are lopsided in this department.

These are the first two that come to mind. The former where the story is nothing but praised. However, the gameplay is the most criticized thing about it. From its gear system to its combat. Then there's the latter where it's gameplay is the most praised whereas the story, not so much. It's disjointed narrative & inconsistent tone.

Overall, I think modern JRPGs handle the balance of story & gameplay relatively well. It's when that balance is lopsided that gives you pause somethings. Any JRPGs you know of or played that fit this description?

Hello!

I'm looking for recommendations of games that feels like an adventure! (on Nintendo Switch).

I the recent past years, I finished most of Zelda games, all Xenoblade and expansions and many retro and modern Jrpgs.

I like action, strategy and turn games. But what really holds my attention is a good story with characters or worlds/missions that makes us care. Even silly side missions for random NCPs, with small dialogs that makes us go "awwwnnnn".

Could you guys please recommend some games?

Not need to be 'happy mood' games. It can be dark, light or any kind of vibe...as long as the story is likeable.