JRPG's

eyetrip

eyetrip

eyetrip

Soldato
Joined
8 Nov 2006
Posts
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I have never played one, and have a hard time getting my head around the concept of "turn-based" combat. In particular, I am considering Lost Odyssey, but never having played this kind of game before, not sure its worth forking out the money for.

From some of the descriptions I have read, I just can't get my head around what its like. Does it play kind of like Neverwinter Nights?

I tried Blue Dragon demo very briefly, but the music, childish style, and the fact it drops you in the deep end with not a clue what you are doing quickly put me off.

Oh, just had a though... is there a demo for Lost Odyssey on Live, and is it a good demo?
 
no not at all, nothing like neverwinter nights. Im not sure if there's a demo for lost odyssey but my opinion of the blue dragon demo was the same.
 
Imagine that rather than hack and slash or fps when a combat is initiated (either by running into an enemy or .. we'll come to this later) the game turns into a kind of strategy/action mini game. Most JRPG's have their own game rules but almost all share the idea that each side gets a go and in that go each character gets a go be that casting an attack spell, fighting, firing an arrow or casting a healing spell.

Now the other thing. Some use the idea of random encounters which means you can't see the enemies on screen but as you run around and explore you'll every so often get into a 'random' fight.

For the 360, Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata both have the enemies on the screen and both have their own tactical combat though Eternal Sonata's becomes a bit action/hack & slash/God Of War button pressy for my liking.

Lost Odyssey and Enchanted Arms both have 'random' encounters. Lost Odyssey is the better game and I find the tactical combat very enjoyable so the frustration that can be caused from playing games like this (even after you back track you can still get into a fight) isn't too bad.

Blue Dragon would be a good introduction to jrpgs on the 360. It's not too hard (quite easy in places) and will teach you the basics of turn based combat. The demo was very poor and even I hated it (and I loved the game).
Lost Odyssey is the more mature game but with the more involved and harder combat, random encounters and less frequent save points can be quite unforgiving.

Neither throw you in at the deep end though and teach you a few skills and moves one at a time, and both are great games in their own right.
 
The thing to understand about traditional turn based combat in JRPGs is that it's really all about choosing options from a menu, and some fancy graphics to visualise your choices.
 
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