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[Guilty_AI]

I haven't played a good one, these devs don't understand the genre, they only understand the structure and aesthetics. same with 95% of Metroid style games.

Actually, I have found generally 99% of indie games are terrible and largely gave up on them.

Which ones have you played?

 

[Hudo]

Is Falcom considered indie? If so, then probably Falcom's stuff before Cold Steel.

 

[SilentSpecter]

1 - E33: rewarding combat

2- E33: mature plot

3- E33: no anime cringe fest galore

4- E33: good graphics

5- E33: Sephiroth + Dragon Slayer = Simon

Reducing JRPGs to just turn-based combat is silly. By that logic, Baldur's Gate 3 would be a JRPG too. The genre has its own distinct style, tone, storytelling sensibilities, and cultural identity that Expedition 33 simply doesn't have. It's a European turn-based RPG through and through.

The game also has a major publisher behind it (Kepler Interactive), a sizable budget, full voice acting, and very high production values. It's much closer to a AA title than what most people would typically consider indie.

 

[Plies]

Is Falcom considered indie? If so, then probably Falcom's stuff before Cold Steel.

Falcom is 100% not indie.

 

[Hudo]

Falcom is 100% not indie.

Then I guess I can't name top 5 indie JRPGs.

 

[Lokaum D+]

lol its not JRPG and indie.

 

[SilentSpecter]

"It's just your opinion" is usually what people say when they've run out of actual arguments but still want the last word.

JRPG isn't a synonym for turn-based game made anywhere on Earth. If it were, we might as well throw Baldur's Gate 3, Divinity, and half of western RPG history into the same bucket and call it a day. There are design traditions, pacing, narrative structure, and cultural roots involved.

And the indie label also isn't a vibes-based aesthetic choice. Once you've got a major publisher (Kepler Interactive), a sizeable team, full VO, cinematic presentation, and production values clearly aimed way above the small-scale indie space, calling it indie becomes more of a marketing fantasy than a useful classification.

 

[Sephimoth]

Wouldn't say it's indie, but E33 is a JRPG, because it follows all the design concepts of a JRPG.

What's that you say? Someone who isn't Japanese can't make a JRPG?

Can a non-Belgian make Belgian waffles?
Can a non-French make French toast?
Can a non-Danish make a Danish pastry?
Can a non-Swiss make Swiss chocolate?
Can a non-Italian make Italian dressing?
Can a non-Scottish make a Scotch whisky?
Can a non-English make an English muffin?
Can a non-Austrian make a Viennese whirl?
Can a non-Turkish make Turkish delight?
Can a non-Turkish make Turkish coffee?
Can a non-Hawaiian make a Hawaiian pizza
Can a non-Jamaican make a Jamaican rum punch?

 

[SilentSpecter]

Wouldn't say it's indie, but E33 is a JRPG, because it follows all the design concepts of a JRPG.

What's that you say? Someone who isn't Japanese can't make a JRPG?

Can a non-Belgian make Belgian waffles?
Can a non-French person make French toast?
Can a non-Danish make a Danish pastry?
Can a non-Swiss make Swiss chocolate?
Can a non-Italian make Italian dressing?
Can a non-Scottish make a Scotch whisky
Can a non-English person make an English muffin?
Can a non-Austrian make a Viennese whirl?
Can a non-Turkish make Turkish delight?
Can a non-Turkish make Turkish coffee?
Can a non-Hawaiian make a Hawaiian pizza
Can a non-Jamaican make a Jamaican rum punch?

Yeah, that analogy really doesn't do what you think it does.

Nobody is arguing "only Japanese devs can make JRPGs" - that's a strawman. The point is that JRPG isn't a magical ingredient list where you just tick turn-based combat and voila, genre defined.

By that logic, we should probably start calling anything with dice rolls a D&D game and call it a day. Or just label every turn-based RPG a JRPG and retire the term entirely, since apparently nuance is optional.

And yes, food analogies are doing a lot of heavy lifting here… but unfortunately for them, game genres aren't cuisine recipes. They actually have design lineage, structure, and cultural context that matters.

 

[Lokaum D+]

"It's just your opinion" is usually what people say when they've run out of actual arguments but still want the last word.

JRPG isn't a synonym for turn-based game made anywhere on Earth. If it were, we might as well throw Baldur's Gate 3, Divinity, and half of western RPG history into the same bucket and call it a day. There are design traditions, pacing, narrative structure, and cultural roots involved.

And the indie label also isn't a vibes-based aesthetic choice. Once you've got a major publisher (Kepler Interactive), a sizeable team, full VO, cinematic presentation, and production values clearly aimed way above the small-scale indie space, calling it indie becomes more of a marketing fantasy than a useful classification.

 

[Sephimoth]

we should probably start calling anything with dice rolls a D&D game and call it a day. Or just label every turn-based RPG a JRPG and retire the term entirely, since apparently nuance is optional.

Yeah, that analogy really doesn't do what you think it does.

Not all turn based games are JRPGs. I think most people know that?

But if we played a guessing game and the clues were: turn based combat, 3/4 party members, world map/towns/dungeons, story-driven structure,- it wouldn't be hard.

 

[Bernardougf]

Chained echoes and sea of stars..

Both are great

 

[SilentSpecter]

Yeah, that analogy really doesn't do what you think it does.

Not all turn based games are JRPGs. I think most people know that?

But if we played a guessing game and the clues were: turn based combat, 3/4 party members, world map/towns/dungeons, story-driven structure,- it wouldn't be hard.

Glad we agree on that part.

The disagreement was never all turn-based games are JRPGs, it was what actually defines a JRPG beyond combat. That's where the distinction matters, otherwise the term becomes pretty meaningless.

 

[Fbh]

I've only played Chained Echoes and Sea of Star.

Chained Echoes I absolutely loved, was an easy 9/10 game for me and better than 95% of the JRPGs coming out of Japan these days. It's honestly still in my top 5 games of this gen.
Fun turn based combat with an interesting twists, a likable cast of characters with a pretty cool story, and IMO one of the most fun to explore worlds in any modern JPRG. It was also nicely paced with solid side content that went for a quality over quantity approach .

Sea of Stars was more like a 7/10 for me.
Beautiful pixel art and some pretty fun dungeons. The combat was decent, I liked the real time elements to it, but IMO it suffered from a lack of progression and skill variety. You also had to build up a meter for the stronger skills but most normal fights are over too fast, so many of your already limited number of skills are only really usable during boss battles. But it was mostly the story and characters that I found very underwhelming. Also locking the true ending behind finding collectables is a shit idea IMO.


I've had Cross Code on my backlog for a long time. I need to play it one of these days, specially with the new game from the studio coming out soon. Anyone know how it runs on the Switch 1?

 

[TintoConCasera]

If anything this thread has convinced me to try Chained Echoes.

Anyone know how it runs on the Switch 1?

I remember it running so-so, mostly good but some performance spikes for sure. Game was coded on HTML and porting it to consoles must have taken a toll on performance.

 

[_Ex_]

J