Guilty_AI
Gold Member
Which ones have you played?
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Your Top 5 Indie JRPG's
- Thread starter Plies
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SilentSpecter
Member
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.
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Plies
GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief and Nosiest Dildo Archeologist
Falcom is 100% not indie.
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Hudo
Member
Then I guess I can't name top 5 indie JRPGs.
Lokaum D+
Gold Member
SilentSpecter
Member
"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.
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?
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?
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SilentSpecter
Member
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+
Gold Member
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.
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Bernardougf
Member
Chained echoes and sea of stars..
Both are great
Both are great
SilentSpecter
Member
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
Gold Member
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?
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
I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
touchfuzzy
Gold Member
I bounced off Chained Echoes pretty early back when I tried it, maybe I should give it another go.
I played CrossCode on Switch 1 and can confirm it runs pretty badly. The first half of the game is okay when you turn off the environmental effects but it's like they gave up on optimization halfway through -- there was a boss fight I must've been getting 15 fps on.
GravityMan
Member
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes felt more like an actual JRPG to me than the other indie games mentioned here. However, it's not that good of a game - only decent.
Out of the other games mentioned, CrossCode is my favorite (and one of the best indie games in general). Fantastic combat, great moment-to-moment gameplay, cool protagonist, interesting important NPCs, nice setting and exploration, solid puzzles, good music and art. Only the main story was a bit lacking...it was ok, but nothing special. Strong SNES-era vibes with this game. I played it on PC so performance was good. Too bad about the poorly optimized Switch 1 version.
Chained Echoes started off really strong, but started to go south after a certain critical story moment about halfway through the game. Also its combat system, while conceptually interesting, led to many battles especially later on that felt like a slog. And the Elrant DLC was even worse in that regard.
Sea of Stars is very pretty artistically, but way too easy. The combat system was neat, but it's held back by too many uninteresting and samey enemy encounters. Also, aside from one island about 30% through the game...Sea of Stars's story is pretty dull from start to finish. And none of the characters are interesting. It felt like a game made for a very young audience that is new to RPGs.
Out of the other games mentioned, CrossCode is my favorite (and one of the best indie games in general). Fantastic combat, great moment-to-moment gameplay, cool protagonist, interesting important NPCs, nice setting and exploration, solid puzzles, good music and art. Only the main story was a bit lacking...it was ok, but nothing special. Strong SNES-era vibes with this game. I played it on PC so performance was good. Too bad about the poorly optimized Switch 1 version.
Chained Echoes started off really strong, but started to go south after a certain critical story moment about halfway through the game. Also its combat system, while conceptually interesting, led to many battles especially later on that felt like a slog. And the Elrant DLC was even worse in that regard.
Sea of Stars is very pretty artistically, but way too easy. The combat system was neat, but it's held back by too many uninteresting and samey enemy encounters. Also, aside from one island about 30% through the game...Sea of Stars's story is pretty dull from start to finish. And none of the characters are interesting. It felt like a game made for a very young audience that is new to RPGs.
WhiteWaterM00se
Member
Does Blue Dragon and Fantasian count?
Hudo
Member
According to the definition of this thread no. Blue Dragon had Microsoft as publisher and Fantasian was bankrolled by Apple.
Chuck Berry
Gold Member
I don't think I can come up with five indie JRPGs I enjoyed because they're so few and far between but I really, really had a good time with Cosmic Star Heroine
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WhiteWaterM00se
Member
Right, but the argument would be, it is a smaller "indie" studio that developed it. Similar to how Hollow Knight was funded by MS.
This is why I asked the question. I think it could go either way depending on who is asking the question.
touchfuzzy
Gold Member
No, definitely not man, lol. Both games are directed by Sakaguchi himself. Would be like calling Death Stranding an indie game.