Thread: Zemekis' JRPG Voyage

Can't wait much longer, probably gonna finish Lunar this weekend!! I played up to about 60% in Luigi's Mansion 3 but I dropped it at that point and returned my rental copy. You can read my review in another thread so I won't get into it here but it just wasn't for me. It was my holdover game for a few weekends but I'm ready for JRPGs again! I've also been playing a lot of RuneScape with my sister but that'll never get put into a progress list here since it's an ongoing MMORPG.

My patience finally wore out, finished Lunar a few nights ago. I was standing outside the boss room for 2 months or so and I didn't want to leave the game unfinished. After the credits roll there's a 24 minute blooper segment where you get to hear a lot of stuff that wouldn't fly in the current era. I really didn't expect to hear Magic Emperor Ghaleon say "pound your bum so hard that it bleeds."

   100% Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete

I started on Grandia III after this.

   5% Grandia III

Also made some progress on Octopath Traveler weeks ago, bringing me to abut 90% completion.

   90% Octopath Traveler

It's been a month since my last update! I finally got some time to myself yesterday & put that time into Grandia III. About 2.5 hours into the game you meet up with a character named Alonso......who I discovered is voiced by Bob Buchholz!! Considering that this is from the early 2000's I shouldn't be surprised. What's actually more impressive to me is just how much of the Bleach anime voice cast is in this game. Until Alonso joined, my entire party were made up of Bleach characters (in my head at least). The voices of Ichigo, Rukia, and Orihime were my only 3 party members for 2-3 hours and it was bizarre to hear Rukia talking to Gene Starwind when they first met.

   15% Grandia III

I've also been playing through the Ace Combat series as it's my best friend's favorite series & I never gave it a chance in the 15 years we've known eachother. The stories in each game are actually quite memorable and well done, I'm happy I got to see them. The actual gameplay, however? It put me right to sleep. Every encounter devolves into you and the guy you're trying to shoot just circling one another until either of you gets behind the other and fires a missile. Now do that again. Okay, now 20 more times. Onto the next mission where you...shoot missiles and circle planes. I can see how this would be exciting for people who are really into the different types of planes, but in my experience they're always so far away that you can't see the different models anyway & they all handle far more similarly in the game than they do in the real world. The games overall are 6/10 but the cutscenes, plot and world-building are 8.5-9.0/10 material in many cases. The games are also blessedly short, taking under 2 hours to beat most of the time. Since I don't enjoy playing the games I just hand off the controller after the first 3 or 4 missions and watch my buddy play the remainder because he completes missions far faster than I do, especially because I'm usually drunk during these sessions.

   100% Air Combat (aka Ace Combat 1)

   100% Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies

   30% Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War

Quick update, I started & finished Ace Combat 2:

   100% Ace Combat 2

Put another hour and a half into Ace Combat 5

   80% Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War

Big progress on Grandia III, I'm in the last zone before Disc 2 (2 disc game).

   40% Grandia III

Aaaaaaand...I did something that may be a big mistake. I dove back in on the Legend of Heroes series. Thankfully, I've already completed Cold Steel I & II, but that's the third story arc. I've been telling myself for years that I'd start from the beginning but didn't have the motivation to do so despite knowing how excellent the series is. The title "Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky - First Chapter" is rather long so i'll abbreviate it in my progress bar. The games are brutally long & complicated so I won't get into them much in this thread unless someone asks.

   20% LoH Trails in the Sky FC

2/3 through Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere

   66% Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere

Finished Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky First Chapter at 61.5 hours of gameplay.

   100% LoH Trails in the Sky FC

Finished Ace Combat 5.

   100% Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War

Finished Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere.

   100% Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere

Started Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War

   20% Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War

Started Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

   20% Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

Started Trails in the Sky: Second Chapter 2 weeks ago, made significant progress. Chapters 1-3 of 9 are complete.

   33% Trails in the Sky: SC

Looking back on some old posts here...

Originally Posted by Mantis

Huh, do you actually like Grandia III? Admittedly I haven't played much of it. It just didn't feel anywhere near the same.

I hadn't played it at all before this playthrough of the entire series. I'm 40% done with Grandia III and I like it so far. It feels different but not as different as Grandia II felt to me. I think I like it a bit better than II, but I'd be in the minority on that. If I had played Grandia II as a kid, I think it would have been really special to me but I ended up not liking Ryudo very much since I was introduced to the character as an adult.

Originally Posted by Starwind55

Aw dang, you reminded me that I gotta replay Lunar here soon.

It's a shame you didn't make it through on your recent attempt! Having finished it a few months ago it's still fresh in my mind. It's certainly barebones & rather dated but it has a lot of charm in its presentation. The game didn't have a lot of ups and downs, it was one of the more consistent JRPGs I've played. That said, if the first 5-10 hours didn't have you fully locked in to complete it, you probably won't in the future since the gameplay stays the same throughout the next 30 hours after that.

Finished Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War

   100% Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War

Chapter 4 complete, and a few hours of Chapter 5

   50% Trails in the Sky: SC

Originally Posted by Zemekis

It's a shame you didn't make it through on your recent attempt! Having finished it a few months ago it's still fresh in my mind. It's certainly barebones & rather dated but it has a lot of charm in its presentation. The game didn't have a lot of ups and downs, it was one of the more consistent JRPGs I've played. That said, if the first 5-10 hours didn't have you fully locked in to complete it, you probably won't in the future since the gameplay stays the same throughout the next 30 hours after that.

I'm bummed out about it too because I was having a good time. I just kind of screwed myself when it came to leveling and equipping my characters and my last save was like 2 hours from that one part of the game and I knew I wouldn't be able to catch up with you so I decided to put it on hiatus. I do want to come back to it and finish it because it is a rock solid game and I loved to finish it. I've been downloading a bunch of roms this past weekend and that included Lunar so I'll be looking into getting back into it. Oh, and just so you know, I finally picked up FF8...and to make the deal sweeter, I also got Tales of Symphonia! I haven't started on it yet but I figured I'd pick it up alongside it since it was the cheapest one on steam. This will be my 2nd foray into the Tales series with Tales of Legendia being my first go around so I look forward in giving this title a spin.

Since the forum is back, I'll give an update:

Just 2 bosses remaining in the final dungeon. Then it's on to Trails in the Sky: The 3rd

   98% Trails in the Sky: SC

In the meantime I received my hardmodded Sega Saturn in the mail so I've been burning & playing a lot of Saturn games. None of them thus far have been JRPGs, nor have I finished them so they won't be listed in this thread. Spent a night playing Virtua Fighter & Daytona USA. What you WILL see on this thread will be Panzer Dragoon Saga & Magic Knight Rayearth.

   100% Trails in the Sky: SC

Finished that sucker!

Started on Trails in the Sky: The 3rd

   5% Trails in the Sky: The 3rd