RobotLadyErin

Wants To Create, Procrastinates

  • She/They

gee-man
@gee-man

"devs AND fans of the genre have ceded that JRPG combat isn't really interesting"

Seriously, what is it about Japanese media that just brings out a specific kind of self assured dipshittery from (mostly) white voices in the industry? I see this shit all the time, both from the press side of things as well as within the industry itself. I won't name names, but I've met animators who hate anime, game designers who hate Japanese games, hell I once met a graphic designer who had a weird fixation on the "structural failings" of Japanese graphic design (whatever the hell that means).

Where does it come from? It happens too often to just be the occasional bad take.

To be clear, this isn't to imply Japanese media is exempt from criticism, but it's weird how much is in bizarrely racialized bad faith. I wouldn't go as far as call it racist, but definitely bordering on xenophobic.

Also god imagine criticizing JRPG combat (which is an insanely broad genre with so many different interpretations and styles) and then presenting deckbuilding as your solution.

Fuck it, tell me about some cool and interesting JRPG battle systems that you've enjoyed.

I'll start. Resonance of Fate is one of the messiest games I've ever played, but goddamn if I wish they had made like 2 more of them and refined the "Tri-Attack Battle system." It's a mix of real time and turn based where you decide your character's movement and shooting targets independently of each other. The key is to optimize your movement paths to synergize with your other party members to build up resources that you then cash in to do sick Equilibrium style gun-fu maneuvers. The tl;dr is the more sick jumps you do, the more resources and healing you get back in the process. Quite frankly it's an easy system to break after a certain point but it never gets boring watching your JRPG heroes decked out in primo mid 00s Japanese fashion do jumping 360 spins in the air while blasting hot lead in every direction.


quettatonia
@quettatonia

some stuff not yet mentioned:

  • The World Ends With You and NEO: The World Ends With You have very fun action combat with lots of customization that fit great with the themes of the games.
  • Radiant Historia's combat system where you push enemies around on a grid and can set traps is a lot of fun
  • Ys 1 & 2 bump combat- Ultra simple but really satisfying all the same.
  • Baten Kaitos and Baten Kaitos: Origins have 2 completely different card battle systems and they both kick ass
  • Eternal Sonata's battle system was a good mix of turn based and simple action, with character skill sets changing depending on if they were standing in light or dark areas of the map, with some maps having dynamic lighting setups, enemies having light or shadow auras, etc. Fun combos once you have the whole battle system unlocked



binary
@binary

So I've been working on a mecha game, Celestial Bodies the past few weeks along with a collaborator (@bighog) and up to now we've mostly just put out her (extremely good) pictures and grid layouts, and a little setting details. Let's talk shop about The Grid™️.


amaranth-witch
@amaranth-witch

This is EXTREMELY my shit and I cannot wait. At all. It's SO GOOD.

Lancer scratches one mech itch. Mekton(Z) scratches another (overlapping with Silhouette and other Fuzion/Interlock games). I guess Battletech kind of scratches a third, maybe in the HBS game above all else.

But THIS?

This not only scratches mecha/spacecraft fighty action RPG itches, it scratches my age-old "MAKE THE INVENTORY SPACE FUCKING MATTER, NO I MEAN MATTER-MATTER" screaming itch that I've never entirely been able to do, performing on a level with the old Resident Evil 4 Attache Case, which itself was such satisfying inventory management that it spawned a whole-ass other puzzle game...

...except this does that IN GAMEPLAY EFFECT. I'm legitimately in awe. This is so fucking good.



Can a zombie tend a garden? Can they plant a seed and nurture it until it is so full of life that it simply can't contain it anymore and has to burst out? Can they wait slack-jawed until the green shoot is spotted peeking up through the dirt to finally see daylight? Water it, protect it and measure its size as it stretches upwards until it cannot stretch any more before finally blooming into a beautiful flower?

Can a zombie do all of this and watch, proudly, as someone takes notice of this particular flower and leans in for closer inspection? To beam with pride as their creation is seen and appreciated by another?

Can they stop with just one? or will they keep planting, nurturing, waiting, doting over more seeds? Revel in the joy of creating works of nature one after the other until they are surrounded by a garden of their own making? Can they be satisfied?

Or are they bound to shamble in obscure patterns, munching on brains for eternity?