/vr/ - Retro Games

>>6211370
live a live

>>6211370
>JRPG with great writing

They don't really exist.

suikoden 2

>>6211370
Lmao. Good fucking luck.

The writing quality in a JRPG will hinge heavily on the translation which is rarely good. The story might still be good enough which is what you might be looking for, but not the writing. Recently I read the English translation of "Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World" by Haruki Murakami and while I liked the story a lot, the translation made the writing seem really average. Its a stark difference to the writing in something written first in that language.
I like FF6's story.
Not retro but MGS2 is probably the only decent translation of a Japanese game I can think of, even though the translator hated it and said that Kojima is a bad director - she still did a really good job of most of it anyway. The voice actors got some of the lines wrong though.

When you forgive all the bad parts, Xenogears is rather nice

>>6211370
Star Ocean: The Second Story. In the context of JRPGs you're not going to find a Torment, but SO2 has a lot of optional character development and about as interesting of a plot as you'll get for the genre. It came out before 90% of JRPGs became shitty fan service games as well, which may or may not be a plus for you. I can imagine the writing is better in the Japanese version because they probably fucked up some translations in the NA release, but I can't say for sure.

Another well written game is Vagrant Story, but it doesn't play like a typical JRPG so it may not be what you're looking for.

>>6211370
Secret of Evermore has an excellent story

>>6211476
>Vagrant Story
That reminds me, since the OP seems to be impressed by purple prose he might like the modern translations of Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre

>>6211370
Final Fantasy Tactics

>>6211370
Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma

>>6211536
>we'll never get a properly localized/re-translated version of Illusion of Gaia

>>6211489
You consider Vagrant Story to be heavy on purple prose, but not original FFT? That's very confusing to me. They're both set in the same setting, use the same antiquated speech patterns, and have similar amounts of dialogue per important story scene.

Not even baiting, I'm genuinely curious as to why you feel this way.

>>6211545
>You consider Vagrant Story to be heavy on purple prose
no, the game just reminded me that FFT and TO exist, VS and OG FFT translations are fine

>>6211370
Closest is Earthbound. But if you decide to embrace the JRPG melodramatic embarrassing amateur theater aesthetic, there are a lot of good options. Try FFVIII

>>6211541
What's wrong with the official localization?

>>6211370
Since this is an English-language website you'll mostly get recommendations of games that were released in English, but those will be console games aimed more at children due to the lack of Japanese PC games that came out in English. But for titles aimed at adults you'll probably want to look into PC games.
So maybe things like Burai, Kigen, Laplace no Ma, Amaranth series, Lunatic Dawn, Sword World. Lesser Mern, Illusion City

As a moderate fan of JRPGs I honestly can’t think of many that have what most would call ‘good writing’.

The genre is actually pretty dominated by fantasy-adventure stuff, a shocking number of these games take cues from something like Star Wars or Indiana Jones or The Princess Bride or hell even The Neverending Story.

If you enjoy that sort of thing, then you can find a lot of fun times in the genre. I think it’s a fun angle that is good in its own way but definitely outside what people usually mean when they say ‘good’ writing. A good fun romp but not good thought provoking literature or what have you.

If I remember right Vandal Hearts had a good story and Wild Arms

>>6211370
such a thing does not exist

>>6211370

You can't compare jrpgs to literature, they aren't doing flowery prose and deep introspection. They're more in line with anime movies or pulpy writing, think 1950s sci-fi/fantasy, Conan, Elric of Melnibone, tarzan, etc .

All the generally accepted "good" jrpgs have fine writing when you understand what they're going for. A fun romp with hopefully charming characters.

Try Panzer Dragoon Saga or the Japanese version OP.

>>6211474
Shit

>I can read Japanese so that's not an issue
OP, play 扉の伝説 / Tobira no Densetsu. This is the best recommendation you will ever receive in your life, and you're lucky to have gotten it here. Don't judge this book by its cover - download the game and give the prologue a try. If you can actually read Japanese, you should realize soon enough this game is a step above most things. If you finish that, keep on playing. Have some fun, and try to unlock the first Fortune Door. That's where the plot really starts, and shit just escalates from there. By the end of the game you will have played the JRPG with the best writing. This isn't a joke or an exaggeration. If you don't like Tobiden's writing, you should probably just move on from JRPGs in general I think, and I don't mean that in a bad way (you will struggle immensely to find JRPGs with anything like Planescape's tone and grace, for example). I think some people will prefer the more grandoise style of Xenogears to Tobiden, and of course normies will like Final Fantasy plots, but overall Tobiden is undoubtedly the best written JRPG. Somehow it manages to only get better as the game goes on, with the final 20 some hours of the game being so good that it will turn all other JRPGs to ash in your mouth. Good luck. I hope you can make it.

Incidentally, Tobiden is tough as nails. There's very little spoonfeeding and you have to find a lot of things on your own. Here's a wiki you can use for help - some people have to resort to it before they even unlock their first Fortune Door. Pay special attention to the FAQ that also describes gives warnings for the smattering of missable content and other things to watch out for.

http://tobiden.gamedb.info/wiki/

>>6212006
that's not an actual jrpg

>>6211401
Suikoden 2 has its great moments but has a horrible pace overall.

>>6211698
honestly even real literature isn't that good, we want everything to be great but most things only are when we're at a certain age and we get caught up in the moment, later we always go back and find things were not as deep as we thought

>>6212362
Yeah I sort of agree, honestly. Just wanted to let OP know what the genre at large is actually about so he knows what he’s getting into and doesn’t suffer genre whiplash.

That said there are times I’ve revisited something and it held up or even surpassed my memories and was better than I thought. Still sort of a matter of engaging with it at the right point in your life though. Or even just the right mood can make or break an experience.

>>6212117
Thanks but that's not retro (the game was made with RPG maker 2000), the art style is all over the place and some sprite outlines look downright horrible during battles, and the writing doesn't seem special.
Most of all though it's not retro. I'm asking on this retro board specifically because I'm interested in finding a well written retro JRPG, meaning the platform is pre-2000.

Word's Worth

>>6212419
Not him but though it was released in 2000, that's not what our board rules care about. It runs in Windows 98 which makes it retro by the rules here.

>>6212419
I know it's just borderline not retro, but I sometimes rec it here since it's aesthetically retro and blends is old enough for it to not really matter.
>and the writing doesn't seem special.
Why did you lie about knowing Japanese?

And also, you simply will not find many retro JRPGs that have good writing. Consoles like the NES and SNES had such immensely limited cartridge space that there simply wasn't enough space for long scripts - plots and such had to be kept trim without much dialogue. PS1 is the first console that had actually had space to accommodate good scripts, so if you want retro JRPGs with good writing, you're stuck entirely to the PS1 and that's hardly a joke. Play Xenogears, FF9, Suikoden 2, and then... Damn, son, you're already running out. Gotta push the boundaries and play Vagrant Story, FFT, and Gunparade March. Then... Ouch. It's slim pickings from there.

You can enjoy retro JRPGs for the gameplay or aesthetics, but if you're in it for the plot, there's not a lot. The window between game engines being capable of supporting lengthy scripts and games becoming not retro is a thin slice of a few years. This is just a sad fact that's true. Not even stuff like Earthbound or Chrono Trigger or FF6 have all that great writing - their scripts are sparse and don't accomplish much beyond the plot layer.

Don't look a gift horse in a mouth, Anon. Like I said, don't judge a book by the cover. I would expect a retro fan to be able to look past some dated graphics. I believe in you. Well, at the very least, I hope your almost-doomed quest to find a JRPG with good writing will end up driving you back to Tobiden in desperation. If you actually know Japanese, that is. Not to sound unduly suspicious, but the prologue of Tobiden has such universally good writing that I have never known a Japanese fellow to not emerge from the prologue quite impressed. I suppose you may have dropped it immensely fast, though.

>>6212741
/vr/ isn't about retro. It is about forced made up rules to feel submissive that the rest of the internet mocks.

/VR/ =/= retro. /VR/ is random games from after 2000 that idiots like enough to let pass. The rest being games from MUH CHILDHOOD that were most likely forgot about.

>>6211370
It sounds like you want a visual novel, not a full-fledged RPG.

But you might enjoy Down the World - Mervil's Ambition nevertheless.

Assasin creeb 3 ultimad ebition.

>>6212583
The platform is RPG Maker 2000 and this board is for platforms from 1999 or earlier, not later.

>>6211370
>I can read Japanese

Growlanser is for you, OP. A masterpiece and all-time classic that’s never been translated. Not only is the writing absolutely on par with what you’re looking for, but it also features Choice and Consequence and RTWP combat. Play the enhanced port on PSP if you can. IV is equally good and officially in english, but not retro.

>>6213191
>software
>a platform
You stupid fuck...

>>6211370
Huge JRPG fan here, echoing it; good fucking luck.

Radiant Historia.

>>6213213
>software can't be a platform
>but windows 98 is a platform
You stupid fuck haha!

>>6213229
>>but windows 98 is a platform
It's not. Every Win98 thread that's been tried has been deleted by trannyjanny.

>>6212362
Literature is always as deep as we think it is at any given moment. It's subjective

>>6213213
>>6213229
>>6213241
>>6213191

shut the fuck up

>>6213212
Growlancer on PSP has an English patch. I don't know if its different from PS1 as I've never played PS1 version.

Tactics Ogre.

JRPGs have almost always been more slapstick humour than deep plot.

Also, you basically read dialogue. People talking. There's no narration, no MC's internal monologue to be read. If you're looking for pretty prose, you aren't going to find it in dialogue.

>>6213490
Stop playing games for children and read something for real men like Rance.

>>6213497
See, you're thinking of PC visual novels, I'm thinking of console RPGs.

>>6213501
Japanese Computer RPGs aren't visual novels.

>>6213506
Strangely enough, I have yet to see one that isn't a visual novel.

>>6213515
Knock yourself out.
https://refuge.tokyo/pc9801/RPG_AaTa.html

>>6213519
And how many of those have narration and MC's internal monologue? Or are they just following the same format as console RPGs?

>>6213527
Go through the entire list and takes count.

>>6213497
>for real men
>like Rance
>15 year olds
>real men

>>6212760
Fuck off.

>>6211370
Final Fantasy Tactics and Valkyrie Profile (mainly 1, but 2 is OK).

>>6211370

I am big wrpg fan anon but I delved into jrpgs.

From my deep dive, I came with Chrono Trigger, Breath of Fire 3 and 4, Panzer Dragoon Saga as my def favourites.


FF games are okay as well, FF7 and 8 are decent but I really dislike later ones.

>>6213212

Did not know this series. Art from that hentai guy?

Seems cool. Thanks anon.

>>6211370
No such thing

>>6213719
Thanks for reminding me, Valkyrie Profile Lenneth is on my backlog...How's the difficulty overall? I heard -hard- is the intended setting by the designer.

Also fun fact, a tranny (male-to-female) voiced 4 of the main dudes in that game, using his gruff manly voice.

>>6211370
Well you know, everyone always says Xenogears, haven't gotten around to it myself yet.

>>6214461
Great game and yet I cant tell you why because I dont get it either. I really should hate this game because it hits all the red flags in a jrpg for me :

1. No exploration of the main map
2. No towns (sort of) and those that are there are two screens of static garbage
3. Very dungeon driven
4. A huge difficulty spike out of nowhere
5. Sacrificing characters to get the good ending
6. Fucking time limited
7. Weapon durability so it is easy to lose the good shit
8. The ff8 syndrome of watching long animations of limit breaks/high magic overcand over again

And yet I played the game twicevon the playstation and once on the psp. Got the best ending and played through the extra dungeon. The story is original, the settingbis great, almost all characters very memorable and the battles while difficult if you dont know what you are doing, still mostly fair and fun. It is a great, great game.

And yes, go with hard mode.

Suikoden 2
Fucked up/dark moments.

DQ games have great writing and some dark parts. Really charming characters too.

>>6211470
>English translation
>Murakami
Didn't he write in English? Am I being baited?

>>6211370
DragonQuest 7 has some of the best aphoristic writing I have seen in any video game. It doesn't really have that much of a compelling plot, its structured more like a series of interesting short stories but it so many wonderful lines in there I just wish I had known that before so I could've taken methodical screenshots

>>6211370
If childish D&D fanctiction like P:T counts as "great writing" for you, then anything will do. Final Fantasy XIII will do. Even Final Fantasy VIII will fucking do lol. Oh, Xenogears. Play that, it's "good writing" alright.

>>6217449
Are you retarded? Murakami writes in Japanese.

>>6214471
Save yourself pain anon, don't.

>>6211370

>>6214770
what DQ game is this???

You are not going to find one, because as others have said, no one translating 90s JRPGs was a good writer.

>>6220830
3

>>6220831
How about in their original language, any of them any good?

>>6223023
No because at least as much in Japan if not moreso they were games designed for kids and there's barely room for real writing anyways. Even the more "mature" ones like Mega Ten are barebones. If you want a good story, read a book. Games are for gameplay, particularly in the old days.

>>6211476
Man, Star Ocean 2 is easily one of my favorite games of all time, not just in the JRPG category, but, come on, the writing (at least in the English version) is rather shit. The gameplay is what really elevates it.

>>6214653
Prince Luca Blight is one of the greatest villains of all time.

>>6223313
I complimented the plot, not the writing. The writing is as expected for a 90s JRPG, and as other people have explained throughout the thread the amount of space available and pacing of games back then didn't leave a lot of room for much more back then while also having to translate it from Japanese and fit it all in the same text boxes.

>>6211370
Langrisser IV (psx English Patched)
This is pretty cringe lol but the story flows well and all the characters have unique voices.

>>6214471
Xenogears has amazing and deep writing but you must be 13 or younger to recognize it. After 13-15 most people lose the ability to play it without laughing. For example, when you're 13, a character being symbolically crucified is profound, whereas for older players it's just a pathetic laughable cliche.

>>6223374
You do realize that everyone laughed at that scene right? Even it's most die hard fans.

>>6223375
The entire script is laughable, not just that scene.

>>6223374
>It's great except you need to be mentally retarded to see it
I'm not sure I follow.

>>6223374
>adults find crucifixion funny and stupid
No we don't, maybe you're a soulless pleb?

>>6223374
>Xenogears has amazing and deep writing but you must be 13 or younger to recognize it.

If this isn't a joke, you might be one of the stupidest people on earth.

>>6223376
Sorry it was too hard for your brain to understand

>>6214770
God, just imagine her as a futa

>>6223552
Futas look retarded

>>6223552
disgusting degenerate

>>6211374
fpbp

>>6211370
Shadow Hearts 2
Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky 1, 2, 3
Legend of Heroes Zero/Ao (fan TL)
skip Cold Steel

>>6211401
Playing this right now, just went undercover at a university, the story is definitely enjoyable

>>6211370
Chrono Cross

>>6223540
lol

>>6212056
tard

>>6224006
lol

>>6224020
He was rude but sadly correct.

>>6211370
la grange point

>>6223709
>shadow hearts 2
did you accidentally add that 2?

>>6224051
no?

>>6213728
On the FF note, 10 was/is amazing. I know it's not quite "retro" yet, but it's great.

>>6213212
I like growlanser but it absolutely does not have 'good writing'. The characters are likeable but the story is pretty bad, just a bunch of cliches with the setting not well explored, kingdom dynamics very surface-level, etc. GLIV is even worse in terms of writing but better in gameplay.

>>6224080
>10 was/is amazing

>>6212117
i'm gonna save this post anon and when i get better at japanese, ill give it a go, thanks for the recommendation, op is a faggot for blowing you off so just letting you know your post didn't go to waste.

Read a book.

>>6213271
theres no patch for the first game. theres a full translated script for the ps1 version but no one ever made a patch for it. theres only a patch for iv and its an undub patch.
>>6225897
none of the growlanser games are heavy on story. its the gameplay and the likable cast plus the choices affecting the story. i have no idea what he meant by masterful story or whatever but i wont deny that its a hell of a fun game.

in terms of jrpg story i really like the lunar and the grandia series. very simple stories but i find the adventure aspect of them quite enjoyable. i hate when jrpg tries to copy wrpg stories or overly complex crap that has plot holes everywhere. final fantasy games are the perfect example.

>>6211560
It’s borderline gibberish pat the halfway point.

It’s actually shocking to me Illusion of Gaia is SUCH a revered SNES game without a retranslation.

Even Soul Blazer has one (albeit it’s even worse than the official one.)

No jrpgs have a great writing tho.

>>6224080
>dad walks in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5FTJxfV3pc

>>6211370
Super Mario RPG
The Mario and Luigi series, except for the second game. Fuck Partners in Time.

>>6211489
>>6211545
>Prose
>Drama
educate yourself

>>6214471
don't listen to these faggots, there are like a handful of anons on this board who shit on xenogears whenever it gets mentioned

>>6227697
Yeah because it's not a very good game that tells a pretentious story poorly with bad pacing for most of it and then a mangled and rushed final act.

>>6211370
Can’t say for sure since I haven’t played far into it, but I’d recommend trying Chrono Trigger

>>6211370
Front Mission series has a darker tone than most JRPGs and geopolitical games on it, but that's it. I think JRPGs were never about writing but more of a combination of plot, music and visuals to communicate "awe of adventure". What might move you to embark on a JRPG is the feeling of becoming stroger and exploring virtual landscapes.

I recently played Disco Elysium also, it ruined every other game I could ever play forever in terms of writing.

>>6230901
>I recently played Disco Elysium also, it ruined every other game I could ever play forever
Eww.

>>6211470
Murakami doesn't use typical prose so the translation may not be as far off as you think.

>>6219006
Not him but Murakami is fluent in english and has written a lot of stuff in it.

>>6214471
Xenogears has really good ideas for a story that aren't executed well.

>>6213501
Not him but the Rance series are actually legitimate games and not just VNs. You will spend a lot more time playing the game than you will reading stuff.

>>6230901
Front Mission is excellent for how much effort is put into creating a realistic, plausible future geopolitical situation on earth. The character writing isn't quite as good.

>>6230078
seethe
I don't know why so many people cope so hard at the mere mention of this game

>>6231042
I'm hardly seething, I just don't think it's great. You might be sensing some disappointment because it does have a cool setting and aesthetic as well as a rocking soundtrack. I even have a copy of perfect works on my bookshelf, and I don't have a lot of game books. But come on, the game itself is kind of a slog and a hot mess and is ultimately not that great.

>>6211489
>>6211492
>>6211545
"A small stone may only make a small ripple at first but eventually it becomes a wave" - Delita

FFT was an amazing story with great characters and amazing writing. Only career contrarians will disagree.

>>6211581
>Burai, Kigen
can not find these

Oreshika PS1 oh whoops you can't read it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

>>6211370
You're looking in the wrong place. You're in the cheese zone. Embrace it or look somewhere else.

>>6211470
Recently I read the English translation of "Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World" by Haruki Murakami and while I liked the story a lot, the translation made the writing seem really average

>Murakami

Well, your experience may not have been about the translation.

I've tried getting into Murakami a number of times. I read all the praise, the glowing reviews, the discussion of his unique surrealistic style, all the hype.

But then I try and read another one of his books, and it's a total snoozefest. Nothing seems to happen, plots and characters go nowhere, if you could even call them starting somewhere at all.
His stories seem all the same to me. They're like this:

>I'm the narrator, your basic average Japanese person, I weigh this much (average amount), I am this tall (average amount), I like classical music and soft boiled eggs. Let me tell you about the best way to prepare a loaf of bread, in an absurdly lengthy and pointless diatribe, with an eye for pointless minutae, that goes on and on for far longer than you could ever imagine. One time when I was 16 I had an affair with a married teacher. Her hair smelled like slightly disused cucumbers. But not in an unpleasant way.

>I live a ho-hum life where I catalog book titles for the government. I buy groceries twice a week. I take my bicycle to work. I am unmarried. Now I will reminsce on my high-school girlfriend. She had a secret extra eyeball hidden beyond her left ear. She showed it to me the first time we had sex.

I just don't get it. With his books, I keep expecting a plot to materialize, but it never does. It's just inane, random bullshit like that over and over and over.

>>6231215
Never read Steinbeck lol

Tactics Ogre ( One Vision Mod) FF Tactics ( PS1, not GBA/DS) and Vagrant Story have some of the best writing

FF8's story is pretty solid, I enjoy the style of requiring some mental input from the players to figure out parts of it

>>6231183
Burai is two games (more like two parts of one whole); first one got ported to Super Famicom, Mega Drive, and PC Engine, but the second game's only console port was to PC Engine
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/BURAI

Somebody tried to have a Burai thread on /vr/ once
>>/vr/thread/S5867667

Kigen I think was PC only? Doesn't seem to have a wikipedia page
https://www.amusement-center.com/project/egg/cgi/ecatalog-detail.cgi?contcode=7&product_id=340
https://refuge.tokyo/pc9801/pc98/00862.html

>>6211370
Persona 2 Innocent Sin and Persona 2 Eternal Punishment

>>6211476
Second this. The Star Ocean series is awesome.

>>6230939
While this is very true if you go for 100% completion or do repeat playthroughs, it should be noted that Rance games have enormous script sizes too. Rance 10 has a script size of 3 million some characters, which puts it among the longest game scripts evet written. I only know of Kiseki and France Shoujo as being longer than it.

The Baten Kaitos series has one of the best stories in JRPG. The pacing is fairly slow, but worth it. I recommend playing Origins first as the story is shorter.

>>6231517
>Rance 10 has a script size of 3 million some characters, which puts it among the longest game scripts evet written.
The game is also legitimately like 100 hours long though, it takes an absurdly long time to beat even putting aside the massive script.

>>6231545
origins has a pretty cool battle system to boot

>>6211470
>MGS2
Nigga don't even get me started. Actually play MGS2 in Japanese and then report back.

>>6231103
nah, it is easily one of the best JRPGs on the ps1

>>6231671
yea, I wish Eternal Wings had it.

>>6232502
It is possibly in the top 10, but that doesn't make Xenogears any better it just highlights how bad they were in general.

>>6232947
>how bad they were in general.

>>6232997
Yeah. That wasn't a joke or troll comment. Xenogears probably actually is one of the ten best, but that's not a good thing. That's a very depressing thing, because Xenogears is really not that goid a game.

>>6233014

>>6211536
Damn that is some crazy art!

FFVI through IX
Chrono Trigger w/ Radical Dreamers & Chrono Cross
Tactics Ogre & Final Fantasy Tactics
Legend of Mana
Live-a-Live
Terranigma
Mother 1 & 2
Dragon Quest V
Koudelka
Panzer Dragoon Saga (more so for lore and world-building than for narrative)

These are the ones with the best narratives. Now if you specifically want something edgy and pretentious with lots of text like Planescape Torment then I suggest Xenogears.

>>6233541
You can identify the pleb who has never read a book in his life by his praise of games with paper-thin, shitty stories like Mother 1 and DQV.

>>6234086
>implying there are games with good stories
It's just mindless entertainment

>>6234090
There are fewer than I would wish (especially among retro games), but they exist. After all, it isn't uncommon for professional authors to be hired to write for games. At that point trying to say games don't have good stories is as bull-headed stupid as saying books don't have good stories. Then again I don't even know why I'm saying this considering you're either underaged or an autistic manchild.

>>6234119
Not him but gameplay and story are at odds with one another since the first is about relaying a narrative for some purpose and the other is about player agency. So it's far far harder to tell a good story and make a good game out of it than it is to simply tell a good story and present it as a book, play or other non-interactive form.

>>6234086
Just because a story isn’t “thought-provoking” or “existential” doesn’t mean it isn’t good.
Or are you going to say Homer’s The Odyssey or Grimm’s Fairy Tales are garbage?
I mean these are mostly fucking fantasy stories, what are you expecting, something like Dubliners?
I don’t know maybe you just dislike classical masculine heroic storytelling.

>>6234248
You're not really saying The Odyssey isn't thought provoking... Are you?

>>6234294
It had as much depth as a great capeshit story.
Can’t wait 3000 years from now when people are psychically-linked in the fifth-dimensional successor of 4chan and some faggot is gonna argue that their modern media can’t match up to Batman: Year One.

>>6234356
You're /vr/ in a nutshell lol

>>6231517
>which puts it among the longest game scripts evet written
Longest actually
It's almost 3 times the size of the Bible according to this site
https://gamicus.gamepedia.com/List_of_longest_video_game_scripts

>>6235702
Which bible?

Not retro but Lost Odyssey. The short dream sequences were very well written.

>>6231215
>>I'm the narrator, your basic average Japanese person, I weigh this much (average amount), I am this tall (average amount), I like classical music and soft boiled eggs. Let me tell you about the best way to prepare a loaf of bread, in an absurdly lengthy and pointless diatribe, with an eye for pointless minutae, that goes on and on for far longer than you could ever imagine. One time when I was 16 I had an affair with a married teacher. Her hair smelled like slightly disused cucumbers. But not in an unpleasant way.
>>I live a ho-hum life where I catalog book titles for the government. I buy groceries twice a week. I take my bicycle to work. I am unmarried. Now I will reminsce on my high-school girlfriend. She had a secret extra eyeball hidden beyond her left ear. She showed it to me the first time we had sex.
honestly I know you're being sarcastic but even this imitation of his work is pretty comfy to read

maybe the reason you don't like him is because in this first place your life isn't comfy enough to enjoy reading a book

>>6213497
Rance is written by women and for women

>>6235706
thats because it was written by actual authors of novels while the main story was by sakaguchi. theres a noticeable huge gap in quality because of that.

>>6211370

>>6211370
Tactics Oger on the PSX has some manly dialogues.

>>6234119
>After all, it isn't uncommon for professional authors to be hired to write for games.
Yeah and a lot of the time, said authors run into issues when writing for a videogame format where in the most likely scenario they treat the game like it's a book and as a result the game is little more than an interactive movie and thus a shitty game. A lot of writers don't have much experience writing for a medium where interactivity from the audience actually affects the narrative. Which leads to the other big thing that can happen, a game where none of your choices matter and while it's a perfectly fine game, the character was just strung along in its plot like in a lot of JRPGs.

Chris Avellone is, despite how much he gets jerked off for some games on this site, not a great writer. His plots tend to be overly pretentious, preachy, constantly battling to get the player to see his philosophy as morally correct, and in the one game where he avoided all of those, it was a generic "get the macguffin before the ancient evil does". But he does understand player agency and the fact that narrative and gameplay are supposed to be woven together in a game and not separated by a wall.

>>6235764
>honestly I know you're being sarcastic
He's not, that's actually a pretty decent summation of his work. I should note though that even among Japanese writers Murakami has a very unique writing style which makes him somewhat difficult to read.

>>6231168
Pretty sure it was Wiegraf who said that, but I agree with you.

is this thread secretly /lit/

>>6211370
>I can read Japanese
No, you can’t.

>>6213191
>the platform is RPG Maker 2000
No, it isn’t, you don’t need RPG Maker 2000 to play games made with it. Precious poster was accurate when he stated the platform as being Windows 98.

>>6214461
>fun fact
Thanks for ruining the game for me before I could play it, nigger.

>>6223552
gay

>>6211370
>thinking it is even possible to write anything beautiful with gookrunes

>>6231215
Your imitation is perfect for what Murakami I've read but I enjoyed reading the minutiae of his protagonists' lives, particularly how cooking is a source of comfort to the guy in that Wonderland book.
The translation could've been better though, the writing didn't league an impression so I just put thus down to the language not being original. But this guy
>>6230934 says that I'm probably being amiss in this case.
>>6231680
I'm not learning nip just for you anon, out with it.

>>6236958
When are you going to learn?

>>6211857

kek is that fuckin Kaifun the cousin-fucker?

>>6238025
>doesnt recognize PS4

>>6238025
IT'S ME, ZIO!

>>6211370
>JRPG
>great writing
Why? That's like looking for a sports game with great puzzles. There are a handful of RPGs that have good intriguing stories (Lunar Eternal Blue) or wonderful lore strewn throughout its world (Panzer Dragoon Saga), but the actual writing, the prose and dialogue, is almost never going to be anything more than video game writing, even if the story is well thought out.

And for 99% of them that don't have a well thought out story, the story merely serves as an excuse to get the player from point A to point B, the adventure being experienced by the player is the real story being told. Once in a while you'll have one that does have an intriguing premise or world (Phantasy Star 1) but doesn't bludgeon the player with endless dialogue and narrative that breaks the flow of gameplay, just a little something at the beginning and then the experience of playing it fills in the rest.

The closest "well-written" comparison to Baldur's Gate type of story experience on a console I would say is actually Shenmue, a story and exploration driven game. The story, itself, is very simplistic and relatable, revenge for your father, but the world is full of lore, and every building, character, and asset in that world has its own backstory and method of interaction with the character. The actual prose of the writing is its own special brand of Engrish, but it comes off as so innocent and original that I would call it "accidentally great" even though it would be considered a disaster by any writing professor.

>>6236683
Don't play Suikoden 2 either then lol

「ねえ。ここに書かれている旅人って
もしかしたらあなたのことじゃない?
それだったらあたし あなたについていくわ。

だってあたし 悪い子じゃないもの。
ね?いいでしょ リュウ・・?」

‣ はい
‣ いいえ

「わあ!うれしい。」

ファナは裸のままリュウに抱きついた。
こうしてファナは仲間になった。

>>6211370
breath of fire 2

>>6238545
that's pretty dirty. i don't think i'd trust a girl like that.

>Planescape Torment
>great writing
Huh?

>>6240157
how many levels of contrarianism can we reach before you fags die of an aneurysm

>>6211698
Where is the influence of The Princess Bride in JRPGs?

>>6233541
>Koudelka
Did it have good writing? I've played it but genuinely don't remember.

>>6214461
>tranny (male-to-female) voiced 4 of the main dudes in that game, using his gruff manly voice.
That's pretty cool. I've wondered if there are many trannies in voice acting since they should be able to do both male and female voices for the price of one actor.

>>6240269
Some people can't take anything less terse than Hemingway.

>>6212362
The problem with your relativistic view is that you can use it for anything. Obviously there is no objective "good" in that arts. Good for what? It takes the reader to make something good out of it. When people talk of "good" arts, that's already implying something subjective. OP wants jrpgs with more effort put in the writing compared with other games of the same type. Just like P:T. Relativism is the most common pitfall of pseudo-intellectuals and hipsters.

Ah, fuck that. Every JRPG that makes me feel for it's characters and miss that world when it's over imo is good, badly written or not.

>>6211476
star ocean 2 ftw, true that

>>6211698
I'm not really sure if that's a fair comparison. 99.99% of literature is garbage romance or police drama stuff.

The best books have better writing than the best-written JRPGs but it's not as if games can't be thought-provoking. The Final Fantasy series for example tries to be more than just a spiky-haired dude with a sword killing dragons for the king in the later games. There's a lot of stupid and cringy dialogue in games like that, but it's also largely because they're so long and have so many NPCs to talk to (unlike books, which tend to deliver only the essential dialogue). They can still have interesting themes in them, like Vivi's arc in FFIX.

Also most JRPGs are written with a teenage audience in mind so obviously they're not gonna be Atlas Shrugged but they're also not gonna be 50 Shades of Grey. A game can be well-written without being a literal literary masterpiece.

>>6240584
>using Atlas Shrugged as an example of good literature
adorable

I don't think JRPGs with "great writing" exist, at least not when compared to the best novels or even films. But some of them have writing that's decent enough (mostly in terms of overall storytelling rather than actual dialogue).

>Lunar 2: Eternal Blue (or Eternal Blue Complete)
Pretty much one of the most solid JRPGs around when it comes to storytelling. Developed and likeable characters, world building that has some actual thought put into it (even the cute animal mascot character has a purpose) and a story that won't blow you away with its originality but it's solid all the same. It doesn't try to over-complicate things like so many other JRPGs do and so it's able to tell a cohesive plot that isn't riddled holes and inconsistencies. Lunar 1 is also enjoyable but it isn't AS good, it's a bit more generic.

>Valkyrie Profile
Honestly I can't remember a whole lot about the story of this game other than the fact that I really enjoyed it at the time, because a large part of it is made up of several mini stories that are unique to each individual character that you can recruit into your party.

>Legend of Mana
Probably the most unique JRPG I've ever played. I'd say it's worth it just for the visuals alone but the writing is surprisingly enjoyable. It's semi-open world and definitely won't hold your hand and tell you where to go, so you need to explore in order to experience everything. There is no overarching plot but there are three "main" story arcs that are mostly unrelated to one another, some are better than others but they're all solid and they don't follow your typical JRPG plot progression. The setting is bonkers but in the best way possible...honestly LoM is one of those games that is just really difficult to describe. You kind of just have to try it out for yourself.