JRPG for a first timer

[Anonymous No.8791569]

What's the best JRPG for a person who avoided them most of his life? I've watched a few clips and a lot of JRPGs have an atmosphere and world building that I think I'd like but the grinding aspect doesn't seem appealing. I'm not totally oppose to grinding but don't want it to be a pain either.

[Anonymous No.8791581]

I'd say to start with the classic SNES ones like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy, EarthBound, etc. as those were most people's first JRPGs. I don't remember grinding being a big part of them either, but you do have to grind at the start of EarthBound so keep that in mind.

[Anonymous No.8791597]

chrono trigger or superstar saga, if you want one with more typical battles, probably one of the snes finfans or dragon quests

[Anonymous No.8791604]

I used to hate rpgs but I've been getting into them slowly, starting with Earthbound cuz I played Yume Nikki and Omori and was hungry for more, loving it so far. Give it a shot, it has a great mechanic where if you severely outlevel an enemy the encounter is skipped and you still get xp and its item drop.

[Anonymous No.8791624]

Unironically Mystic Quest.

[Anonymous No.8791637]

>>8791569
>the grinding aspect doesn't seem appealing
Because it's not. Chrono Trigger doesn't it need, nor Grandia II.
I believe the remasters of the old Final Fantasy have some "cheat" to avoid grinding too.

[Anonymous No.8791675]

Chrono Trigger
sadly it's also the peak of the genre so the rest will be stale compared to it

[Anonymous No.8791714]

>>8791569
Lol OP dont bother. JRPGs are a trog pastime. Dont feel peer pressure into liking or trying them. There is nothing wrong with being patrician.

[Anonymous No.8791740]

Never tried them, but I heard the Saga games punish grinding.

[Anonymous No.8791746]

>>8791675
While Chrono Trigger is good, many games from the genre have plenty of differing ways that battle mechanics, character customization, and growth is handled. While I enjoy Chrono Trigger and think it's a good first timer JRPG, I'd rank other games well above it.

[Anonymous No.8791754]

>>8791740
Unlimited Saga and Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song can potentially does so. Unlimited Saga your character growth doesn't depend on grinding on monsters. While battling in every dungeon is good to get a HP boost at the end of the dungeon, you can only get so much out of it. Otherwise it's all about panel placement to increase your stats and have more effective skills and possibly finding/forging decent equipment. Killing certain mobs can strengthen other mobs and they might outstrip your characters abilities.

In Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song if you hang out in areas with low enemy rank you can yield very few stat ups, acquire almost no skills, and gain almost no money and then find other monster groups ranked up and start one shotting characters to even two shotting your party. If you focus more on questing then the difficulty will be a lot more even rather than mindless grinding. The only grinding that helps is against strong enemies that you can defeat to have the highest chance to learn new skills and gain the most stat boosts.

[Anonymous No.8791763]

>>8791569
Chrono Trigger
Paper Mario
Pokemon (Gen 2 or 3)

[Anonymous No.8791794]

>>8791569
pokemon crystal

[Anonymous No.8791801]

>>8791569
final fantasy tactics
tales of destiny 2 (make grinding and battles fun?)

[Anonymous No.8791910]

SaGa Frontier

[Anonymous No.8791928]

Play:
Chrono Trigger
Paper Mario
Final Fantasy X
Avoid:
Earthbound.

[Anonymous No.8791973]

>>8791569
you have to start with the first jrpg (ff7) and work backwards

[Anonymous No.8792008]

Golden Sun

[Anonymous No.8792986]

>>8791569
whenever you so people crying about muh grinding its 95% of the time because they are retards lobotomized by Final Fantasy movie games and think they should auto win just for mashing normal attack and occasionally healing.

[Anonymous No.8794067]

>>8792986
Why would you need to heal if you had good characters?

[Anonymous No.8794078]

>>8791569
Phantasy Star IV or Chrono Trigger. or an ARPG like Terranigma.

[Anonymous No.8794105]

Grinding was mostly phased out by the late Super Famicom era. There were still a few grind-heavy RPGs after that, but they were few and far between.

[Anonymous No.8794351]

>no breath of fire 3

[Anonymous No.8794371]

>Only one person said Mystic Quest
Seconding it. It is literally made to be babby's first JRPG. And it's actually quite fun.

[Anonymous No.8795363]

Nobody has mentioned Dragon Quest IV so far. The episodic nature of the first half is made in such a way that it gradually introduces new mechanics with each chapter, you'd need brain damage not to have the whole genre figured out by the time you start the second half.

As a disclaimer, the jrpg I actually enjoy can be counted on the fingers of one hand, namely:
Dragon Quest IV
Dragon Quest V
Chrono Trigger
Pokémon (whichever, they're all the same)
... so my opinion might not be worth as much if you want into the genre.

[Anonymous No.8795374]

>>8795363
What other ones have you tried?

[Anonymous No.8795402]

>>8795374
Off the top of my head, a few Final Fantasy, one of the newer Dragon Quest, Earthbound/Mother 2, Secret of Mana, and probably a few more I'm forgetting.
There are also several others I've looked into, but didn't feel like they'd interest me much.
The problem I have with the genre in general is that the plot usually feels like that of an overly pretentious (if using this adjective doesn't qualify me as such), generic shounen. The ones I mentioned I enjoyed because they have a very simple plot, but still entertaining enough.
If you have any recommendations though feel free to make suggestions. I'm in need of practicing my Japanese, so having more material to do so is always welcome.

[Anonymous No.8795439]

Phantasy Star IV or Shining Force 1. No grinding, good world-building, not too hard, and not too long.

[Anonymous No.8795449]

>>8791569
JRPGs are the pleb version of CRPGs are the pleb version of Tabletop RPGs
And when it comes to taking inspiration from tabletop games it's mostly Dungeons & Dragons which is a pleb tier game itself
All that means is the RPG genre of vidya has a lot of boring shit game design. It's actually rare for RPGs to not be boring as fuck, and that applies equally to JRPGs and CRPGs.

[Anonymous No.8795461]

>>8791569
what do you want out of one? that matters a lot for making a good rec

[Anonymous No.8795503]

>>8791569
Chrono Trigger. I actually had fun with it the whole way through, which almost never happens when I try JRPGs. The old Final Fantasy games (I have no experience with the newer ones) feel like you're grinding even when you're not. If you like the quirky humor in it, some people like Earthbound or its (stand-alone) sequel Mother 3. I have friends that liked Golden Sun, but it drove me nuts and I dropped it.
Otherwise, if you somehow haven't played them, play a Pokemon game, probably one of Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald.

[Anonymous No.8795725]

>>8795402
SaGa

[Anonymous No.8795729]

Start with Grandia II
Then be forever disappointed as no other JRPG you play will ever be quite as good

[Anonymous No.8795831]

>>8791569
Any Final Fantasy game, very, very few JRPGs need grinding and the ones that do are because they are so lacking in everything else that grinding is the only thing that gates your progression. Dragon Quest is an example.

>>8791624
Also this, it's ridiculously easy and has great music. If you like it, Wild Arms is also good and utilizes field items far more.