5 JRPGs Worth Buying in 2023 & 5 That Are NOT!

today's video is sponsored by a member of the community stay tuned to the end of the video to learn more about their offer that you won't want to miss 2023 has been one of the greatest years for video games that I can remember no matter what genre you're into there's something for you and the same could be said for jrpgs whether you like turn-based action strategy AAA or Indie there's something for you but sadly there were also some sinkers so in this video I'll be sharing five jrpgs worth buying in 2023 and five that or not starting off we have Star Ocean the Second Story R now while I haven't quite finished it yet it's definitely a game of the year Contender for me it has an absolutely gorgeous art style really evolving that HD 2D art style made famous from octopath traveler it has a really compelling story with great voice acting and so many quality of life design choices for example I love that the game just straight up asks you if you want to equip equipment that is better than what you currently have it's so nice to not have to think about that and also that new Colin mechanic in combat is really really fun and not to mention that combat is pretty fun you have tons of different characters with so many different combat Styles so no matter how you like to play there's a character for you and in an era where new games are costing $70 star oan the Second Story R is only $50 which is hard to believe and the game also has a lot of replay value considering the fact that you can play from two different perspectives so if you played through one and you want to see how the other character acts then you can try their story now the one critique I have is the difficulty balance either the game is been way too easy on normal or way too hard on hard now from what I've read online a lot of crafting can help this but I'm not deep enough into the game where that seems to matter just yet so maybe the game balances out as the game goes on either way no matter where you're playing this game on Nintendo switch PC PlayStation wherever you're playing it you can't go wrong it's a gorgeous game and it's definitely going to be one of my favorite games when the year is all set and done now for a game that I can't recommend that is sort online last recollection now the sort online RPGs have never really been good and the same goes for last recollection and while it boasts improved combat it's still not fantastic it looks flashy and really cool you can chain combos together and there's 45 playable characters but it doesn't feel as satisfying as something like Tales of varise and overall the game has pretty boring designs most of the levels are straightforward there's nothing unique or clever no cool puzzles or anything like that in fact you could just run by all the enemies if you wanted to and Visually the game feels really dated the textures feel pretty low quality the animations aren't great and overall the art Direction feels dull and drab most of the levels are pretty gray or brown it doesn't look great now the story could be at saving grace especially if you're a hardcore Sword Art Online fan however if you're just a general jrpg player you should probably pass as there are way too many better games that came out this year speaking of which if you're watching this video you've probably already played sea of stars but if you somehow haven't here's the lowdown it's a throwback Style jrpg with Gorgeous pixel art super fun turn-based combat with timing elements allaha Super Mario RPG and really good design as you're playing through of a game it's really easy to tell where you're supposed to go next there's always tons of clever puzzles as well and while the story is not super great and super interesting it's good enough to keep you playing to the next piece especially after you get through the prologue where you get to know the characters really well it really sets up the rest of the story now you might be thinking to yourself yeah that all sounds fine but trust me when I say it's all married together in a way unlike any jrpg I've played before the systems weave together so well and the levels are short enough and clever enough to where you want to keep going and the combat feels fresh and never grindy in fact the way the game is designed you really can't grind as long as you just kind of keep pushing forward and fight all the enemies that get in your way then you'll probably be appropriately leveled although I do feel like the game should have had more abilities because as the game went on I was kind of using the same abilities that I had at the beginning at the end of the game so in that sense combat did sort of get stale as the game went on that aside this is simply one of the best jrpgs of 2023 is probably going to win best indie game at the upcoming in game awards it also has a great dollar to hour value at 30 to 40 hours long and only $35 so if for some reason you haven't played sea of stars yet definitely get your hands on it I promise you'll enjoy it now this one brings me absolutely no pleasure but I always like to be real with you guys Loop eight is one of the most disappointing games I've played in recent years it was sold as a sort of Life Sim in this idic Seaside Japanese town with dating Sim elements and turn-based combat pair that with a gorgeous anime art style and how could you go wrong well I'll tell you how in four words Rog like dating Sim now I'm sure you're asking yourself why in God's name would someone mix those two genres together it sounds like a horrible idea well my friend you'd be right imagine clicking through dialogue and you're getting to know all these characters over the course of a few days in the game only for it all to reset and you need to start all over it's so frustrating Rogue leges are fun because the minute-to-minute combat or gameplay is really fun so you don't mind doing it over and over again but when the gam playay is you just literally clicking through dialogue that's not fun and you don't want to do that over and over again especially when you know what the character is going to say now I know many people were tempted by this game especially with its art style and the promise of what this game could be and they were hoping that the game is not as bad as everyone said let me tell you my friend don't be that person just trust me when I say that it is that bad and go play something else now I know eternitees got some mixed reception at launch but it's been one of my favorite games of the year and a heck of a value at only $30 ENT it's Persona with action combat in fact the game has a very Persona likee Loop once you get past the intro you'll have to defeat a Boss by a certain number of calendar days or the game's over however the game is very lenient with its amount of time it gives you to beat the boss in fact you can usually finish the dungeon in one calender day if you want to now the combat itself is really fun it has these rhythm game like elements with timed button presses and other QuickTime events now on paper that sounds annoying but it actually gives combat a really nice flow not to mention it has this perfect Dodge mechanic that if you Dodge at just the right time it'll slow things down so you can whale on the enemy and you really need to perfect this mechanic because some enemies can't even be damaged unless you do a perfect Dodge now when you're not crawling through Dungeons and fighting enemies you have tons of free time events where you can hang out with friends go on dates get to know these characters more and scavenge for items with friends to increase stats and overall it's just a really satisfying game Loop especially if you enjoy Persona in a busy year full of games that are really long I love that it's only like 10 to 12 hours and if you really want to dive deep there is a ton of replay value because who you decide to be with at the end of the game drastically changes the end of the game so there's tons of incentive to play eternitees many times now I did have a few minor issues with the game for one healing came at a premium you were either really low at MP at all times or you never had items to heal like literally you don't have items in the game and also it's pretty dark visually and just opposed to your really bright arm it can be really hard to tell what's happening at times overall though I thought it was an excellent game and considering this was the first game from a oneperson studio I'm super excited to see what they do next because now that they have a real budget and more team members the next game could be excellent now the next two games aren't actively bad games in fact you may even want to pick them up after watching this video but I'm listing them as not worth it for two reasons price and quality of other games that released this year so first up we have monster menu and it has a really cool signature NE panichi disaya art style that looks pretty great in 3D honestly now this game is a Rog likee strategy RPG where you're constantly trying to progress further in a dungeon while upgrading your team along the way now this is one of those turn off your brain kind of games where you just grind away make progress turn the game off and then come back the next day to make even more progress and considering there's not really a story and the game playay isn't super deep it's really good to just turn your brain off and play it with a podcast however it's Rog likee nature can get pretty frustrating and annoying especially when you have to balance that with this hunger and thirst meter for every character now Rog likes can be fun because the game play is pretty fun this constant feeling of progression but extra mechanics like this can weigh down the experience plus level design is pretty lackluster they're kind of boring and they're not that big so like I said you may actually dig this game but for my money at $50 up against some really strong competition I would recommend you spend your money elsewhere and the same could be said for cry makina now you look at it on the surface level and you think this could be some kind of Hidden Gem and maybe it is for some of you but on a whole it just doesn't really add up the story feels very iterative of near automa where humanity is essentially gone and Androids are left to save Humanity here you play as several different Androids trying to save Humanity however cry makina borders on being a visual novel with how much story there is and how it's presented now don't get me wrong the art style here is actually pretty good the in-game character models look pretty nice and the 2D art for the visual novel sections look great as well however it's not presented in a very Dynamic way some of these tea time sections can get pretty long and considering the fact that the camera doesn't really move or there's no real Dynamic camera movements it can be kind of unengaging to sit there and just watch them sitting there talking and talking and talking now this isn't necessar neily a knock for some but there's no English voice acting which is a shame considering their last game cryar did have English voice acting again on the surface the combat looks really flashy and cool however it quickly becomes stale this is mainly due to the lack of enemy variety and skills you'll kind of just be doing the same thing over and over again even though the levels themselves are actually pretty clever with some Chase sequences and some sequences where you're kind of sliding on these little slides now there is lots of customization and you might feel like that gives it some sort of depth however I feel like it borders on feeling overwhelming with how many options the game gives you what's also annoying is that you can't select characters for Missions you're kind of just stuck with whatever character the game assigns you and what makes this annoying is each character needs to get leveled up individually and with some possibly being underleveled so there's this need to go and grind with certain characters and so the whole process just becomes annoying and for a game that still $60 I just feel like it's not a great value for its quality now it may be worth it on a sale but right now I'm saying it's not worth it because it's still full retail price and there's just other games that are better competing for your time and one of the better of those being nauta boundless Trails now this is a game that's been lost in Japan for over a decade originally releasing for the PSP in 2012 now it's been beautifully remastered and localized by Nas America with full English voice acting this feels like it was a game tailor made for me I just love the game loop it's a stage-based action RPG where you explore collect resources find Collectibles open treasure chests and then fight a boss after a few levels and what's cool is after you clear a certain world the seasons change and you can go back to the levels and they're basically entirely new levels and you can explore them and fight through them in new ways and what's nice is the levels are never too long maybe about 10 to 12 minutes so overall there's really great pacing and it feels like you're always pushing forward and progressing now after you complete levels you could just keep going with the story and seeing what happens next or you could go back to your town and take on a variety of activities first there's side quest that you can get from characters all over town which are mainly collecting things back in the dungeon or fighting things or you could contribute to the local Museum here you'll find things as you explore levels and in a way that feels a lot like Animal Crossing you give the museum things and then you can walk around the different exhibits which is cool now considering this is a Falcom game who's famous for the eer the combat doesn't feel quite as tight as ease it's a little floaty and a little loose but still it's really fun now nauta clocks in at a breezy 20-ish hours at only $40 to me that's an absolute steal and it's just a fantastic game overall so if you haven't tried it out already definitely go give it a try this one pains me so much because I love the base game but Tales of arises beyond the dawn DLC expansion is simply not worth it here's why for the most part you're retreading old ground going to the same locations and there's no new party members or new abilities or nothing now if you love Tales of arise more of the same might sound good to you but to me this just feels like a missed opportunity especially when you consider how long it's been since Bandai Namco released the base game you'd expect something new besides just story shoot they could have almost made a whole new game in that time and while the story can be interesting overall like I said it just feels like I missed opportunity now it's not actively bad in any way it's not like they destroyed the combat or made the game look worse it's just nothing new or exciting and while band damco claims you can get 20 hours worth of content out of this most of that will be side quests so you're more likely to spend around 6 to 8 hours with it and at a steep price of $30 which is the same price as full games in this list I just don't think it's worth it I feel like this DLC is really targeted at the most hardcore of fans which hey if that's you then go for it but for the rest of us I feel like it's definitely worth waiting for a sale and last but certainly not least we have silent hope now I know I'm going to sound a little bit like a hypocrite because of how I talked about monster menu but I feel like silent Hope just executes on that idea way better it's an action Rog likee Dungeon Crawler and you'll pick one of seven classes and then dive into the abyss with the goal of reaching the Bottom now every handful of levels you'll unlock a checkpoint so you don't have to restart from the very beginning and the same thing goes for after beating a boss and overall I just feel like silent hope is is the best kind of Rog like it feels easy and rewarding to make progress you're constantly leveling up collecting materials and weapons and then going back to your town to exchange them now back at the Town there's tons of different ways to use these resources to make your character stronger like tilling the fields at the farm or you know milking the cows at your cow Farm cooking food crafting different weapons and so on there's just a constant feeling of progression and as you level up you get points that you can then dump into your abilities to make them stronger and what I love is that you can reset these points for free at any given time time so you can try out abilities so for example let's say you unlock a new ability and you're like well I don't have the points to level it up but I want to see if it works you can just reset your points try it out and if it doesn't work for you then hey reset it again and go back to your old Loadout and what's cool is you can also swap to different classes but the thing is you don't share the same XP pool so you'll need to level them up fresh however by the time you're deciding if you want to try a different class you'll probably have unlocked overpowered weapons and armor for them so it'll be really easy to level them up I started with the Archer and at one point I wanted to try out the fighter and they were were getting Level UPS like after every single fight so don't even worry about it but most importantly the minute-to-minute gameplay is just so much fun now I mostly played with the Archer and had a great time and I feel like the Archer works really well with this game because enemies have a variety of attacks from ranged attacks to closeup so being able to attack from range felt like a really big advantage to me this is the Hidden Gem of 2023 and I can't recommend it enough I also feel like it's wildly underpriced at $40 considering the quality and replay value this game has for me it took me about 20 is hours to beat the game but then it unlocks even more dungeons a different mode and then you can just go and try it all again with different classes so you could easily get 100 plus hours worth of value out of this game so if you haven't tried it I promise you'll dig it now let me ask you a serious question how's your dating life are you tired of settling for people you don't really want to be with or do you find yourself not knowing what to say to that pretty girl you really want to talk to if you answered yes to any of these questions then you got to talk to my buddy Jack North Jack's been a dating coach for over 8 years and over that time he's helped hundreds of guys improve their dating life including dozens of marriages in fact he has over a 90% success rate I know how powerful his coaching can be because he's been coaching me for several months for the better part of 2023 I pretty much never left the house and certainly didn't go on any dates my confidence was in the gutter but after meeting with Jack and doing exactly what he said I couldn't believe the results I could confidently walk up to any girl and start up a conversation even while wearing a stupid hat like this one I've gone from no dates a week to more than I can fit in a week so if you want to raise your confidence and improve your dating life like I have Jack's got a special offer just for viewers of the gaming shelf he's offering his course for half off and a free one-on-one strategy call and here's the thing Jack's a huge JRP Jr like the rest of us in fact he won't shut up about atellier so don't even get him started to get this offer before it's gone and start improving your dating life today click the link in the description or in the pin comment below and special thanks to reset switch Tyler kuzava and the Miyazaki man for supporting me over on patreon to get exclusive videos and other cool perks consider supporting me over on patreon.com thegamingshelf thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next time

Channel: The Gaming Shelf

Views: 92,687

Keywords: best game 2023, best rpgs 2023, best jrpgs 2023

Id: 9aXAU1dqhbk

Length: 16min 9sec (969 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 29 2023