what in your opinion are the worst jrpgs

[Ack]

To me most are crap because their stories don't hold my interest to bear with the tedious turn-based mechanics.

...so why did you post in this thread?

[TheSSNintendo]

Lunar: Dragon Song

This is probably the worst game I've ever bothered to actually beat. It's awful. I can rant about it for a long time, but I'm up too late as it is. Just know that it's TERRIBLE and don't let the "Lunar" name fool you, it's an insult to the rest of the series.

You beat me to it. I mainly bought Dragon Song for the "Lunar" name, and it was anything but a Lunar game. Odd battle system, and just didn't really click.

[Exhuminator]

This should probably be a discussion about JRPG design aspects that make for bad JRPGs.

Pfft, what?! How DARE you, good sir! What arrogant knave would demand we take more than a mere cursory look at ourselves and actually examine our feelings? As if we have feelings! Bad games are bad because someone on the Internet declared it so! Harrumph!

You're right! What was I thinking?!

Okay worst most overrated JRPG ever:

FINAL FANTASY V

On a more seriously note, I do think Final Fantasy IX is grossly overrated and is a pretty terrible game after the halfway point. Due in no small part to that's exactly when Sakaguchi left Square and said game. And whooo boy can you tell with that game exactly where he quit.

Final Fantasy X is a game I really, really wanted to like... but it has the worst plot and protagonist of any JRPG I can remember playing. A time traveling underwater soccer jock has to save the world from his alcoholic dad who has become the tsunami inducing incarnation of ultimate evil. Now let's learn how to laugh! Ugh, what a shit show plot. Yes I get all the metaphors and yadda yadda but it's just amateur hour crud writing.

Funny when I start thinking of worst JRPGs the ones that are coming to mind for me are FF ones, yet that series has some of the best JRPGs in it as well. What a divisive franchise.

[dunpeal2064]

A time traveling underwater soccer jock has to save the world from his alcoholic dad who has become the tsunami inducing incarnation of ultimate evil.

If I hadn't played the game already, I would have based on this sentence

Mine would be Chrono Cross.

Lets get out of the way that, yes, it is beautiful, and yes, the soundtrack is good.

What really hooks me into an rpg is usually not the overarching story, but the characters, their purpose, and how they are developed. This game completely lacks that. In FFVI fashion, (some) characters are given a short period to have their own story that has nothing to do with the game, but they don't grow, they are static, and probably due to the mass amount of them, they just don't matter at all.

Another big hook for me is a combat system that is well balanced between allowing freedom, but defining the way different characters work apart from each other well. In CC, every character is essentially the same, aside 2-3 moves. I know this could probably be said of some games that I do enjoy, but I just felt like every character was just an empty slate for me to toss bland, generic moves onto.

The game lacks any sort of risk/reward, fear of death, etc. Not only was the game never challenging, but even if it was, you can just run away from any fight. Would have been fine (I don't mind retries in FFXIII), but there was never even a risk of death, every fight was my bland 50 characters, of which I choose 2, against bland enemy.

And THEN, the biggest troll of them all, multiple endings. Good idea, I generally like them. I used no guide or anything, just played the game blind, and what ending did I get? A black screen. I kid you not, there was NO ending. None at all.

Having to play as a hideous cat-villain for half the game did not help either. There were some redeeming factors in the game, but they could not come close to outweighing the negatives for me. I am surprised I was even able to finish it, and the ending basically sealed the deal for me.

I can't say this was the worst RPG I've played, but it was by far the most disappointing.

[Sarge]

Is it sad that I don't think Beyond the Beyond is actually an awful game? It's got problems, but it's nowhere near the worst thing I've ever played. I'd say it's a 16-bit-looking RPG on a 32-bit console with 8-bit sensibilities. Which is why everyone hates it.

Now, you want a bad RPG? Let's go with Metal Dungeon on XBOX. Can you believe I wasted $20 on that? Yeesh. I almost never buy blind, and that's what happens when I do.

[Markies]

Unlimited Saga on the PS2.

I bought the game for $5 and I still feel ripped off.

I slogged through Saga Frontier 1 & 2. I never beat either of them, but they at least had something interesting to them.

Unlimited Saga is beyond awful and made absolutely no sense. I quickly got rid of it and promised myself to never play a Saga game ever again.

[BoneSnapDeez]

The first six games in the series are pretty fun. But yeah, Unlimited is horrendous.

[Kidpanda]

I don't even know what they were thinking with that Price is Right action wheel in Unlimited Saga. Just turrible.

[Erik_Twice]

Final Fantasy X is a game I really, really wanted to like... but it has the worst plot and protagonist of any JRPG I can remember playing. A time traveling underwater soccer jock has to save the world from his alcoholic dad who has become the tsunami inducing incarnation of ultimate evil. Now let's learn how to laugh! Ugh, what a shit show plot. Yes I get all the metaphors and yadda yadda but it's just amateur hour crud writing.

You forgot that the strongest character in the game attacks with volleyball balls COVERED IN SPIKES.

Geez, man, FFX may be the only game I hate

[prfsnl_gmr]

Final Fantasy X is a game I really, really wanted to like... but it has the worst plot and protagonist of any JRPG I can remember playing. A time traveling underwater soccer jock has to save the world from his alcoholic dad who has become the tsunami inducing incarnation of ultimate evil. Now let's learn how to laugh! Ugh, what a shit show plot. Yes I get all the metaphors and yadda yadda but it's just amateur hour crud writing.

You forgot that the strongest character in the game attacks with volleyball balls COVERED IN SPIKES.

Geez, man, FFX may be the only game I hate

FFX is a fine game, and attacking someone with a volleyball covered in spikes is not even close to the dumbest thing in a JRPG. (Don't get me wrong; it's pretty dumb. It's just not the dumbest.)

EDIT: Chrono Cross, Earthbound, Golden Sun, Ni No Kuni, etc. are also fine games. You people really need to play something bad like Lunar: Dragon Song. That game is the worst.