I've always been a sucker for RPG games. When I'm feeling down I tend to play Final Fantasy 8 or Final Fantasy 10, they're like my comfort games.
I've had a hard time finding joy in modern RPG games, they all feel very grindy and seem to have an uninteresting plot. I'm looking for something that sparks joy, so I don't have look for some ridiculous challenge like Khimari only run in FF10 or something.
Things that spark joy:
- Being able to play on Steam Deck or at least stream from my (linux) desktop
- Decent graphics, though pixel art is ok
- Voice acting
- No random encounters
- Good plot
- Good combat
Things that do not spark joy:
- Too much grinding
- DnD mechanics
- Mandatory online requirement
Games that I really enjoyed:
- Final Fantasy 7 through 10
- Final Fantasy 5
- Dragon Quest XI
- Xenoblade Chronicles 1/2
- South Park games
- Stardew Valley
Games that I did not enjoy:
- Elden Ring - I guess I just don't have the mental patience for souls games anymore.
- Final Fantasy X-2 - great combat mechanics, horrendous plot
- "Modern" Final Fantasy games
- Divinity: Original Sin 2, Disco Elysium - feels too much like DnD
- Hogwarts Legacy - It felt amazing at first but then got super repetitive
- Persona 5 Royal - The game severely overstayed its welcome, very bloated, very repetitive dialog (the characters tell you the same information multiple times)
- I am Setsuna - The plot resembled Final Fantasy 10 way too much, felt like I had already played that game. Didn't finish
- Kingdom Hearts - Severe motion sickness
- Octopath Traveler - The plot felt extremely disconnected, random encounters were annoying, I got stuck due to an underleveled party and didn't have the patience to grind it up
Thanks in advance!
Seymour battles can be very challenging but there's always a gimmick or gear to mitigate their attacks. It's up to the player to figure it out. The only fight I did have trouble in one of my (too many) runs was in Mount Gagazet, that one can be tough if you don't have zombie ward or a way to inflict poison.
Unless you're going for the Dark Aeon's you can totally skip Blitzball. If you don't enjoy it you're not really losing anything. I did like the concept of Blitzball in general, at first I thought it was fun. However, the matches become brain-dead easy really fast and each match lasts 10+ minutes, which is wayyy too long. It's a huge time sink and the rewards are absurdly bad for the invested time (An ether, seriously? A single ether?)
I have to somewhat agree with you about Jecht. Instead of FFX-2, they should have done a FFX-0 where you follow Jecht's pilgrimage instead. I'd play that!!!