Left feeling a bit empty after playing it for the first time a few months ago(why did I wait so long?) I am afraid no JRPG will be able to surpass it. Would love to have a discussion about similar games that reach the same quality level (Note: I have already played Final Fantasy VI ).
I find the usual large and long SNES/PS1 era JRPGs quite bloated and grindy, to be honest. A while ago I played Phantasy Star IV, which is a lot more lightweight, linear and shorter than say, FF6, and I found that quite refreshing. Maybe you can try that as a change of style.
Phantasy Star II is pretty awesome too.
II is very good, but it does get VERY grindy right at the end.
This is true. I played it when it was new and I had fond memories of insanely grinding SMS PS1, so it seemed normal. The best thing to do is to go to Climatrol and farm Blastoids (they reproduce within a battle and you can get insane EXP by waiting for them to do that). Some weird slima-slug-somethings do that too.
Yeah, at the time it didn’t seem so out of line. I guess I just feel like it hasn’t held up as well against modern games as something like Chrono Trigger or FFVI.
That also shows up in the comparison between PS II and IV… IV is way more cut-sceney, linear and streamlined with less grinding required. I guess I actually like the grinding!