I'll also add The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC. I know there's a remake coming out next year, but there's a bunch of shady stuff surrounding how they're gonna localize it. (Supposedly, they're gonna use AI to try to do most of it and then have real people brush it up.)

So I'd recommend playing the original instead. It's a 2.5D game with a mostly 360° camera. It uses turn-based combat, but not traditional turn-based combat. And it has a great story.

It's also on sale for only US$9.99 on GOG (which is DRM-free) and Steam.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Oh no, are they really going to use AI to translate a Falcom RPG? That's fucking heresy. The scripts in those games, are one of the things that set them apart from other JRPG schlock...

spoiler

The persistent/recurring NPCs having their own little side stories that you can miss or skip entirely if you don't talk to literally every NPC twice every single day (I haven't played a ton of Trails in the Sky series yet, was going to wait for the remake, but now I'm not sure.... This take is based on Cold Steel and Zero/Azure), is one of the most charming aspects of these games imo... Each NPC has their own individual personality, and it remains consistent (or sometimes even changes through character growth. In the background and completely missable if you don't exhaust all of their dialogue. Just off the top of my head, I'm thinking of Mint from Cold Steel I & II. What a little rascal! And her interactions with her uncle, Professor Makarov. Then Makarov's budding romance with that other teacher after Mint sets them up... Lol, I remember this shit more than some of the main plot.

I love that shit!

And, typically, it seems as though they put a lot of care into the localization. This is super disappointing if true.

I get that these scripts must be massive but I'd rather wait an extra 6 months or whatever, if it means the NPC dialogue doesn't read like ChatGPT.

Edit: I realized that this thread is all about going in blind, and my comment could be construed as ruining that. I despise spoilers of any kind (and my brain seems to seek them out so as to troll me), so I'm very sensitive to that. Apologies.