At the time their modern formula appeared on PS2 (Persona 3&4), they were a welcome change of tone and design in a market dominated by Final Fantasy-ish operatic jrpgs.

They’re obvioulsy milking it now, which make the apparition of Expedition 33 and other -indie- JRPGs a very good sign to me. I’d love a remake of Vagrant Story or Koudelka, too…

Completely agree

I actually enjoyed that, and it was foreshadowed, but i’d also defy anybody to explain FF7 Remake’s scenario to me in a way that’d make it clear XD

Your expedition 33 experience is relatable, actually. They’ve made a Jrpg so well they even got the “let the scenario become confusing as fuck” part right.

Like FF7 remake 1&2 :) Or Kingdom Hearts.

I think what you like about FF7 remake is that it is not a JRPG, but an action-rpg. I’ll say it’s a good one on that aspect, I just hated the generic ubisoft open-world design with tons of boring minigames as fillers for badly paced/light novel narrative beats.

I do love Persona 5 OST but yeah, there is an overdose at some point. Expedition 33 avoids that by having a specific OST for each zone of the game.

I have no specific action-rpg to recommend in mind, except kingdom hearts 2 if you feel like going a bit retro.

Ff7 remake is 100% fan-service AAA slop. Play real jRPGs, play Persona5, Expedition 33, play the original, but not that brain-rotting time-stealing remake, it’s an insult to life itself.

Although I admit it was a very pretty game. Now all they have to do is take their precious game engine and make a real game out of it.

Tried it 🏴‍☠️, they seem to have gone for “It’s bigger than the first one!” and indeed it is. Big, empty spaces to run through with nothing happening. Uninstalled. 70€ saved.

Stop making huge environments full of nothing.

I agree with OP, and it really became blatant when Starfield got out. Their design patterns and game engine have not evolved with the industry standards, and they don’t seem to have understood that. Fortunately, there are alternatives, like the Outer Worlds, Tainted Grail, etc. I guess the alternatives will become more and more interesting with time, as those game have showed that it was possible to do Bethesda-ish games without the shortcomings (and lies) of Bethesda.