Any JRPGs that don't have incomprehensible plots?

I just finished Chrono Trigger recently for the first time and loved it. I loved how refreshingly straightforward the plot was. Then I made the mistake of playing Chrono Cross immediately after, which had one of the most ridiculously awful, needlessly convoluted, poorly paced, most incomprehensible plots I've ever experienced in a game. I feel like I need a cleanser after playing that shit, so I'm looking for some recommendations.

I'm thinking of playing Xenogears. Can anyone confirmed whether or not the plot in that makes sense/is actually good?

Nope.

I never found jrpgs to have complicated plots. Maybe it's just the ones I've played or it's just me, but honestly I've always been able to follow along.

It's got a pretty deep plot but not as weird as Chrono Cross. It's got an awesome first disc, but I worn you about the 2nd disc which is a ton of reading since they had to rush the game.

I'd be content if I found one with a plot that made sense. Unfortunately, it seems that many japanese writers haven't mastered the concept of the second draft yet. In which you read what you have written and realize it's stupid.

@mastermetal777:

Its not just the JRPGs. DMC4 and Bayonetta and President Evil 4 didn't make much sense either.

I just don't get Japanese games at all...... on the plus side, its more incentive to focus on gameplay...... I don't like it the other way around.

@Lulu_Lulu: the Japanese just tell stories differently. They focus on symbolism and character development more than plot. As for gameplay, it just depends on the developer.

@mastermetal777:

The Symbology was lost on me. :(

And do Capcom's Character's specifically.... develope at all......

Chris, Leon, Dante Jill, Everbody from Street Fighter are the most one Dimensional Characters I've ever encountered...... Square Enix and even Platinum are better in that Regard.

@Lulu_Lulu: Capcom doesn't even try, that's the difference. They're just silly for the sake of being silly. And that's fine too.

Detective Dolly: So what's the symbology there?

Paul Smecker: Symbology? Now that Duffy has relinquished his "King Bonehead" crown, I see we have an heir to the throne! I'm sure the word you were looking for was "symbolism." What is the ssss-himbolism there?

Xenogears is a good game but the wrong direction for what you're looking for OP. Since you're mentioning PS1 games that are on PSN I'll stick with that route and suggest Grandia.

@mastermetal777:

Damn Straight !

Comprehension goes to ones ability to comprehend. Most JRPGs have plots that are in some way metaphors for real life ideal/ideas/problems. You have to look past the names given to the parts of the story and decipher the message they are trying to convey.

I don't think I'm the person to ask because I've loved the stories to most JRPGs I've played. But if you want really simple, check out Dragon Quest. Those games are great.

A lot, if you pay attention

Depends on what you consider and incomprehensible plot, OP. The majority of the JRPGs I've played didn't seem to have plots that were overly complicated or whatever.

I have no trouble understanding the message JRPGs are trying to convey. The problem is that what they try to convey is typically stupid and poorly done and the story makes no sense.

Chrono Cross. It was a series of disjointed macguffin fetch quests and deus ex machina that ends on something that had almost nothing to do with the rest of the game. The plot makes less sense the more you think about it and the themes and messages the game brings up are done so completely at random and it never does anything with them.

Main problem with Xenogears is that it isn't complete. Basically it's fine until you get to the second disk's rocking chair stuff. Which was pretty much repeated in Xenosaga Ep2, when you switch disks in that game.

Persona 4's storyline is pretty fleshed out.... Persona 3, as well. I also liked, Shadow Hearts 1 and 2 (though to understand the ending of Shadow Hearts 2 you must have subtitles turned on.)

Chrono Cross was a bad game, period. Soundtrack was legendary though.

Am I the only person who actually liked the plot of Chrono Cross? It's seriously not that incomprehensible if you pay attention. As for Xenogears, it was supposed to be a 4-disc game before the team got gutted to make Final Fantasy 8. That's why the second disc is the way it is.

If you thought that Chrono Cross was incomprehensible then don't even get near Xenogears, Suikoden is the way to go.

You have to interpret and translate the story to get the message, you can't understand one and not the other. Your complaints don't make sense.

I would rather have a well told story with weak or no message than a deep message. There are times that the writers get so wrapped up their message than they allow the story to suck because of that.

Persona 4 has a pretty comprehensible story, just gotta pay attention

Try the Mario and Luigi series or Dragon Quest as a whole.

Glad someone else feels the same way about Chrono Cross. 10/10 game my arse. The only redeemable thing about the game was its soundtrack specially the the opening theme.

Try final fantasy 6. Not too complicated, straight to the point and a lot of emotions.

You can though. The messages presented in JRPGs aren't some elusive thing, they're almost always spelled out in the most heavy handed way possible, even when the story is making absolutely no sense. Understanding one doesn't depend on understanding the other.

I always thought Pokemon was easy to follow. Esp. the first one lol

The game barely even has a plot. It's a series of random, disconnected fetch quests randomly punctuated by rambling walls of text where important plot points and pieces of lore are hastily brought up, poorly explained, then never mentioned again. The game doesn't bother to explain anything that happened or give you a coherent goal until literally seconds before the game ends, where it comes up with a cop out excuse for how the entire game was so meandering and pointless. The villain for most of the game behaves in ways that make less and less sense the more you learn about him. The game is a trainwreck.

I paid attention. I even went so far as to read a plot summary. It seriously doesn't make any sense, and makes less sense the more you think about it.

Persona 4 is intolerable to play though. The characters are ungodly annoying and relentlessly repeat the same things over and over, and the gameplay itself sucks. I can't stand being stuck in the same town for the entire game either.

I haven't been able to finish any of the Mario and Luigi games. They're excessively hand holdy and there's not enough plot to motivate me to continue. I've heard Dragon Quest can be kind of grindy and boring, is there any one I should play in particular? I have Dragon Quest 8 but I haven't played much of it.

Final Fantasy 12

I think this is the biggest problem with JRPGS

Not just JRPG. Look at Spec Ops: The Line.

Well at least JRPG are willing to try thing other than fantasy medieval setting.

@wiouds:

Steampunk for the Win !!!

@Pffrbt: JRPG's don't really have the most convoluted plot imho

@Pffrbt: sorry you feel that way. I personally was able to follow along quite well despite the plot dumps.

If you really want an easy to follow JRPG, get Ni no Kuni for either the 3DS or the PS3.

If you understood Star Wars, you can understand FF12's plot :P

Follow along with what exactly. The game literally doesn't bother making sense or following any coherent plot at all. It contradicts events and concepts from Chrono Trigger and even within itself. There's nothing to follow along with. This is made clearer when you read a plot summary, which should cut down on the extraneous bullshit and deliver the story with the most clarity possible, instead it becomes even more clear that 99% of the game is a series of disconnected macguffin fetch quests with little to no explanation and constant deus ex machina. Turns out the game isn't difficult to follow, it just genuinely doesn't bother making sense or having a plot in the first place. How long has it been since you played the game.

Also, I played and finished Ni No Kuni. It was easy to follow, but was awful and full of plot holes.

I'm considering playing a Breath of Fire game now, any of those games good?

Tried it. Too boring. Might give it another shot though.

@Pffrbt: I played it last month. I still understand what it's doing. It's too long to post on here, but I love its characters and overall themes. It's not a mess at all, in my eyes. But hey, that's just me. I followed Xenogears just fine, and that game's plot is even more convoluted (second-favorite game of all time though for its combat and story)

Edit: here's a link to a condensed summary of Chrono Cross's plot

https://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/Chrono_Cross_Condensed_Plot_Summary

NIER. Unless you need every bit of backstory and setting explained. You will not know exactly where you are, nor will you understand how the world came to such ruin and waste. But that really isnt the point. What happens with the characters along the way though is pretty straightforward. And it's my favorite videogame story so far. I look forward to play Xenogears as well.

Other JRPG story driven games I plan on playing that look great are Vagrant story, Tactics Ogre: Let us cling together, Trails in the Sky, suikoden,phantasy star (original), digital devil saga, skies of arcadia, and panzer dragoon saga. Of course I cant confirm the plots of all these games are what you are looking for, but I've done some pretty extensive research and these are what has stood out the most to me, taking into account both objective quality and personal preference.

NIER.

I'm not one of those people who LOVED spec ops, but there was nothing confusing with the story. You guys seem to be misappropriating your dislike. Not liking a story is different than being unable to comprehend something. You can't claim a story is bad just because you don't like how it was told. It's content vs. execution.

I was using Spec Ops The Line as a game where the writers got so wrapped up in their deep message that the story suffer. It happen in many JRPG.

It's pretty telling that that summary is mostly made up a plot dump that happens in the last couple hours of the game, and even then most of it is fan-theory and doesn't account for the numerous plot holes (such as how Schala could possibly be fused with Lavos when Lavos has already been destroyed, or why FATE goes out of its way to openly antagonize and harm people for no apparent reason after it has already succeeded it's motivations, or why Lynx needed to steal Serge's body just so he could get passed a fucking door he could've easily destroyed or teleported around). The game is an incoherent mess. None of your actions or the sequence of events throughout 95% of the game make any sense or have any explanation, and having the explanation at literally the very end of the game doesn't justify or give you motivations for what you've been doing the entire time. You have zero reason to do most of the things you do in the game. Serge's role and motivation in the story are resolved only a few hours in, when he returns to the home world. There is literally no reason for him to do any of the things that occur after that.

I don't understand what you could've possibly liked about the characters or overall themes. Most of the characters have no personality and no motivation for doing any of the things they do. The themes are just kind of shat out at random times and never expanded on at all, the only one the game even focuses on for more than five seconds is "humans are bad!", which it does in the most laughably patronizing way possible.

The end of the game and the last plot dump that half-asses an attempt to explain anything in the game make it all the more clear what an unfocus, incoherent train wreck the plot was. Almost nothing in the game has anything to do with what it was all supposedly leading up to.

Anyway, I started Xenogears last night. So far it seems good, and I'm sure it probably has a better plot than Chrono Cross, because how could it possibly not.

I finished it and loved it. It's fine if things are left vague and require some reading into, so long as the sequences of events are coherent and lead up to a logical conclusion that's actually relevant to what preceded. I've loved all of the Drakengard games (except 2).

Well... it's hard to match Chrono Trigger but I would go with Skies of Arcadia or Tales of Symphonia/Vesperia.

You've already played one of the best the genre has to offer. If you have a 360 check out Lost Odyssey, good plot with excellent writing.