Summary
The best JRPGs, whetherthey’re exceptionally difficultor lighthearted and easy, afford players ample opportunities to customize their parties. While the reputation of the game is changing, it’s still closer to the norm than not that JRPGs are narratively linear experiences with avenues for player agency through party composition. Games likePokemonorFinal Fantasymight be heading to the same ending, but how the party looks by the time they get there is where choices matter.
So how does this player choice factor into party composition specifically? Across a variety of subgenres,whether urban fantasyor even horror, the variety of roles characters can hold in the game extends well beyond different avenues of dealing damage. In these JRPGs, non-combat-oriented playstyles that heal, support, or even charm their way through encounters are rewarded with bonuses that damage-focused players might miss out on.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Fire Emblem: Three Houseshas a lot of stats exterior to dealing damage that can be focused on to make some truly unique builds. These builds and the characters that utilize them will beas essential to a late-game armyas the frontline knights or archers and mages.
Characters focusing on faith and authority, two stats introduced in this title, get access to powerful healing spells or supportive buffs respectively. Using healing spells or skills like Rally to augment frontline fighters is a sure path to success beyond building these characters up for raw damage output.
Divided along races as well as classes, the types of characters players can create inEtrian Odyssey 5are broad and varied. A good deal of classes in this title don’t focus on damage - making it either a secondary or even tertiary concern among their skills and playstyles.
Botanists and witch-doctors are more concerned with healing and support, while classes like the necromancer fill a variety of niches as summoner, healer, tank, and debuff specialist. This gameisn’t the easiest for newcomers, but it’s sure to reward those who know how to take a more balanced playstyle.
There are two ways in particular players can see a non-combat approach bearing fruit in this game. Among themost important itemsplayers will find are the various Aogami Essences that promote huge differences to the Nahobino playstyle.
Many of the best skills from these essences are focused on support and exclusive to the protagonist. Players focused exclusively on combat will miss out on some fantastic demons that can only be recruited with miracles and a focus on persuading them to join the party.
Among all of the classes inDragon Quest 3,the ones that have the most impact tend to be those that sacrifice combat viability for something else. The merchant is one of the weakest classes in the game combat-wise, but their ability to produce extra gold is a godsend in the early game.
Similarly, the titular Sage, the synthesis of priest and wizard, benefits most from the addition of special support skills to their catalog of spells that can help change the tide of even the most difficult of fights.
Among thehost of familiars availableto the player inNi No Kuni: Wrath Of The White Witch, there are many of them that are focused on dealing damage and taking an offensive stance towards enemies.
The main character, however, doesn’t have this same capacity for attacking in what’s a refreshing change of pace from most JRPG protagonists. Players will have to utilize items, healing, and support skills to augment their familiars instead of relying on pure damage in this game.
Standing alongside some of the best games in the series,Final Fantasy 13and its follow-up title are both fantastic titles from Square Enix that do much to break the mold in terms of how the series functions.
Having characters in the party that can heal, apply buffs or even debuff enemies is vital to combat. Enemies follow a similar tack and will often take turns to boost their power rather than go for an outright attack, and if players don’t keep up, they’ll be overwhelmed early on.
Players do not start off withevery vocation unlockedinDragon’s Dogma 2. Instead, they must take on a variety of quests to unlock the more specialized vocations in the game. Among these specialist roles is the new and unique class of the Trickster.
Easily one of the most novel classes in the game, the Trickster relies on misdirection and illusion to aid in battles, rather than outright damage output. Taking a more supportive role (or debuff-oriented role) to let pawns do the heavy hitting means that enemies are never fighting at their best, assaulted by illusions.
