RNG aside, the Etrian Odyssey Nexus Abyssal Princess fight has been the single most enjoyable fight in any JRPG I've played. Took out notepad to keep track of turns, knew all her moves, kept track of buffs&debuffs and STILL made fight-losing mistakes because I lost track of what move comes next

Finished SaGa Ambitions. The final boss was like a culmination of everything I didn't like about the game. A spammable 95% stunning AoE attack that 2 shot my entire party while outspeeding all of my characters meaning I couldn't stun.

Once I slowed it down, I just spammed stuns until they worked.

SaGa Scarlet Grace somehow managed to emphasize the worst part of JRPGs.
anytime i lose a fight, i just restart and win without changing strategy. your attacks/status hitting, enemies' attacks/status hitting, randomly using new moves that often win fights, special moves that randomly trigger...

just fully finished Darkest Dungeon 2.
it's always great when developers take what they learned from the first game and just improve on it massively.
less rng, way less progression, more decision making, comeback mechanics..
unfortunately easier than DD1 but still, try it if you like turn-based RPGs

5x5 list of my current games i love. tried to include only one game per franchise (no clue what DeFrag is on this list, but i meant the Quake 3 mod)

hardcore nuzlockes of pokemon romhacks might just be the only turn-based RPGs out there with gameplay that properly forces you to engage

played tons of JRPGs and none of them really have that element that forces you to develop consistency and game knowldedge in a way that encourages decision making

Tried playing Expedition 33 without using any parry/dodge real time elements. It feels like an actual game now, who woulda thought.

artcueid.wordpress.com/2025/12/21/g...

Wrote thoughts on the combat system of Expedition 33.