World of JRPGs

Vaguely in order from worst to best, always referencing the most recent release:

• Baten Kaitis Origins Just worse in pretty much every way compared to the original.
• Super Mario RPG It does show it's age and feels way too simplistic for my taste.
• Pokemon Legends Arceus I loved the first area. In fact I spent so much time there, every other area became boring since I was overleveled and already had most of the Pokemon. Needs some serious balancing.
• Baten Kaitos There is much to be loved as the game does so many things you normally don't see. However, a good chunk of mechanics is best ignored as the game progresses and battles become monotonous.
• Star Ocean Second Story R Kinda a repeating thing this year, the first half was awesome, the second half not so much. Both story and many mechanics took a nosedive.
• Harvestella All around really solid but simplistic. The story goes hard after a certain point and at the end I felt like I finished multiple games.
• Xenoblade X I love everything Xenoblade, but this one has a few problems. E.g. Skells. They don't scale with anything and are so much better than ground combat, they basically drain the RPG elements out of the game once you get them. Beat the entire second half without ever changing my Skell. Also, much more personal, I much prefer the headcanon I built for half a decadd over the new story elements added in the remaster.
• Metaphor A mixed bag. There is so much good compared to Persona 5, but having endless mana regen just completely kills any challange and led to way less thightly designed dungeons.
• Pokemon Conquest I just love SRPGs and having multiple layers and meta progression between dozens of different stories made it perfect to play every so often. Placement is heavily biased, playing a few campaigns with my partner is a tradition for the holiday season. A good chunk of maps is really annoying if you play the game for longer stretches.