I think Kain was referring to the '
Doom & Destiny' series completely on its own. I've never heard of it. But now that I've checked their
Steam pages of the
Italian-made games that even though they're built on the RPG Maker I'd hazard a guess to say that they look different enough to the sea of samey RPGMaker games and are totally worth playing. Yeah I kinda agree with you on the Half-Minute Heroes series (1st on the PSP then PC). They'd first need to be played before a judgment is being passed on them. I've never played them but don't feel them to be authentic JRPGs, it's just like your crack semi-JRPG fix.
And, oh, also as SylarDean specifically said to AVOID the CRPGs (Computer RPGs) he MEANS the Western-style RPGs made mainly on the PC AND ESPECIALLY made by the Western developers. Those games are fantastic and I warm more to them than the recent 3D linear JRPGS from Japan such as the Final Fantasy games (PS2-3 games). BUT they AREN'T JRPGs in any way at all! So, no Dragon Age's (Canadian dev Bioware of Baldur's Gate' fame), Gothic's/Risen's (German) nor Witcher's (Polish). I'm happy with SylarDean's focus to keep his PC game for the games that are either JRPGs or similar in feeling to that genre only. Not to make it even more cumbersome by the vast amount of quality CRPGs from the 1990's to this decade! Coz the PC JRPG list is obviously much smaller! I don't know about Kingdoms of Amalur, are you sure? It was from a then-defunct RTS maker Big Huge Games (or its former staff. It was meant to be a MMORPG but then changed midway to be a RPG so it suffers from having lots of grindy quests, mediocre textures and overall quality.
I haven't heard of
Labyronia. *Ah-choo! It's just another mediocre RPG Maker series that I wouldn't bother to play at all!
Also, good news, SylarDean, the Kickstarted SRPG project 'Arcadian Atlas' has been ported over to the Unity engine, thus demonising forever its previous bogged down RPG Maker engine! But you said not to include any tactics RPGs
. Also you can check some other successful projects on my Kickstarter thread somewhere here for good examples to include in the future if you like. As always it's there!
Thanks, Kain, for mentioning the Legend of Heroes titles (I hadn't remembered them now) and at my wondering, '
Breath of Death VII' & '
Cthulhu Saves the World' from the same dev. That dev, Zeboyd Games, is soon going to release '
Cosmic Star Heroine' (custom engine definitely, NOT a RPGMaker engine, dude!), which looks kind of like Pier Solar. Keep it on your radar. Also the later
Precipice episodes which I wasn't sure of why he didn't already add it.
Did you know that a full English patch for the beautiful Japanese-made '
Wizardry Chronicle' has been released late last month?! Now the same team members should be working on a full patch for '
Wizardry Empire: Ikoshie no Oujo' (Princess of the Ancient).
I'd also mention that
'Lunatic Dawn: Passage of the Book' has also gotten a recent new full English patch. But given its ugly array of tiny windows-driven management that'd be enough to turn us off away from it. It also unfortunately isn't available digitally unlike the first 3 Lunatic Dawn PC games & Book of Futures. '
LD: Book of Futures' also has its own recent full patch too and is available on Japanese Steam which means everybody with an international Steam account should be able to access it. It's also similarly ugly. The first 3 LD games do look better organized and therefore sweeter on the eyes - they're also on Steam. But unfortunately the first 2 can't be cracked due to their compression format. A team is working on the 3rd, though.
Which reminds me, Spiderweb Software has a range of indie deep isometric CRPGs like the Avernum, Avadon and Geneforge series. But they're probably too Western like the older Ultima & western Wizardry games &, um, I don't want to play them. Huge time-sinks and too cheap feeling compared to Bioware & Black Isle's Infinity Engine games.
'
Lords of Xulima' is also on GOG. Several '
Hyperdimension Neptunia' games (kinda ecchi unless we want to avoid including them on a purely ecchi-free basis!) are on Steam & at least one of them on GOG. Your list is very clever and well-researched. I like their release dates. I haven't heard of several titles like Adventures of Scarlet Curiosity, Saturday Morning RPG, The Amber Throne (very new but I think it's atop the RPG Maker engine but well-shrouded) and Trulon I shall give SOME of them a look/play. Also since you seem to like 'I Am Setsuna' better than the average reviews I may well give it a go. A South Park sequel is imminent too.
Head up Games is putting a lite Zelda-like game '
Windscape' on Steam Early Access. Looks promising.
* ADDENDUM: I also checked your anime zone page yesterday after checking your new, lovely PC Zone page and I don't know why, but I should have come across it again recently as I was researching the various anime streaming websites that are sorta in a legally gray area to catch episodes of the older anime shows. But your Chrono Trigger OVA link doesn't work. However the many other web-links from there are lovely and I didn't know that you'd willingly link to some of those anime streamers including one site that I hadn't come across before. Also don't forget to add in the
Princess Minerva OVA (I think you first told me about it before) as well as the Demon Child Zenki series and Hyper Iria shortened anime/OVA. Check the Youtube links I've got for the latter in the Hyper Iria sub-forum here.
* ADDENDUM 2: Ah, your Anime Zone says that those animes are only related to all the SFC/SNES games listed in your web-zone. Well, perhaps a case could be made for you to create a separate & simpler category underneath for the animes tied to those RPGs that have no English dub nor subs. Also perhaps make a non-RPG listing.
* ADDENDUM 3: Never mind Deathspank. I've tried it. It quickly gets boring and repetitive. It is only a slight parody of other action RPGs like Diablo & Torchlight but even these hardcore examples are better and Torchlight's cartoonish visuals LOOK A WHOLE LOT better than the art style of Deathspank, which isn't that great to look at. There is NO story to speak of and it's full of fetch quests and even the humour is low-rate. There are plenty of better ARPGs to try, so forget about Deathspank. It is in no way close to the JRPG style of gaming that you're looking for. I'm going to uninstall it enthusiastically.