• Yakuza 8 infinite wealth: I had a lot of fun with it, platinum it. Story is a bit wonky but Ichiban and Kiryu in the same team is very hype. My favorite this year. I don’t like their dlc structure.
• FF7 Rebirth: pretty fun but it has flaws. The story is… something, but the gameplay offers a lot. It still feel like there’s a lot of missed opportunities. Hard mode is not fun.
• Dragon Quest 3 2dhd: it was fun at first but I really had to force myself through the last section of the game, it went on for too long. Didn’t try to do the bonus content, DQ is just not my jam.
• Live A Live remaster: I love this game, very pretty, but I almost feel like I like the snes version better because I can fast forward the bad parts. My #2.
• Octopath Traveller 2: I didn’t get very far, the gameplay loop felt too similar to the first game, the stories didn’t drag me in. Pretty though.
• Clair Obscur Expédition 33: I’m struggling with it. I don’t like the dodge mechanic, it has way too much impact during battles, but I understand why people love it.
• Eiyuden Chronicles: currently playing through it on Hard Mode. The story is predictable but that doesn’t stop me from enjoying it. It has a lot of charm, especially the characters. So far my #3.

Grandia series. I’m partial to the leveling systems but the battle system is fantastic. There’s ATB, field movement, charged attacks/magic incantations that can be canceled, a light combo system. I just love it

Yes it’s proportional, someone with 16 SPD will act twice as often as someone with 8 SPD. Of course turn order is affected by other things like charge skills and status effects, but having crazy speed (it caps at 99) will allow you to have like 8 turns in a row. It’s broken and available from the start.

I’m lazy and I like to have Ramza buff himself by switching his AI to protect himself. Expect Ramza to level up a lot with this strat

You can earn JP in random battles. Yell increases a character’s speed by 1 during the battle, but it stacks. After using it a few times, Ramza will play multiple turns in a row.

He has another skill that does the same, but for strength. It’s very cheesy but it will make you win fights.

Ramza has an ability called Yell or Tailwind (depends on the version you’re playing) in his default class. Spam it on himself and enjoy the cheese

I also really liked them, novellas included, except book 6. That one just didn’t work for me (and apparently for quite a few people), and I ended up reading a summary.

Since books 7 to 9 aren’t included in the show, they’re worth reading just for the continuation and conclusion of the series.