Hey guys,
I thought you could possibly offer me some advice. I haven't played a JRPG in a really long time, and I haven't played many of them at all over the course of my life. My JRPG experience is limited to Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast, adored it), Grandia II (Dreamcast, adored it), Baten Kaitos (Gamecube, finished but didn't like), Tales of Symphonia (Gamecube, didn't like, didn't finish) and Eternal Sonata (Xbox, didn't like, didn't finish). Don't try to recognize a pattern there, I guess I simply got sick of the genre pretty quickly.
But now I feel an itch for it again. So I'm wondering where to start. The three candidates that seem the most appealing to me here are
1) I am Setsuna, because it seems like a nice little throwback to the two JRPGs I actually enjoyed
2) Persona 5, because it's getting amazing scores and seems to be the freshest way possible to experience the genre
3) Final Fantasy XV, because I've never played an FF game and I'd like to experience a blockbuster-like JRPG that's said to be (or at least marketed as) easily accessible for new players
So what do you guys think, or recommend? Where does a guy who fell out of love with the genre try a fresh start?
What I can say is that I'd prefer not to have endless grinding sessions, killing enemies over and over again in random encounters to collect enough exp to beat the next boss. I wouldn't really like randomized dungeons either. And not too much dragging and cliche-ridden dialogue would be good. A great story would be welcome, too.
While writing this text it kinda dawned on me that the answer might actually be I am Setsuna (even though I don't have a clue about grinding and randomness and dragging and cliches in this one), but I'd still like to hear some opinions from experienced fans of the genre, some stuff I can't get from the reviews that are out there maybe.
EDIT: Oh, I'm playing on PS4, so yeah.. no 3DS recommendations please. :p