u/oliverrakum

I'm new to more classic JRPGs, and I wanted an emotional JRPG to play, so I was recommended Suikoden 2, but I decided to play the first one first.

The thing is, I really don't like playing a whole game just to get a fake ending or whatever, and I heard that both games have a true ending, so if a guide is needed or really recommended, I would really like a spoiler-free guide on how to get both true endings.

I always liked the sound of this band, and I love some songs from many of their phases, but other than Pet Sounds (one of my favorite albums ever), I never really tried to listen to a full album or really dig into their stuff.

I started listening to The Smile Sessions since it was recommended by a lot of people, but I didn’t finish it (will 100% come back to it later) because it felt too incomplete (because it is, in fact, incomplete lol, but I'll come back with more of an open mind). While I liked parts of what I listened to, it felt too chaotic and sometimes unpleasant to listen to (amazing ideas, but not polished enough for me to really say I love it).

Maybe some of my favorite songs by them will help recommend something:

Good Vibrations (THE GOAT), Surfs Up, Wouldn’t It Be Nice, Here Today, Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder), She Knows Me Too Well, Disney Girls (1957)

(One that I really liked the good parts of it and how weirdly amazing it sounds was Heroes and Villains from The Smile Sessions, but some parts felt too unpolished, but I was LOVING how experimental it is)

I haven't played many RPGs, but I really like everything I've played so far. I was going to continue my playthrough of FFX (which I was really liking), but some asshole just gave me all the major spoilers, and that actually made me not want to play it right now (I'll play it someday, but I'll give it some time).

The thing that bothers me the most is that FFX seems (from what I heard) the peak of emotional RPGs and nothing compares, and I feel I lost a lot of my first-time, one-of-a-kind experience, so I want something that is as emotionally devastating as FFX, with really good characters and world, something to fill what I wanted from FFX.

Any recommendations are welcome (though I prefer PS1/PS2 era, any platform or company or franchise is welcome).

Might be a stupid question and might have been answered already, but I couldn’t find anything that answered it.

I understand his birth name is Steven Paul Smith, but he used Elliott Smith since it seems to fit better with what he wants to convey or something like that. But that made me wonder: did he use Elliott Smith as his real name, or was that a stage name, like Ringo Starr or Freddie Mercury?