I completed Trials of Mana a few months ago and surprisingly, it completely blew me away. I remember initially only starting it so my sister and I could make fun of the voice acting together lmao but I ended up absolutely falling in love with the game and now I find myself unable to stop thinking about it and itching to return to it, as nothing I've tried playing in the last few weeks have come close to the void beating it left haha. TOTK kept me occupied for a few weeks but now I'm already starting to lose interest with it rip

The story isn't anything special, but gameplay wise it has one of the most addictive, satisfying gameplay loops I've experienced in a long time, almost rivaling XB2 for me. I love the seamless combat transitions (with no seperate battle ost! its a huge pet peeve of mine lol), how bright and lighthearted the overall aesthetic is, the class & magic system, how insanely fun playing Angela is, the MUSIC (hiroki kikuta is an underrated god, to this day im still unable to listen to this track without tearing up), the exploration, and overall I just adore the feel good vibe of the game. In a way the bad voice acting also just adds to the charm in a 'so bad its good way' lol the dub is hilarious. I think my only real complaint with it is that its too short LOL.

Now comes my question, are there any other similar lighthearted, really addictive jrpgs that aren't super story heavy? I know a lot of people will likely reccomend DQ11 and the Trails series, and I've already played both. I'm just not looking for something turn based atm as its harder for me to get sucked in gameplay wise w/ turn based combat systems. For reference, my favorite battle system in gaming is the Xenoblade series (specifically 2), and this battle system reminded me of it a bit which is likely why I connected with it so strongly lol. I've played a ton of ff14 as well, though recently i've gotten bored with how easy and samey all the jobs are feeling so I still have yet to finish Endwalker lol. I've also tried many Tales of games before too and I didn't really care for the combat in any of those either, unfortunately.

The more progression systems and customization options the better! Preferably switch but pc is also fine. Also I'm writing this while on over 48 hours w/ no sleep so sorry if this is super incoherent lmao. thanks all!