1: DQ8
2: Not generally a deciding factor for me. I don't hate them.
3: Female armor being basically a mini skirt and halter top.
4: Hyperdimension Neptunia

I guess Battle Chasers counts since its art style is anime inspired. Very good game though a bit short for an RPG.

Does this include the literal "Breast Plate" and "Functionally Naked Armor", or is it specifically?

I think it would definitely apply to the breast plate and functionally naked armor tropes.

I just wanted to chime in that I'm playing Secret of Mana as we speak on Retroarch, and it's glorious. I tried the remake with the new soundtrack, but it just wasn't the same. Nostalgia's a bitch.

Incidentally, the game is much harder than I though as I've gotten wiped twice now in the Earth Palace boss. I need to grind me some magic levels me thinks.

Don't like anime games in general.

That said I tried the Persona series and loved P4 Golden. One & Two (duology) have not aged well in the gameplay department. The duology of two has a good story though. Persona 3 is a close second to Persona 4 in my opinion, edged out with the more lovable characters of P4G. I just... didn't get into Persona 5. It was ok... but I honestly consider it's story to be on the low end of the series and the characters only superior to Persona 1.

Persona 4 was kind of an anime gateway drug in the sense I started looking for more anime games but I have to be honest, I have yet to see a single game that I really want to try. I guess that's the problem of starting with the best. Really? I loved it. I love sci fi and it kind of felt like a Japanese Firefly / Serenity. I tried a few after Persona 4. Loved that game and because it was essentially a merger of JRPG with visual novel I might find something interesting. I was astounded at how badly the average visual novel wastes the reader's time. Every micro action or thought is given excruciating detail. The visual novel will spend paragraphs describing the character's every inane thought on what they should have for breakfast. My eyes bugged out and my jaw dropped reading one as the character kept talking about unimportant inanity and it just kept going and going and going.

Anime is the synthesis and therefore evolution of many different extremes. As anime is based on manga, I suggest that you should begin diving into the history of early manga in order to understand why anime is the way it is.

People mentioned Nier or Yoko Taro stuff in general as something good but all he did was using the subject and dialing up the extremes a little bit. Sometimes the writing is extreme just for extremes sake. Anime is the perfect example of a set of storywriting directives that can be aptly phrased "I write and draw this stuff because I feel like it, here have another big boobed character and now fuck off". Which is why many of these things aren't even questioned.

Of course Anime still has to obey the laws of art. Anime isn't all about extremes. Some of the writers are trying to stuff as many factors inside their creation as they could. The things that Ryukishi07 comes up with is a good example and even he applied the "I do these things because I felt like it". But sometimes its a sort of guilty pleasure to endulge in some extremes, perhaps its why the usually conservative thinking japanese folk like it so much?

Anyway, onward to answer some questions!

1) Muv-Luv (Alternative) (porngame series that subverses the porn in many Visual Novel type of games by being a absolutely fucking disgusting gorefest of flesh, metal and time with a phenomenal story and atmosphere) - After playing that game you will be left with a sort of empty feeling. Fantastic visual novel that I recommend even higher than even Ryukishi07 stuff.
2) Nah, only stuff that I see a sort of metareasoning with. For instance, I've played these Muv-Luv games in japanese because I've wanted to learn the language and I've heard that it was absolutely bloody fantastic, but instead of playing it in english I've tried to understand the game in japanese as well, which took a while. These reasons are things outside of Anime, for that you have dubbings and subtitles. I wanted to play a game called Genshin Impact but I never fully dived into that game, but it sure looks nice.
3) I've never asked that myself. For every trope, you have ways to create something new. Tropes are the result of progress and cliches can be something to think and overcome about. Also the regular approaches to tastes and art apply. The reason why Anime seem to stagnate so much is because the Japanese are usually conservative thinking. Many storywriters don't feel like stepping out and create something new.
4) Hmm...I think Assault Spy is the anime game on GOG that I've spend my most time on. The gameplay is some really, really good ol fun, askin to p+ games. Its also much better than Metal Gear Rising, except for the music of course. Its also made by just one dude.

Worth noting that, as historically a long-time fan of the series, this may be my least favorite. (This is including only main series games, and nothing past DQ9.)

I happen to listen to one particular track of the remake soundtrack (the one that plays in that beautiful late game forest area), and I didn't like it as much as the original music for that area.

(I haven't seen how that area looks in the remake, or seen any remake gameplay, for that matter; I honestly think it would be very difficult to do that area justice from a graphical standpoint.)

The Remake is a bit sad, but at least they nailed it with Trials of Mana. Except Charlotte. But that's because Charlotte was already a problematic character in the OG.

I'm in the final chapter of the game using the Relocalized Patch which was a fresh breath of air compared to the...(Work with me here) Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire styled script and not having access to lowercase letters. And you know, being relocalized so that some elements flow together more naturally.

The remake isn't bad by any means - I think the art work fits the setting, and isn't too lifeless and sterile. The music can be set to the original SNES version, which is great. Alternatively there is of course the orchestral one, which I could grow to like if I wasn't in need of nostalgia.

But the difference between the games is the atmosphere - one seems lovingly handcrafted (especially the pixel graphics) and the other is a piece of software, an exercise in 3d graphical design and coding.

They don't make 'em like they used to.

I really like anime, but I'm not a big fan of anime games, I tried several JRPG, but those games have a lot of grinding and secret encounter that make them repetitive and boring for me, I like more the story when is not beind artificial length....
For me the best among the games I have played is Steins;Gate, visual novel are pure focus on the story and that make it really good. I think the worst topic in anime are the annying characters, there is at least one in every anime, apparently japanese people like this kind of characters, I just tolerate them.

I don't know if what episode this is from, or if it was from the movie, but I saw this somewhere first. I knew I had to try the series after seeing this and it changed my opinion on anime from 'never touch / look at it' to 'give it a chance'.

Don't get me wrong, plenty of tropes in the series I disliked, but I ended up loving the series. This was a LONG time ago (15+ years at least), so not sure if I'd like it more or less nowdays, but rewatching this clip makes me think I'd still enjoy it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Me2Fa0BWOc

Thing is, "grinding" (I don't like the term) hasn't really been necessary in mainstream JRPGs since the SNES days; FF2 US (really a simplified FF4) didn't need it, FF5 didn't need it, DQ5 didn't need it (except *maybe* a little at the start), and JRPGs that followed generally haven't needed any.

You know there's several games that avoid that issue alltogether in favor of alternate systems; games like Soul Blazer which eschew the tedium of turns in favor of active battle.