I'm looking for the best of the best JRPGs. I've listed many JRPGs I've heard good things about on Sup Forums, could you help me narrow down the list by identifying mediocre games that aren't worth mentioning? Feel free to suggest other great games I may have missed and to talk about anything JRPG related.
- Skies of Arcadia - Panzer Dragoon Saga - Romancing SaGa Minstrel Song - Radiant Historia - SMT Nocturne - Persona 2 - SMT Devil Survivor - Fire Emblem Path of Radiance - Der Langrisser - Growlanser IV - Tactics Ogre LUCT - Valkyria Chronicles - Front Mission 5 - Etrian Odyssey IV - Grandia - LoH TitS - SMRPG - Phantasy Star IV - Lufia II - Suikoden 2 - Mother 3 - Nier - Dark Souls - TWEWY - Castlevania CotM - Ys Oath in Felghana - Seiken Densetsu 3 - Arc Rise Fantasia - Valkyrie Profile - Vagrant Story - Odin Sphere - Terranigma - Treasure of the Rudras - Metal Max Returns - Live a Live - Baiten Kaitos - Mana Khemia
>Panzer Dragoon Saga Decent, not top tier. Overrated by wannabe special snowflakes due to physical copy rarity. >Fire Emblem Path of Radiance Painfully easy entry in babby's second srpg series. >Castlevania CotM Symphony of the Night >Arc Rise Fantasia Mediocre. >Mana Khemia No.
Nicholas White
Xenogears.
Kevin Williams
This list didn't even start with Xenogears, Xenosaga and Xenoblade?
I've lost interest in your thread
Luke Russell
Paper Mario is fairly good. It does a lot of things right and really doesn't screw up anywhere. I tend to use it as a baseline in picking out good RPGs: unless a game does something better than Paper Mario, and unless that something is significant to the game, then I'm not going to bother.
My top JRPGs are both Tactics Ogre games, all three Grandia games, and Suikoden 5. I'd also add Atelier Rorona Plus to your list next to Mana Khemia, for having an improved combat/crafting system even if the main character and story is more disappointing.
I could recommend a number of older titles like Final Fantasy 6 or Front Mission 3. I'm also curious as to why Castlevania: Circle of the Moon is on your list, as most people would certainly not consider it a JRPG. In fact, if you want to make a list of games, you probably want to figure out what exactly you are looking for beyond a vague "best of JRPGs" idea. You'll start getting confusion around titles like Dark Souls, Child of Light, and similar titles otherwise. I mean, does Ogre Battle qualify for your list? Shining Force? Puzzle & Dragons?
Christopher Morris
>both Tactics Ogre games >both
Agreed. Knight of Lodis doesn't get enough lovem
Samuel Russell
If you have Seiken Densetsu 3 on your list then you need to add Secret Of Mana. I haven't played Legend but I hear it's quite different, for better or worse
Lincoln Robinson
Thanks.
Xenogears was OK but also heavily flawed. I'm trying to narrow the list down.
Thanks.
I guess Castlevania doesn't count, I'm just trying to go with the norm and list games that are typically considered JRPGs rather than setting a new definition on my own. Dark Souls and Shining Force would definitely count but I'm not sure about Ogre Battle.
Grayson Diaz
Persona 2 really isn't very good. The plot and characters are decent, but every aspect of the gameplay is awful. They even ruined the usual borrowed SMT elements somehow.
You might look into BoF: Dragon Quarter. It has great combat mechanics, resource management, and character development.
Mana Khemia has really good combat, though it is admittedly unremarkable outside of that.
Henry Miller
I had Golden Sun on my backlog but I'm scrapping it due to the bad feedback I've read on here.
Not sure what to prioritise out of Dark Cloud 2 or Tales Of Symphonia
Hudson Wright
OP. PLEASE. PLEASE PLAY THIS GAME. Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete. Hidden gem, god tier jrpg. One of, if not THE best stories ever told through a gaming platform. Check it out, its my favorite game of all time. When you listed off so many great JRPG's and I didnt see this one, I knew I could help you. PLAY LUNAR 2. 11/10 GOTYAY. I'm not exaggerating.
Andrew Bennett
WHERE'S CHRONO TRIGGER?
Wyatt Collins
>Hidden gem
Your post reeks of false flagging, but everyone knows Lunar.
Aiden Baker
I bought Valkyria Chronicles (and all the dlc I think) during the summer sale but haven't played it yet.
What can I expect?
Colton Adams
The chronicles of a valkyria.
Lincoln Sullivan
Ctrl+f = no lunar, wanted to help OP out. Everyone ought to play Lunar. The musical compositions are exquisite, character development is outstanding, what you think is a story of good and evil is actually a love story. God damn I get teary eyed just thinking about it. Play this masterpiece. then Play it again. Pass it down to your children so that they may be raised in the light, in the benevolent radiance that is LUNAR 2: ETERNAL BLUE COMPLETE.
Kevin Rogers
Path of Radiance is actually very good. Same goes for other games in the Fire Emblem series. Story and gameplay are top notch, if given that PoR is a little on the easy side.
Carter Reed
Dark Cloud 2 is one of those odd cases where no single aspect of the game is all that impressive, but I still really enjoyed it due to the amount of content it has. It would get old pretty quickly if it was just constant dungeon delving, but there are constant amusing diversions like fishing, golf, town building, and inventing.
It's been too long since I played Tales of Symphonia for me to appraise it all that well. I liked it at the time, though.
Oliver Ortiz
>A slime right in the middle of that picture >no dragon quest in the list
user what the fuck are you doing?
Charles Parker
Nice try but I already know that Lunar is the epitome of mediocre unremarkable JRPGs.
Good setting Bad story Good gameplay mechanics Good level design Terrible balance
It's a very fun tactics game (the RPG elements are rather minimal). Eventually you'll figure out how to break it and the game will become super easy. Once that happens you might want to try this mod which will make the game more balanced/challenging/tactical: steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=498442298
The hard mode in Path of Radiance was removed in the western release but there's a patch that puts the english script in the jap version.
Jason Garcia
Oh, and definitely try ARF. Voice acting and wonky story aside the gameplay is amazing.
John Richardson
Dark cloud 2 is great!!
dragon quest 8 is also dank
Jaxson Johnson
Ok i can accept that, but the Xenosaga series is one of the most underrated JRPG series in existence
Joseph Ortiz
All he needs to do is get the undub.
Brayden Sanchez
How is the hard mode? Never got around to trying it out.
Noah Watson
persona 2 has the worst gameplay
also, >cotm >not sotn
Nolan Wood
Disregarded. "when dealing with fools you must learn to accept that they are a part of life, like rocks or furniture." - Robert Greene.
Christian Sullivan
Seiken Densetsu 3 was amazing
Camden Garcia
It's comparable to Radiant Dawn's hard mode. Not perfect, but it's a lot better than the US release's "hard mode" in which your strong characters barely take damage from anything.
Joshua Powell
Don't know too much about JRPGs but Persona 2 is just not a good representation of that series desu
Pick Persona 3 at least if you don't like 4's artstyle
ALSO THIS WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF OVERSIGHT IS THIS
As long as this is for discussion too, is fishing Black Bass a good way to make money in Nier? Trying to grind my way to that sweet 100 percent weapon collection
Gavin Bell
Not OP but since everyone else seems to be shitting on you I'm intrigued
What's the gameplay like? I've seen the game get a lot of praise but I'm not familiar with anything about it other than it's PS1 JRPG #1236
Camden Sullivan
Solid list OP, add Breath of Fire III/IV too. They have neat stories, fun gameplay and great OSTs
Adrian Wilson
All those great games and you put trash like Tits, Persona 2 and Arc Rise Fantasia
Liam Richardson
don't skip grandia 2
Wyatt Murphy
>when you rest for the first time in Etrian 4 and your new skill distribution feels much worse than before fug
James Martin
I'm playing Dark Cloud 2. It's kinda boring so far.
Justin Rogers
The gameplay is familiar, turn based, and easy to get into. The real attraction of the game comes from its charming atmosphere (largely due to the excellent soundtrack) and band of characters, the way the characters are developed and come together over the course of the game, and the storyline itself (which is complemented by the full length anime scenes).
This game is for you is you want to get comfy and enjoy a great story. The game is so charming you will find it hard to put down. Also, it grips you right from the start of the game, there is no warm up period where it takes time to get good, its just excellent all the way through. Did I mention how great the storytelling was? haha. Check it out!
Ryder Gray
i still have all that shit in the picture, in mint condition. what's it worth?
Lucas Thomas
Just got FFVII for the playstation 4, Cloud just crossdressed.
Dominic Evans
I'm playing Digital Devil Saga if only just to groove to this music
Michael Davis
Lunar is distinctive in that you don't directly control the characters in battle. You just give a command (fight, magic spells, etc) and they pick their targets to attack automatically. Characters move around a field so you have some idea of what they'll attack, but you can't always be sure they will gang up on a specific target.
Combat isn't too hard overall, so it's not much of a concern, but it is strange.
The better aspect of the game is the characters, and the localization. The team clearly knew what they were doing, making the characters likable and the dialogue funny. If you've played Grandia, you probably know what I mean. It has more in similarity to the old 80s/90s anime in a game form than scrolling through menus like most JRPGs did for dialogue at the time. It was seriously quite good, although we've seen better after the games came out. (Grandia, specifically.)
Overall, I thought Lunar were some nice games. I certainly wouldn't put them in a top list of JRPGs, but they are charming and certainly worth checking out if you like the genre.
Angel Bell
I should really get back to BOF4. I got lost in the apple woods looking for that faggot mayor and then something else caught my attention and haven't played it in months.
Hudson Peterson
Dont know what you're talking about combat wise, in LUNAR 2 you directly controll the characters (except for a "special" character that I wont talk more about because spoilers). You can use "tactics" which you preset outside of battle. This gets them to battle automatically without having to assign individual commands each battle.
I would agree with the "anime in a game" statement.
Playing through BOF3 now, up to the volcano with floating rock monsters. What should I do? Should I go back and grind some more and learn more spells?
Also playing through FF9, am currently chasing Kuja on his silver dragon to the Tree of Life. Dropped FF8 due to it getting too annoying and uninteresting.
Which Tales game should I start next; Symphonia, Abyss or Vesperia? I've only played a bit of Xillia and thought it was pretty meh overall.
Evan Ward
>You might look into BoF: Dragon Quarter. >It has great combat mechanics, resource management, and character development. This. Definitely one of the best non-traditional JRPGs.
Luke Davis
Symphonia is a very early title, so I'd go with that so you don't feel like you're going backwards mechanics wise.
Grayson Nguyen
>Symphonia, Abyss or Vesperia? If you gave up on Xillia and want to play one of the better Tales games, go with Vesperia. Most people consider it the best, or tied with Abyss. If you warm up to the series from Vesperia, play Symphonia and then Abyss.
Noah Reed
>- Terranigma >- Treasure of the Rudras >- Metal Max Returns >- Live a Live >- Baiten Kaitos Anyone here played these? What'd you think of them?
Jason Rodriguez
I remember when I first discovered emulators an I'd spend every day playing PS1 and SNES games. Now I only get to play a JRPG a couple times a year.
Joseph Cooper
>2 new posts Metal Max Returns plays alot like dragon quest with tanks. they just tell you to make friends and find takes and kick you out into the world to find everything yourself. Loved it
Ayden Sullivan
I prefer ys seven/celceta to felghana
felghana felt a little too simplistic.
Carter Russell
Been playing FFIV on my DS lately. It's great, but it's hellishly hard compared to other FF games and even other versions of FFIV. If you want a good challenge I highly recommend it
Kayden Ward
what was the year that JRPG's wen't down the shitter as a genre?
Colton Jackson
is it actually hard or just requires more grinding?
Lincoln Nguyen
The day FF13 was released.
Nicholas Edwards
Terranigma is great, the plot twist near the end is one of my favorites in the story of vidya, even if the second half of the game is not that good.
Treasure of the Rudras is generic JRPG with a nice spell system.
Live a Live is very experimental, you should try it. Every scenario is very different, very creative gimmicks in most scenarios (expecially the street fighter one). Is one of my favorite games ever.
Angel Ward
...
Jacob Fisher
A lot of the boss fights still put up a fair challenge, even with a decent amount of grinding. You really have to be strategic with your attacks more than anything though, because if you fuck up even slightly you're probably dead.
Julian Allen
They didn't, the devs just stuck to handhelds last gen
Alexander Garcia
You're so deep the fanboy hole it's not even funny. Have some reality check.
Luis Russell
It's a Final Fantasy game where buffs and debuffs matter. The game is pretty brutal but every boss can be killed with strategy. Also grinding takes a lot of time so it's kind of out of question.
Alexander Watson
Okay thanks. I'll try Vesperia first just to see what all the fuss is about.
Dylan Morales
Persona 1 had the worst everything. Persona 2 had terrible gameplay but a fantastic everything else.
Juan Reyes
>no one ever talks about Thousand Arms
I just thought it was a unique idea to have a dating sim built in for enhancing your blacksmithing prowess
Did anyone pick the retarded girl?
Blake Rivera
>has the worst everything except it had the best Persona gathering system and actual dungeon crawling
Evan Robinson
>Have Grand Kingdom still unboxed in my shelf >I have been spending days playing mobile trash and leveling up shitty cards instead of playing GK
Someone please end me this is addictive
Chase Cruz
This
Also where is The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky?
Juan Thomas
Pirate girl all of the day bro Gameplay is shallow and boring, the only saving grace is character interactions
Josiah Sullivan
I picked pic related.
Elijah White
Terranigma has one of the best stories of the SNES rpgs in my opinion. The battle system is fun too but sometimes a bit clunky. I highly recommend it.
Everything is beefed up but I only needed to do some grinding for the end game dungeon. Just look up missable augments because a good amount of them will carry you
Brandon Russell
Learn some more techs and spells in BoF3. You'll always need more of those. Also look around for the Asbestos Armor that's there.
>dropping 8
What'd you find uninteresting about it and how far along into the game are you?
Personally I like Tales of the Abyss the most. If you have a friend, you can do some couch co-op with them. Makes the game a lot more fun that way, even though it's a great game even by yourself.
Austin Collins
>/jrpgg/ is dead
why does vitagen make it a point to destroy everything in sight?
Ian Nguyen
Grand Kingdom is like mobile trash but with actual depth..
Joseph Stewart
Except music and demon variety
Aiden Bell
Innocent Sin was decent as well, though probably the easiest JRPG. It sucks that they removed the fusion spells.
Xavier Taylor
i have played half-way through dark cloud 2 3 or 4 times now without ever finishing. probably dumped near 1000 hours. i can't tell if it's my favorite game or if i just associate it strongly with a positive time in my life and i don't want to progress away from that.
where are you in the game?
Samuel Stewart
desu /jrpgg/ had to die at some point.
Lincoln Peterson
Nothing good comes out of /vg/ honestly. It's probably better to let it go than to let it become shit.
Wyatt Hernandez
>Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky? LoH:TitS
Jordan Murphy
There are plenty of decent /vg/ communities. You just have to remember the golden rule: the bigger the community, the more shit it's bound to be. The smaller ones are great.
Nathan Harris
never played any dq but viii, can someone fill this in for me?
cloud : ff :: ______ : dq
Thomas Thomas
>OP hates Xenogears
whats the point of this thread?
Angel Gray
What?
Jacob Foster
I stopped browsing /vg/ entirely, it's just reposts and reposts. rip /jrpgg/ and /eagg/
Chase Powell
Kharak is burning
Lucas Garcia
The problem with this is that when there's not many posters people tend to shitpost in desperation of keeping the thread alive or force really shitty memes. I witnessed that in many generals. After awhile it gets exhausting. I'm glad I was able to escape from that.
Cameron Reed
Final Fantasy 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 and 12 (8 and 10 suck and are carried entirely by nostalgia, you should already know to avoid 13 like the plague) Breath of Fire 3 and 4 All Dragon Quest games Chrono Trigger and Cross Legend of Dragoon (criminally underrated) Tales of Vesperia Solatorobo Strange Journey Illusion of Gaia Golden Sun 1 and 2 (guilty pleasures) Kingdom Hearts 1, 2 and Chain of Memories (everything else is superfluous and only makes the story more convoluted) Sword of Mana Secret of Mana Seiken Densetsu 3 Legend of Mana
Leo Richardson
xenogears sux
William Mitchell
who in the dq series would be analogous to cloud's popularity in the ff series? that is to say, popularity head-and-shoulders above the rest
Aiden Diaz
Dragon Quest Like holy shit there's a slime right in your picture and you forgot to list Dragon Quest
Charles Adams
Better than Planescape, at least.
Robert Hall
Oh I've been waiting for a jrpg thread
I'm currently emulating Radiant Historia and it seems pretty good as of now but a couple of things I'm concerned about is that it seems too easy doesn't seem to be much customization will it handle the multiple timeline thing well or is it just a gimmick characters seem bland right now
Will these problems get better as the game goes on or will it just be like this? Is it worth a 40 hour playthrough?
Jaxson Perez
I've been replaying DQ8 before DQ7 3DS comes out, and working on replaying Xenoblade (and 100%ing it this time). Almost done with Xenoblade but now Monster Hunter has come again to devour most of my free time.
Hudson Stewart
Are you trying to figure out which Dragon Quest character is most like Cloud? Cause they are all silent protagonists.
Jonathan Richardson
>Learn some more techs and spells in BoF3. You'll always need more of those. Also look around for the Asbestos Armor that's there.
Okay cheers.
>What'd you find uninteresting about it and how far along into the game are you?
It was somewhere around the invasion of Galbadia Garden and I had to fight a 3 headed demon dog. After the novelty wore off after the first disc I just wasn't having any fun with the game, the battle system sucked and all the characters were annoying as fuck (especially the two leads).
Luis Hughes
The slime.
Dominic Thomas
most like cloud in terms of relative popularity to the rest of the series