What is the BEST long running JRPG series of them all?

What is the BEST long running JRPG series of them all?
Don't even bother mentioning Final Fantasy, even Tales is better.

Final Fantasy

Ys

Dragon Quest

SMT

Dragon Age

SMT

The PS2 years were kinda shit-tier but everything else has been fantastic.

If my choices are FF, Tales, FE, Trails, Atelier and DQ, I'm gonna go with Atelier even though it's been on a bit of a downswing lately.

Pokémon
21 years is long running

rance

The latest one is full of cutscenes and handholding i sold my entire 3ds with it

I forgot this shit is targeted at braindead kids

Disgaea?

SMT if you include Persona.

DQ, Ys, SMT, Disgaea and LoH are pretty much the only choices then. SMT is the series that consistently puts out good games, even the offshoots that aren't Persona are pretty good.
>Dragon Age
>JRPG
Pick one

PS2 era was Nocturne, Persona 3 and 4.
I gotta admit that SMT4 looks better, but why these are shit days?

> cutscenes in my JRPG

oh, the horror

Final Fantasy

That first post raped you hard OP.

SaGa
Megami Tensei
The Legend of Heroes
Phantasy Star

Etrian Odyssey
RIP

tie between SMT and LoH, but the difference is SMT's always been great whereas LoH's been average and only started being great a decade ago

Final Fantasy

Also Digital Devil Saga

Came into this thread to call you retarded. Most JRPGs at least let you skip that shit if you so please.
Doesn't help that Pokémon writing is braindead trash that only /vp/ and children could unironically enjoy.

>SaGa

Truly excellent taste.

You forgot Raidou

What was LoH like before Trails?

They were dated on release

first two games were dragon quest/final fantasy clones.

then the next three games were just painfully average run of the mill JRPGs that weren't specifically bad or had any major faults, but were just really bland and overshadowed by everything else. they were the kind of games you'd play, enjoy, but probably never play or remember again.

While I don't really have an issue with cutscenes, the franchise is really going downhill. I didn't even finish Sun because it got so fucking boring and got rid of gyms.

Final Fantasy

Probably MegaTen. It has more good games than bad ones.

>Don't even bother mentioning Final Fantasy
you're pretty much admitting it's Final Fantasy OP

They weren't awful but felt like recycled games. Only with the Kiseki/Trails subseries did the game really start to become popular, before that it was just a niche series.

this, they were standard, run of the mill JRPGs that were enjoyable but painfully average

but then something just clicked with the Trails games and the series became fucking great.

Because Trails paid attention to details and, while still having a few tropes, wrote a pretty original scenario. Also the worldbuilding is amazing.
This is also the reason why Cold Steel is a little bit less well recieved; more tropey and less worldbuilding. CS2 introducing mechas is a bit foreboding.

Digimon

Cold Steel has the most expansive world-building of the entire series though. It was less well received because it was a high-school setting and embraced tropes even more than Sky did.

>CS2 introducing mechas
There's mechas/humanoid robots in Sky (Pater Mater the Reveries) and in the Crossbell games, having pilotable mechs in cold steel wasn't completely out of the blue or an asspull.

and the Reveries*

I know that pilotable mechs weren't out of nowhere but it feels like a gimmick that didn't have any place in the game.
Also you're right, but the setting/tropes overshadowed the worldbuilding. It feels like more of a typical anime game that Trails in the Sky does.

The mech battle system itself felt really shoe-horned in and halfassed but I didn't feel the concept of mechs was out of place. They foreshadowed it quite a bit. In a setting where a good chunk of the enemies you fight are robots (archaisms) it didn't seem that bad desu.

>The PS2 years were kinda shit-tier
>SMT shit tier during the PS2 eras
Are you fucking retarded? The PS2 was the golden age of SMT

All I meant by my comment was the ladder part of your post. It felt gimmicky and poorly executed.