Best JRPGs

[SerratedBiz]

I hope Koudelka is good. I just orderered a fat stack of PS1/2 jRPGs and Koudelka was among them.

I'm a sucker for point-based, open leveling systems and Koudelka is one of the few JRPGs that feature it. I think I replayed it about 3 times for this fact alone. Atmosphere and voice acting are also top notch (which is rare, especially for the latter).

Someone recently bashed Koudelka in one of these threads but it's still one of my favorite PS1 games. Duraframe is right in saying opinions are really divided in this sort of thing.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I'm a sucker for point-based, open leveling systems and Koudelka is one of the few JRPGs that feature it. I think I replayed it about 3 times for this fact alone. Atmosphere and voice acting are also top notch (which is rare, especially for the latter).

Someone recently bashed Koudelka in one of these threads but it's still one of my favorite PS1 games. Duraframe is right in saying opinions are really divided in this sort of thing.

Sounds like it'll be my kind of game, then.

 

[duanth123]

Etrian Oddysey...4 - 4 is noticeably more friendly to beginners of the series.

Don't recommend that piece of shit to him.

• Persona Q - are really fun mish mash of EO and Persona mechanics. Game does assume you have played at least P3 or P4 though.

good man, though I think you could play w/o knowledge of the series. The characters are pretty well sketched out in-game

 

[Talby]

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne plus the Digital Devil Saga games. (1 and 2) Also SMT: Strange Journey on DS if you one one.

 

[Rahdulan]

Suikoden I -> II

Eh, I'll disagree. First game is tighter but mainly because it's relatively short as far as JRPGs go. Sequel expands on it in every way, although I can see how some might dislike the whole "various story arcs after what seems to be a huge buildup ends up resolved by nixing a certain boss" part of Suikoden 2.

 

[GrainWetski]

Suikoden I -> II

Eh, I'll disagree. First game is tighter but mainly because it's relatively short as far as JRPGs go. Sequel expands on it in every way, although I can see how some might dislike the whole "various story arcs after what seems to be a huge buildup ends up resolved by nixing a certain boss" part of Suikoden 2.

I'm fairly certain he was just telling him to play those two in order, not ranking them against each other.

 

[Rahdulan]

Oh. I'm an idiot then.

 

[SerratedBiz]

The second one is actually my favorite and the first one I played due to availability, didn't play Suikoden I until the PSX emulators. But you'll get a lot more out of the sequel if you know about the connections between the characters and plot points as they developed during the first one.

So yeah, it's a one, then the other, obligatory tour de force.

 

[Jacob]

Well, if you don't like random encounters (Which I admit is overdone in JRPGs, two steps in a cave and four mammoths ambushed you out of nowhere), Chrono Trigger has none. Unfortunately that makes the game too easy for me. FF Vi also recommended for first-timer since it has a lot of the cliches and mechanics of JRPG, done right.

Also, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is my personal favorite, if that counts as JRPG.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Another jRPG I like a lot is Guardian's Crusade. It's intended as a babby's first jRPG, but it's not a pushover game by any means. Your main party consists of you, the Knight, and Baby, a baby Dragon. One of the neater features in the game is a lack of an overworld map. Instead the whole game world is one seamless area, excluding the dungeons and houses. It's a pretty impressive thing for a PS1 game. Like I said, it's intended as a sort of introductionary jRPG so its kept simple, but it's still fun and challenging enough. One thing the game does really well is capture the sense of adventure. It's a shame that Tamsoft never made another RPG (that I'm aware of) as it was a very good entry. These days they just make games that pander to the waifu audience.

 

[laclongquan]

Final Fantasy 8 is a good game to start in FF series. 7 is too blocky in graphic, and 9 is weird, an experiment gone not very right in the series.

Could you elaborate that? Compared to FF8 the 9 seems tame to me, with classic combat mechanics and a more down-to-earth-way to evoke big feelings, for example

Spoiler

discovering the graveyard in Vivi's village with its "when you stop functioning you have to hide yourself beneath the ground"

Final Fantasy 9 has a few times change point of view, ie from person A we change to playing person B whose equipment/skill is that of person C. And person B only appear that once, later on retreat to be a normal side character. This occured twice or thrice, with two different Bs.

It's not a bad mechanic if we know before hand on so that we can prepare equipment and skill, but pretty jarring the 1st time we encounter it. A successful application of that mechanic would be Suikoden 3, where we can play the point of view of three different major characters with their respective team.

Also, the childish anime art style doesnt help, because it break from the mature anime art style of all FF games. FF10 and later return to that. I dont have anything against childish anime art style because I did play Legend of Mana, but 9 is jarring to the entire series.

 

[Vikter]

Suikoden series is uneven, but has some personality. Vagrant Story is a great example of JRPG done right. The Shin Megami Tensei series is basically a more casual dungeon crawler with a teenage power fantasy story (except Digital Devil Saga and Persona), so maybe you should be careful with that. Final Fantasy Tactics has a pretty interesting setting and great gameplay.

Personally, I think the Final Fantasy games are the outliers of what you can get from the genre. Many other games just mimic good genres (SMT, Growlanser) or are just bad by themselves (Tales of, Disgaea).

 

[deuxhero]

two steps in a cave and four mammoths ambushed you out of nowhere), Chrono Trigger has none.

Chrono Trigger doesn't have random encounters, but it does have unavoidable enemies ambushing you out of nowhere in lots of dungeons.

 

[Jacob]

two steps in a cave and four mammoths ambushed you out of nowhere), Chrono Trigger has none.

Chrono Trigger doesn't have random encounters, but it does have unavoidable enemies ambushing you out of nowhere in lots of dungeons.

Ah, yes, in some way it's a bit more annoying than the usual JRPG random encounters, since there's no way to avoid them, even though some JRPGs allow you to disable random encounters entirely using abilities (Like Diablos in FFVIII)

Personally, I think the Final Fantasy games are the outliers of what you can get from the genre. Many other games just mimic good genres (SMT, Growlanser) or are just bad by themselves (Tales of, Disgaea).

Can't say for Tales of, but Disgaea is quite enjoyable. FF Tactics with a less serious story. Also, Etna is quite an interesting cartoon character too. And before you call me a pedophile, no, I never masturbated to her.

 

[Rahdulan]

Another jRPG I like a lot is Guardian's Crusade. It's intended as a babby's first jRPG, but it's not a pushover game by any means. Your main party consists of you, the Knight, and Baby, a baby Dragon. One of the neater features in the game is a lack of an overworld map. Instead the whole game world is one seamless area, excluding the dungeons and houses. It's a pretty impressive thing for a PS1 game. Like I said, it's intended as a sort of introductionary jRPG so its kept simple, but it's still fun and challenging enough. One thing the game does really well is capture the sense of adventure. It's a shame that Tamsoft never made another RPG (that I'm aware of) as it was a very good entry. These days they just make games that pander to the waifu audience.

Guardian's Crusade is great and really is an odd little JRPG with a lot of charm to it. I do remember getting annoying if you wanted to collect all the Living Toys because some were relatively obscure, though. Not to mention raising the little piglet dragon works great without game getting really technical about it and dedicating system upon system to make it work.

Suikoden series is uneven, but has some personality. Vagrant Story is a great example of JRPG done right. The Shin Megami Tensei series is basically a more casual dungeon crawler with a teenage power fantasy story (except Digital Devil Saga and Persona), so maybe you should be careful with that. Final Fantasy Tactics has a pretty interesting setting and great gameplay.

If anything Vagrant Story always felt like a black sheep to me, particularly back in Squaresoft's glory days because it was such an odd game in their portfolio of games. Which would explain why it's so overlooked by people considering it had great reception, both critical and from people who played it. It is the kind of game I wish JRPG/dungeon crawler/whatever genre would dare branch out to more often for a really weird game. Just some interface improvements to enable faster gear swapping and it would've been golden.

 

[Vikter]

If anything Vagrant Story always felt like a black sheep to me, particularly back in Squaresoft's glory days because it was such an odd game in their portfolio of games. Which would explain why it's so overlooked by people considering it had great reception, both critical and from people who played it. It is the kind of game I wish JRPG/dungeon crawler/whatever genre would dare branch out to more often for a really weird game. Just some interface improvements to enable faster gear swapping and it would've been golden.

Yeah. It pretty much focused on a weird but functional junction of lore and gameplay, and the fact it forced you to have flexibility and learn how different stuff worked was a breath of fresh air in the JRPG scene. Most popular titles basically had you on a linear progression where as long as you grinded, you would be set forever. Vagrant Story was designed around something more gamey. It suffered some issues thanks to that (and the RISK system), but it was a great idea and I'm glad some JRPGs nowadays drop all pretense of a story and just make a different progression system (Tales of Graces F, Neptunia series, Resonance of Fate).

 

[InD_ImaginE]

From 2 games that you mentioned OP I would assume 2 things appeal to you: 1. Turn based battle 2. No/minimal random encounter

These are not the best JRPG in any capacity, just giving my 2 cent on what you might enjoy. My recommendation, in no particular order:

1. Chrono Trigger: nice story, charming atmosphere and character. Combat is similar to older Final Fantasy title with ATB and all.
2. Chrono Cross: characters are less compelling due to having lot of them but still have an interesting plot and atmosphere. Combat is more traditional turn based.
3. Final Fantasy XII: man I think I will be getting a lot of fire recommending this on Codex but it's actually a pretty nice game. As per Final Fantasy games, enjoyable plot and characters. Combat is somewhat inbetween of turn based with real time.
4. Vagrant Story: interesting system, a bit confusing story. Never managed to finish it in my junior high year beacuse it was darned difficult.
5. Persona 3 & 4: Dull and boring dungeon design, but otherwise have fun combat (be sure to play at least on Hard). Arguably have enjoyable story if you like Japanese/Anime school life drama(humor, angst and all). Have light relationship building element.

And those are games that fly to my mind according to those two factor. Some other games I believe you need to check out:

1. Final Fantasy Tactic (remade in FFT: War of The Lion): great writing, great gameplay. In my opinion, a masterpiece by Square and my No.1 Square game of all time. Combat is grid based turn based though. The sequels (FFT:A) while have some problems are also quite enjoyable.
2. Persona 2 (Eternal Punishment and Innocent Sin): both got random encounter. Writing is very enjoyable and combat is fun.
3. Fire Emblem series: grid based turn based combat like FFT. Combat is simple but enjoyable. Writing is mediocre to good depending on the games. The newest series on 3DS (Awakening and soon to be released Fate) are less tactical and somewhat suffer in writing department but still pretty much enjoyable.

 

[Branm]

Any good ones out for the PS4 yet?

 

[Perkel]

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne plus the Digital Devil Saga games. (1 and 2) Also SMT: Strange Journey on DS if you one one.

SMT Strange Journey isn't great. I have it currently and it does have interesting story but gameplay is rubbish.

It is good game if it is your first SMT game though.

 

[Gentle Player]

Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne plus the Digital Devil Saga games. (1 and 2) Also SMT: Strange Journey on DS if you one one.

SMT Strange Journey isn't great. I have it currently and it does have interesting story but gameplay is rubbish.

It is good game if it is your first SMT game though.

I disliked the Fusion system compared to earlier SMT games, and sorely missed the Press-Turn mechanic from Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga (even Persona 3 and 4's "One More" mechanic would have been welcome) but the dungeons were bloody excellent.

 

[Vikter]

Strange Journey was nice, casual fun, but I was immensely underwhelmed by it. Eridanus has the fame of being incredibly tough and cool, but aside from the music, it was probably the one of the easiest dungeons for me. Even the bosses in that place were underwhelming. The last sector and Mem Aleph, however, were fucking amazing.

That game really needed more exploration, but I guess the limitations of the DS didn't allow for something like a world map or a more intricate way of finding out stuff. Imagine if we could drive that car around the icy continent, manually finding the waypoints to the sectors plus some caves with extra stuff.

 

[Viata]

Strange Journey is hard for people that is not used to that kind of JRPG. The same way people say Etrian Odyssey is hard.

 

[Amn Nom]

Radiant Historia is a must play if you have access to a DS/3DS/Emulator. Chrono Trigger is the recommendation you are going to get from everyone and their brother, didn't care for it myself but it is a good game and worth grabbing on the phone. Final Fantasy 9 is apparently coming to Android at a later date, buy that shit up because its the best numbered Final Fantasy.

SRPGs are something I would strongly recommend looking into. Just a word of warning with this genre; it has two distinct schools of design like WRPGs these days. The old style was in the vein of Fire Emblem which was more strategy based with a cool story on the side. The new style started with Disgaea, which is a grindfest to end all grindfests. Skip the Disgaea style ones because they are trash and not worth your time when better games exist.

If you want a world map then buy Final Fantasy: Tactics War of the Lions for PSP/Android/IOS (5+ inch screen is recommended due to touch controls). If you don't mind going from battle to battle grab My Boy! for your phone and emulate Fire Emblem: Sword of Seals, Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword, Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones, and Shining Force.

For action games I would look into Ys: Origin and Ys: Oath in Felghana on Steam. Really tight controls, great bosses, moves at a fast pace, and some of the best soundtracks in gaming.

 

[aweigh]

haven't read thread yet but here are the best jrpgs in no particular order:

- final fantasy 6 (snes)
- dragon warrior 1 (nes)
- final fantasy 1 (nes)
- dragon warrior 4 (nes)
- secret of mana (snes)
- xenogears (ps1)
- final fantasy tactics / tie / tactics ogre (ps1/snes)
- vagrant story (ps1)
- phantasy star 4 (genesis)
- shining force 1 (genesis)
- final fantasy 12 (ps2)
- persona 1 (ps1)
- shin megami tensei 1 (snes)
- secret of evermore (snes) (fuck you)

oh, that's right, there IS an order... here's the #1 best of all time:

- EARTH BOUND
(SNES)

end of story. there's no point arguing about that.

 

[sullynathan]

I know the codex is torrent friendly, mind helping a brother out with some links?