JRPGs to begin/explore/understand the genre

[Red Rogue]

Hey Codex,

For most of my RPG career I have been focusing on games from Western developers. Well recently I decided that I want to explore some RPGs from Japan. I have very little experience in this genre and I was curious what the "Must play" genre defining games are.

You know, the all time greats. The games that people get seriously offended when someone says they haven't played them.

I did a bit of research, and I bought Chrono Trigger (The DS version) to play on 3DS. I made this choice because I was told that it's relatively easy, has a compelling story, and can be completed in a meager 25-30 hours (alongside claims that it is perhaps the greatest created from many)

What I come to you today for is suggestions on where I should go next. I have played : FFX , FFXV, FF8, and Chrono Trigger I suppose. I've heard FFVI is probably one I need to experience?

Sorry for the ignorance.

 

[Matador]

If you like good combat, nice atmosphere and music, and want a challenge, you should try Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne, or if you want to play something alike on 3DS pick Shin Megami Tensei 4. Don't play those for the story.

 

[CryptRat]

FFVI is a very good choice. I'd add SMT : Nocturne. Maybe Earthbound as well, it's not particularly deep but it's a cool game.
We had similar discussions here and there. It may be useful.

 

[Malpercio]

Chrono Trigger is excellent and perfect for beginners.

 

[GelGel]

I think Radiant Historia would be a logical step after Chrono Trigger.

 

[---]

Chrono Trigger is excellent and perfect for beginners Chrono Trigger is all you need to play, man.

Better.

 

[Hyperion]

Final Fantasy 6*
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together*
Final Fantasy Tactics*
Vagrant Story*
Shining the Holy Ark*
Shadow Hearts: Covenant*
Secret of Mana
Seiken Densetsu 3
Dragon Warrior VII (PS1 version)*
Guardian Heroes
Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen*
Ogre Battle: Person of Lordly Caliber*
Lost Odyssey
Lufia I / II (SNES version)
Grandia I / II
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen*
Breath of Fire I - III
Final Fantasy IV
Der Langrisser
Gemfire*
Valkyrie Profile I and II*
Suikoden I - III
Legend of Legaia
Legaia: Duel Saga
Vandal Hearts

Watch some footage, take your picks. Marked with asterisks, are, imo must play. There are plenty more.

 

[---]

^An excellent list, indeed.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Seeing how you have a 3DS, I recommend you give these titles a look:

The Dark Spire
SMT: Strange Journey
SMT4
SMT4 Apocalypse
SMT Soul Hackers
Devil Survivor Overclocked
Persona Q
All of the Etrian Odyssey releases starting from the 3rd one (1 & 2 were remade and are superior to the original ones)
Crimson Shroud

You can also check out Dragon Quest 7 and Legend of Legacy. Though I personally did not like them very much, many people find them enjoyable and so they are worth a look. Legend of Legacy at least has a frog knight as one of the main characters, which is always incline in my book.
I'm not recommending Monster Hunter because they're not jRPGs, but still excellent games you should check out.

As a general rule of thumb you can pick up just about any Atlus RPG and expect it to be, at worst, a good game. At best it'll blow your mind.

 

[SCO]

I honestly can't even muster enthusiasm for this topic. As should be evident from the range of responses 'jrpgs' is a artificial label. Without you mentioning what actually interests you (small example: overworld, character text mutability, tactical combat, rtwp, phase based or turnbased, objectives beyond opponent extermination, puzzles, pokemon-itis etc) any recommendation is coming from a implicit 'what i like is better than everything else in the genre'.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Yeah it's hard to pick out genre defining examples besides CT, FF and Dragon Quest series. And even those vary quite a bit, especially later iterations. And just because they define the genre, doesn't mean they're good games. The best ones tend to tweak the formula at least a bit- Romancing SaGa series, Pokemon, SMT, Star Ocean 2, Breath of Fire are all excellent games or series that tend to have at least one really weird aspect compared to the usual 4-5 man party turn based dungeon crawler with equipment and mp and save points. Hell, even Chrono Trigger isn't actually turn based, really.

But for what it's worth, this'd be my shortlist in order:

Lufia 2
Chrono Trigger
SaGa Frontier
Final Fantasy 5

The common theme is lots of exploration to be had, like secret treasures hidden behind waterfalls or secret passages, sidequests, optional dungeons and the like.

 

[Keldryn]

To really understand JRPGs as a genre, you definitely need some Dragon Quest titles in there. Dragon Quest V is one of the must-plays in the series (was remade on the DS, as were IV and VI).

And Dragon Quest's DNA can be directly traced back to Ultima III and Wizardry.

 

[Don Peste]

Anachronox and Okage.

 

[boot]

What is it that you want to understand? Just play the games, SNES has a large rpg library so comb through that and pick what most peaks your autism.

As a TRUE CONNESSIUER of rpgs I will say for your edification jrpgs are more 'gamey' and more rigidly conform to standards of their time. The heroic spirit of anime can be detected in many of their works, and they don't have much pretense about any of this shit. They're making toys for children (all Japanese are children). Mechanically, it took them a long time to depart from Wizardry (play that) but now jrpgs have some variance here, even if it's often gimmicky and superficial.

Their approach to game-making seems much more innocent and honest than Western devs. No gay elf sex, no Aerie with a baby(!) in her inventory, just fun games, cool games, never forgetting that it's a game. No cuck glasses wearing man babies poisoning the work. Only regard politics when it may actually affect profits (I remember reading about the Streetfighter dev who told feminists and white knights to "fuck off, the delicious big boobs and camel toe were staying in game, you are not even fans of the genre!!!" How refreshingly TRUE!)

Japanese developers will be the salvation of the rpg genre. The jew fears the samurai. Play Dragon's Dogma.

 

[Ash]

Funniest post I've read on the codex.

I've been a bit out of the Japanese gaming loop of late, but there's been a big decline there too it seems to me. And now that they have good graphics they get to render detailed animu waifu and no longer focus on gameplay as much.
But yeah, a lot of Japanese devs clearly make the game they want to make without pandering and dumbing down excessively. Their culture is heavily based in honor and avoidance of shame, after all. But in the past decade a number of their AAA studios have sunk as low as western if my perspective is not wrong. Suare-Enix can suck a dick at the very least.

Nonetheless I'm currently looking forward to and have faith in more JRPGs that are in the works than western.

 

[SionIV]

Final Fantasy 9 is the best one in the series (in my opinion). It has a wonderful world, very unique and flavorful characters and the atmosphere is amazing. It also brings Final Fantasy back to its earlier roots, going away from the 'realistic' tone in Final Fantasy 7 and 8.

Top 5 Final Fantasy.

Final Fantasy 9
Final Fantasy 6
Final Fantasy 7/8
Final Fantasy 7/8
Final Fantasy 10

Dragon Quest 8 is a wonderful game and one of my favorite JRPG.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

What I come to you today for is suggestions on where I should go next. I have played : FFX , FFXV, FF8, and Chrono Trigger I suppose. I've heard FFVI is probably one I need to experience?

If you're looking for JRPGs meaning a distinct subgenre of RPGs, then you should play FF VI, FF IV, FF IX, and Planescape: Torment.

On the other hand, if you're looking for RPGs made by Japanese developers, then remove Planescape: Torment from that list and add Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, Demon's/Dark Souls, King's Field IV (a.k.a King's Field: The Ancient City), and any number of Wizardry-likes (examine aweigh's lists).

 

[Machocruz]

Once I started playing western CRPGs, I hardly ever went back to Jap games accept for action RPGs, which they have always done better imo. But "must play" games are very few and far between in any genre, and much of it is based in obsessive nostalgia and childhood emotions, and that along with the gaming "community" (i.e. forums and the media) being a fishbowl and echo chamber, means consensus is dubious evidence of a game's quality. Might as well play what looks interesting to you, as many of them share so many design traits, by playing one you will understand many others. Then it just becomes a matter of flavor, like do you prefer Breath of Fire 3's world or Dragon Quests 4's? Having said that, my short list of ones I would still make time for today:


Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne (actually tactically demanding, inspired visual style)
Final Fantasy V (The Job System - the greatest character system in JRPGs)
Dragon Quest 3 or 4 or 5 (Because sometimes you just want a solid, fundamental RPG experience)

Play the first two and you will have played two JRPGs more interesting than 98% of the rest in terms of actual play, and along with the third, archetypal enough that you will understand the genre in broad strokes. Then I suggest you just move over to tactical/strategy RPGs unless you really dig overworld roaming.

 

[Red Rogue]

Final Fantasy 6*
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together*
Final Fantasy Tactics*
Vagrant Story*
Shining the Holy Ark*
Shadow Hearts: Covenant*
Secret of Mana
Seiken Densetsu 3
Dragon Warrior VII (PS1 version)*
Guardian Heroes
Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen*
Ogre Battle: Person of Lordly Caliber*
Lost Odyssey
Lufia I / II (SNES version)
Grandia I / II
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen*
Breath of Fire I - III
Final Fantasy IV
Der Langrisser
Gemfire*
Valkyrie Profile I and II*
Suikoden I - III
Legend of Legaia
Legaia: Duel Saga
Vandal Hearts

Watch some footage, take your picks. Marked with asterisks, are, imo must play. There are plenty more.

Well first of all, I'd like to say thank you to everybody who took the time out of their day to respond to this thread. You could have all castrated me for my dopey naivety, but you didn't and provided very helpful insight which I appreciate. I can't personally respond to everybody, but I'll just respond to this post because there seems to be a sort of informal consensus based on brofist

I'd also like to apologize for not thoroughly searching the site for similar threads. Both this thread and the others have been added to my saved webpages.

To clarify, when I said "JRPG" I meant less of "RPG from a Japanese developer" and more of "JRPG as a design choice or sub genre of RPG". For example, something like Dark Souls was not a recommendation I was looking for as I don't enjoy the soulsborne games.

I think that going forward, I will likely play FFVI next. After that, I will look into the SMT series as many seem to have strong words about them here. Dragon Quest is a franchise I certainly wanted to try, but I was mainly considering DQ7 or DQ8. After doing a bit of googling, DQ7 and DQ8 are usually 80+ hour undertakings. By contrast, the codex praised DQV is a manageable 40, so I will most definitely be doing that. Some other titles I will probably play are Lufia, Ogre Battle, FFV, FFIX, and....

Last question before I leave you fine folk alone: Is Persona any good? I thought that was one of the best franchises but it didn't get a lot of mention. Is the upcoming Persona 5 expected to be good?

 

[boot]

Persona is shit

Spoiler

 

[SCO]

How many times have we had this thread? I've lost count.

We repeat it because the subforum hasn't got a sticky for this. Don't sticky this one mod person reading this. Leave it for a better planned thread which won't be made by me.