Awesomest JRPGs

Not sure what this forum is about, but I think it could use this list:



EDIT: the numbers next to the first represent "hours to complete". The range goes from main quest only, to main quest + some extras. The other numbers on the right are the number of votes on Gamefaqs, to give an idea of popularity (since less known games tend to be rated higher).

It covers mostly stuff from the SNES and PSX, with some PS2. Things like FF 13 only used as reference. The only recent RPG that could belong to that list is Xenoblade, that's rated at 9.1. There are also some DS games as they are still close to classic JRPGs.

The numbers are just used to give it an order and taken from Gamefaqs. They usually give a good idea of general reception.

I'm always curious about what's the "longest" RPG ever, considering only time to complete once in a average playthrough. As far as I know the longest should be Dragon Quest 7 & 8, Persona 3:FES, Tales of the Abyss, Star Ocean 3 and Xenogears. All of these at 60+ hours.

Anything that is not on the list and that it is worthy?

(the list should also have Ar Tonelico 2, but the official translation is known to be crap, and the fan patch is not yet released)

I haven't played most of these, so I can't really judge. I'm not the best judge of gameplay, either, considering my favorite JRPG is Avalon Code, which has an amazing detail and plot, but the romance stops being interesting in the post-game and the Book of Prophecy is very unwieldy once you start having to juggle codes. Kind of surprised to see Tales of Symphonia isn't on that list, though, considering it's more or less the top selling game in the series. The battle system in Tales of Vesperia is nice, too, I think, but the plot is kind of polarizing... And Tales of Innocence doesn't have an official English translation and the story didn't expand on the characters Hermana and Ricardo during the main plot as much as it could have, so I guess that's why it's not on that list.

Besides those games, yeah, really not the best judge over here, haha~

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter is the best JRPG.

Out of those I've played 19. Some were amazing but others I absolutely hated. It's nice to see Tales of the Abyss there as it's one of my all time favorite video games ever. I wonder why Tales of Graces isn't on there too.

I also really love Shining Force (my first srpg) and Baten Kaitos, but both those games probably aren't most people's kind of thing unfortunately.

Also Devil Survivor 1 was much much much much much (need I go on?) better than Devil Survivor 2.

The GameFAQs data is constrained by the fact some landmark games were not popular in the West for various reasons. Just off the top of my head:

For the SMT family, you mentioned Persona 3 & 4, but none of SMT 1 & 2, Persona 1 & 2 and Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2 are on the list, and these 7 games are considered to have the best writing in the series. There's also the Devil Summoner branch, which is more focused on gameplay. The SMT games form a vast interconnected multiverse, which should be right up your alley. (Reference link: M. Petersen's MegaTen Primer)

The list has Bahamut Lagoon, but not some other Square SNES games more popular in Japan, and not even one game from the more experimental and quirky SaGa family (the SNES Romancing SaGa series is especially beloved in Japan; the more recent Last Remnant is excellent, and is a SaGa game in all but name).

Another venerated SNES series is the Terranigma trilogy.

For other relatively cult games, I can think of the Lufia series, and the post-apocalyptic tank-driving Metal Max series.

More recently, Falcom's Legend of Heroes/Trails series has risen to become another popular RPG property, though of the Trails series, only the first Trails in the Sky has been localized into English. (Personally I prefer Legend of Heroes 3-5 "the Gagharv Trilogy", which English versions are completely butchered by the machine-level translation.)

Disclaimer: I've played very little JRPG, all these info are gathered from time spent reading video game forums and articles.

EDIT: Why the hell is FFT and Devil Survivor on the list, when most other tactical RPGs are not? Proper inclusion of tactical RPGs would at least double the length of the list.

EDIT 2: I forgot the Mother / Earthbound series.

I agree. I have a huge weakness for SRPGs and I'm miffed that some, like disgaea or Fire Emblem, aren't included.

As for long JRPGs, I've played for over a 100 hours in some games. Nocturne, for example.

As for plot, I immensely enjoyed Digital Devil Saga, Suikoden series, and others that I can't think of off the top of my head. I'm pretty much a JRPG fanatic, (though some may say that's wrong as I have NEVER played a Final Fantasy game.)

As far as that list goes, I disagree with the placing of many of those games, that I would rant about, if given the time and space.

Good point. I remembered that when I was checking the just released translation of Tales of Phantasia (PSX) they seemed to hate Symphonia to the point that they didn't even want it mentioned. I checked again and it seems that the one hated is the sequel on the Wii sharing the title, and not the one on the Dreamcast. On Gamefaqs Symphonia has a 9.

Mostly because I was listing the classics or classics-inspired. And Grace is on PS3 and too new.

Too ancient to be really relevant. I should probably add Persona 1 & 2 but I was always confused about the version since they've been remade. About Digital Devil Saga I thought the others already better represented the series, maybe I'll add them.

Bahamut Lagoon has a translation patch. I don't know about the others.

I listed those with some classic connection. I didn't wan to add the list specialized series or Advance Wars. I should probably add Tactics Ogre though.

Woo! SaGa respect!

Mother trilogy are the best JRPGs, period.

If you're including DS games, you should also have The World Ends With You.

Ah, right! I forgot about TWEWY for a second there. And it's a shame, since I have it amongst my few, favorite games.

And, although not groundbreakingly good, Radiant Historia is a fun, endearing JRPG made by Atlus.

All I saw is that there's an Etrian Odyssey on that list so I am ready to give it my stamp of approval.

I'm honestly quite surprised that Strange Journey made the list. Not that I didn't enjoy it, but I found the plot...lacking. Though the battles and the side-quests were pretty fun.

Why did they put the Legend of Mana and the Secret of Mana on there but not the Sword of Mana? That was a great game (by the same people who made Mother 3).

Persona 3 Portable is better than FES, imo.

TWEWY was really really good. It got me back into playing JRPGs. There were a lot of great RPGs on the DS, in fact; Magical Starsign, Radiant Historia, Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, TWEWY, Solatorobo...

Why aren't the Golden Sun games up there?! Those were two of the greatest games on the GBA.

The fact that Terranigma is not on this dissapoints me.
The fact that there are three Seiken-games however,makes me happy.
Along with Breath of Fire-games and Suikoden.

Shadow Hearts and Shadow Hearts: Covenant are not on that list, therefore the list is a lie.

also Vesperia.

The diehard SMT fans would vehemently disagree. Unless you've conflated the SNES Shin Megami Tensei 1 & 2 with the NES Megami Tensei 1 & 2, which are indeed too ancient to be relevant. :-)

It's simple, Persona is one game, and Persona 2 is divided into 2 games. All 3 have been ported to PSP. But as the article I linked said, their gameplay feels particularly outdated today.

My impression is that all major Square SNES RPGs have translation patches, and even if there're any incomplete ones, they'd be more than 90% complete. I might be wrong.

EDIT: About SRPG, I suppose you can use whether the game has random battles as criteria, which would exclude most SRPGs with fixed number of battles.

I really liked Brave Story: New Traveler for the PSP myself. The voice acting wasn't the best and the story was clichéd, but its gameplay made for the most fun I've had in an RPG since games like Persona 3 and 4.

Y'know, I actually really, really liked FF XIII. It's probably my second favorite FF next to Tactics.

so this will be fun to admit in this forum:

FF13 remains the only Final Fantasy I've ever finished.

Why's that?

Not familiar with SMT, but I'd definitely call MOTHER relevant, and it's up there with Dragon Quest as being emblematic of the Clunky NES RPG. Being kinda grindy and obtuse by modern standards doesn't mean that a game can't be worth playing!

As far as I know Nocturne is long but not overly so. It should be around 50 hours but not more. So I guess you're counting different playthrough (I know there's an optional dungeon)?

Well, you could. The placing simply depends on Gamefaqs votes but the order is more or less the same that would make sense. I love reading about this stuff so you could definitely go in detail.

I wanted to stick with classics and Japanese. I know both are Japanese but are done in a Western flavor. So I simply arbitrarily decided that they wouldn't fit. Those I listed are mostly fantasy settings.

I never heard about Sword of Mana, but I look it up on Gamefaqs and it is given 7.3, so not really belonging here. I'm not trying to list ALL JRPGs, just major or relevant ones. It tries to be a comprehensive list, but not a complete one.

I'm not sure what the point of the arbitrary divide based on setting is?

And TWEWY is as Japanese as you're going to get, so, uh...

List updated with some more inclusions.

Shadow Hearts not added because I have a grudge that the Director's Cut isn't available even as a fan patch.

Well, SMT games really don't have much of a fantasy setting.

I agree. TWEWY is a game that's saturated in japanism. Not all RPGs have fantasy setting, and Mother is arguably in a fantastic setting. RPGs can be incredibly diverse some times. I've played an RPG centered around Soccer! (and it works, the battle system is interesting)

Hey, does anyone know why Devil Survivor 2 is better than one? I haven't played two, yet, but I've heard opinions that suggest the contrary.

You're joking right? I found Dragon Quarter the worst RPG I ever played, being forced to restart the game a lot of time to finish it was an horrible idea >__>

Anyway, I'm happy that there is Grandia in the list. Especially the first one is an amazing game, and the combat sistem is one of the most interesting in my opinion.
I also love the Megaten franchise but I had the chance to play only a some of them: Persona 2 Innocent Sin, Persona 3 Portable, Digital Devil Saga, the first Raidoh Kuzunoha, Devil Survivor and Strange Journey and I found the last one particularly interesting (the whole thing of the demons that mimic our consumistic society really makes you think) and I'm really eager to play Lucifer's Call.
Also lately I'm "recovering" the Wild Arms series, and the first one was really good. The second one is boring as hell though.

Updated the list again. No new games but I added length in hours for each game, as a kind of average.

As suspected the longest RPGs are Dragon Quest 7 & 8, Persona 3 & 4 and Xenogears.

Personally, I thought the combat and difficulty was a lot better paced in DeSu 2. It also felt like it was fair when it was difficult, whereas I tended to feel cheated in DeSu 1 (though that could've been because I was shitty at srpg's at the time). As far as story and such goes, DeSu 2 was a lot more optimistic, so maybe people preferred that.

Well like FH said, the combat system and pacing was a lot more fair (read:easy) and balanced. Experience is shared among all party members and not just the ones you fight with (thank gods) and there are a lot of small, neat things that make your life a lot less troublesome than the first, such as a shared skill crack you can get at some points.
My problem with the story of the second game is that the game kinda clashes it's own tone sometimes... oh, and it's pretty much Neon Genesis Evangelion, except the ending isn't ridiculous... well, maybe it is, depending on who you ask. I get that the plot of the first game might not have been the most original thing ever, but it wasn't nearly as blatant about what it rips off takes inspiration from.

Even if the game was brutally unfair at times, I still love the first DeSu. I liked practically all the characters, I really enjoyed the plot and how the multiple endings were handled.

What about Strange Journey? It's the other DS game and I think it was the first to come out. It seems to have a staggering length in comparison.

I'm pretty sure SJ came out after DeSu, although in the same year.
SJ takes after the original SMT games, first person dungeon crawler. Fun fact: The map interface looks exactly like the ones in Etrian Odyssey. (Don't worry, SJ is nowhere near as cruel as EO, it comes close at some points though) The game is more heavily dependent on the alignment system that most SMT games are known for, so much that there are gameplay mechanics that are dependent on it. I do kinda like this aspect, since your alignment as more impact than just what ending you get. The dungeon crawling is a lot more smooth than in the original SMT games, but that's like saying a rock is a lot more smooth than sandpaper. It's can get slow at times, usually because it requires some forethought on your part and later you'll have a lot more to do than just "get to the end", but I don't think it's ever unbearable.

The story is pretty standard SMT fare, except a lot more edged towards Sci-Fi. My problem with the multiple endings on this game is you are really geared towards Neutral in this. The Law and Chaos (especially the Law) factions of this game are so extreme in this that I doubt you'd even consider taking their side on a first playthrough. Oh, and depending on how you played the game up to a point, it's possible to get stuck on either end of the spectrum.

I liked it though. Even if some bosses flat out cheat >_>

Yeah Strange Journey is awesome but can be an hard mistress sometimes, you really have to plan which demons you want in your party and streghten them through fusion, and use demons of the same alignment for the demon co-op. The first time I played Ouroboros was fucking hard to beat, I had to cheat and use a few demon passwords I found in a walkthrough... and Mem Aleph impossible >_> I reached almost the end of the neutral path but I seriously couldn't beat her, so I restarted the game and got only the chaos ending that has a much easier final boss.

I'm going to scream things now. Assume it's approval.

SUIIIKODENS!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!! YES.

STAR OCEAN 3! For the record, I think I have 90+ hours on my main file.

PERSONA 4! MY FAVORITE GAME!

keth is onto something with Shadow Hearts! The New World one is disappoint, but Covenant I played and really enjoyed! Y'know, until the ending.

Mana Khemia should be on there if you like Ar Tonelicos. Has no one but me played Mana Khemia? 'Cause it was really good.

Lots of disappoint at some of those. That many Final Fantasys? Really? 7 is hype and 10-2 is... Lots of make me want to die. 4 and 6 are about the only ones that meet my approval, but I have lots of personal issues with FF.

A little surprised Etryan Odyssey is that popular consiering how damn hard those games are. On the other hand, the ideas/mechanics are pretty sweet. Dragon Quest 8 is also wicked hard, I never beat it and I wasn't that impressed with the story as far as I got into it.

I also agree the Mother games should have some presence somewhere.

The Final Fantasy are there mostly as reference since they are the most known. X-2 is at the very bottom of the list.

And the list is not based on popularity, but simply votes. It has the side effect that obscure games tend to have less votes, and so higher numbers (because less exposed to a wide public).

Nope, you aren't the only one, I'm playing Mana Khemia as well.

As for Strange journey, If you need chattering party members by your side, I suggest you look somewhere else. Strange Journey is much more about your journey and your choices.

Hey, I'm playing Strange Journey right now! First SMT game I've ever played. I've noticed how similar it was to the Etrian Odyssey games, which I always played when I was younger. I never realized that they were supposed to be super hard, I simply assumed that I just sucked at it. I suppose I just like hard dungeon crawling rpgs. Glad they are both on this list though, they're good games.

Otherwise, I haven't played any other of these games, though I want to. I always wanted to play the Persona series, especially Persona 4. They look so fun, but I don't have the right systems for it. One day, Persona, one daaaay.

Persona four is indeed nice.

My favorite is Two, however, the battle system might be too outdated. I wanted to LP it, however...it wouldn't get captured or screenshotted T-T

One reason I made this list is specifically for preservation purposes. All those games are there because they CAN be played, regardless of system. That's also why I left out stuff from modern systems like 3DS or XBOX360 (like no Vesperia).

What I mean is that ALL those games can be played from the beginning to end, on PC, with the help of an emulator. Assuming one has a PC powerful enough (the problematic titles may be those for PS2, PSP and some on the DS). But looking at longer term the PC requirements aren't going to be a problem.

I remember a number of years ago I tried to play the two Nintendo 64 Zelda games on an emulator and they ran like crap. The other day I tried again and they run at >300 FPS.

So Persona 2 is not an issue, for example. And both parts are available since there was a fan patch.

Everything from SNES, PSX, GBA, N64 is flawlessly emulated and even better on PC.

PS2, Wii, Gamecube, DS and PSP are also mostly playable, but may require powerful hardware.

Not emulated (and probably not going to happen): Vita, 3DS, PS3, XBOX360, WiiU.

Would the Atelier series be considered JRPGs?

I know that Atelier Iris certainly would, what about the others?

In which case these are not the most awesome JRPGs that exist as the game implies, these are 'some really good JRPGs IMO that can be emulated on most systems.' Misleading!