I originally bought a PS3 b/c way back when I thought "well, at least it will have FFXIII ldo" but by the time FF XIII came out I read a bunch of stuff that made me think maybe it sucked. So I still haven't gotten it

Fwiw, I have less patience for long RPG games than I did when I was a kid, and/or they are way longer than they used to be.

Most recently I played through Persona 3 and 80% of Persona 4 - both were excellent but getting through the last bit was a slog. Maybe I will like that upcoming Catherine game?

I also played the ps2 dragon quest game in the last few years but quit ~2/3 in as I was too bored.

I played 80+ hours of Rune Factory Wii (which maybe isn't jRPG? but in some ways it is) but was looking at another 80 hours and finally was starting to get somewhat bored, so quit.

I loved Valkyria Chronicles (strategy RPG for ps3, very JRPG in a lot of ways) and it was just about perfect in that regard. BUT, the storyline/characters were just so flat/filler.

The thing is, I really hate getting 80% through a JRPG, loving the first 20 hours, being fine with another 20, and then slogging through the rest.

Any suggestions/ideas? Would Yakuza be recommended? Not really jRPG enough for this thread? I have a hard time going back and playing "crappy graphic" games that are old. But perhaps I just need to play FF X? or IX? Or something from PSN (when it's back up)?

ya recent good games that come to mind would be demons souls and dragon age origins in my expierence.

wish they had a FF7 or FF9 type game on PS3 or 360 but all of the game suck. ff13 was so bad would like to know what ppl liked about it. couldnt handle the storyline / voice acting felt like it was intended for 10yr olds.

One thing I've hated about JRPGs since approximately the SNES era has been the difficulty curve. In the NES days there was constant grinding required, which is fine for what it was. With SNES and beyond, the games (and I'm mostly talking about FF, but plenty of one-shots as well) had the difficulty just right to allow steady progress without ever really having to grind. But then all of a sudden, the final boss was extremely difficult if you didn't have pumped up characters. Smooth steady easy progress, and then a brick wall at the end.

FF8 was particularly egregious. If you used Guardian Forces (summons) the whole game you'd find yourself in a world of hurt, as they are taken away from you for the final dungeon and aren't that relevant when you get them back. There was a "proper" way to play which was more complex, and you were never really given an indication that you should be playing that way, since GFs did all you needed. Once I reached the final dungeon I wound up looking at strategy guides and spent about 20 hours going back and grinding to get things right. Ultimately I had fun with it, but it's still bad game design.

FF7's ending I also thought was difficult. People tend to scoff at it because of Knights of the Round, which does make life easy. However, getting KotR was a massive hassle, and I doubt very many people got it without help from a guide or cheats.

FF8 used a level based "hybrid" system. Meaning some thing were based on your level but some were not. I think it was Square's attempt to address the difficulty issue and not make things all about grinding. I think they did an ok job but there's a reason they got rid of it. That said, Oblivion should have adopted that idea instead of their broken system.

I think I agree with you about the last dungeon being out of whack with the rest of the game, but it does entice you to at least attempt some of the side stuff. Also, shouldn't the final boss be some super bad guy who you should have to prepare for first? Sephiroth should only require an hour or two extra grinding, even without kotr, and a number of limit breaks pretty much own him as well.

Going back quite a bit further in time to Final Fantasy Legend, it also had the same problem. But there weren't really any sidequests to hit when you got to the final boss, so you had to plan ahead after finding out how much of a destroyer he is or get lucky. Kind of bad design, but it didn't require an extreme amount of grinding and the rest of the game was so fun for its time that I forgive it.

I thought fighting Sephiroth was a huge disappointment. I didn't have KoTR and just breezed through the fight.

FF8 was pretty much the same, I never really used summons as the attributes system was so exploitable. Besides I was so pissed off at the storyline by that point I just wanted to get to the end. Couldn't believe how badly they screwed up that story.


I think the hardest rpg I've played was legend of legaia, so many bosses gave me trouble. I remember at one point though my brother was laughing at me because I was so much trouble with a boss so I looked at his save and his characters were 8 levels ahead of mine. Still found that game incredibly hard though.

Huh, I never had trouble with Sephi or with anything in FFVIII. I didn't use summons in either game, I just generally hate summons (especially when you cant skip the animation). I also liked the card game in VIII and kind of got obsessive about leveling up materia in VII (obsessive for a first playthrough, that is), maybe that explains it.

I think games are way too easy nowadays, the original Final Fantasy was good, as Final Fantasy IV. Some others may have been too hard/frustrating, but I can't remember any off the top of my head.

Haha I fell into this exact trap. Years later I played FF8 the right way and had a lot more fun. The acid trip-like ending made a lot more sense too.

Haven't finished any of the last few JRPGs I've started. Lost Odyssey, Eternal Sonata, Star Ocean 4, and FFXIII. I stopped for a variety of reasons including story, characters, slow load for battles, and/or just plain boring. Don't think my tastes have changed all that much as I've also recently played Chrono Trigger for the DS and enjoyed it.

I mentioned years ago I played SUikoden 3 for about 3 hours and disliked it. I started it back up and Got done with Hugo ch1 and now im on chris'.

SUikoden is known for their writing and plot. so far I am not seeing anything and I loved Suikoden V and IV. I do not mind slow starting games ( suikoden V is one of my all time favs) but imo the trinity system really makes 3s plot seem sluggish with nothing much really going on

I'll post in this thread and I encourage others should when they play any current gen RPGS.

I have some time to kill and recently purchased Grandia III. even though I heard how the game takes a nosedive roughly 10-15hrs in. I actually have played every Grandia and thought while the story is absolutely average. the Gameplay is pretty unique and fastpaced with a slight breathe of fresh air.

im 5 hrs in GIII and I must say it isn't too bad so far. started off very promising. gameplay wise, while reviews have said its as good as xtremes gameplay, I dont see a major difference between this I or II. just added some new stuff and made cancelling more important

I started playing JRPGs on the SNES. It wasn't until the PS1 era that I got hooked. Lunar SSSC and Lunar2 Eternal Blue Complete have to be my all time favorites for PS1 JRPGs (Still have both box set collectors editions) and possibly my favorites of all time.

There are a lot of great JRPGs for that era that I loved. Obv FFVI,VII,VIII (I didnt much care for IX, but I still played it)

I loved Saga Frontier2 and Threads of Fate. The Arc the Lad series was also very enjoyable (Played all 3 and the one for PS2 (Twilight of the Spirits)

As for the past gen systems, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time was pretty much the nuts for PS2. The perfect game for completionists. Anything that has a lot of side quests and puzzles I love. I don't feel satisfied until I get 100%. FFX is a given, and Dragon Quest VIII (Journey of the Cursed King) was nice also, and way long. I played all .hack games for PS2, but I think that's getting more into the action game, though it is based on an Anime and is a simulated MMO.

For Gamecube I would have to go with Tales of Symphonia, hands down. One of the best JRPGs I played, and it was multiplayer co-op (which doesn't fit the MO of JRPGs but hey, it was cool)

It seems like its hard to find a good JRPG for this gens consoles. I think most of the good ones are on the DS/GBA. I picked up the Tales and Star Ocean titles (Vesperia and Lost Hope) and enjoyed those a lot, but haven't had much success finding others. Maybe I just got lazy.

I want to note that the games mentioned above I like the most due to their storyline and length. Also the ability to do lots of sidequests. I want to also agree to the poster who said you can't compare these to WesternRPGs because in a lot of ways they are totally different. And the audience is typically different. I love both genres, but I think people who play WesternRPGs who haven't been introduced to the JRPGs wont like JRPGs as much. People like me who love JRPGs would probably like both, if you get what I'm saying.

I think we all have a good understanding of what an RPG is, and the JRPG influences more on story and cut-scene (typically anime) rather than environment and character-building. I love JRPGs because I feel like a part of the story in a way.

Anyways, just my opinion on things. I suggest playing the games though.

solid post. with great titles you metioned. I still remember playing Lunar II when I got it for the ps1. wow,

glad you got to play the Arc the Lad collection. Loved II and III, enjoy III more. thought they were excellent

Has anybody played Devil Survivor for the DS (or remake for 3DS)?

Article about it and how it brings a lot of fresh air to the genre:

http://www.brainygamer.com/the_brain...-survivor.html

Have just got a Vita having never had a PSP - recommendations for downloadable PSP JRPGs? I have Tactics Ogre, unsure if that counts.

can't believe nobody has mentioned Phantasy Star series yet... part 1 was a dungeon crawl, part 2 focused more on story and characters, and part 3 got really complex with the ability to marry/have kids/continue the story as your son.

Next to those, favorites include Star Ocean 2, Lunar series, and Skies of Arcadia (which you can replay on a dreamcast emu)

I beat Skies or Arcadia (for Gamecube), neat concept but it's not in my top favorites.

I'm going to pick up the new Tales game for PS3 tomorrow. Tales of Graces f. Looks solid and got decent reviews.

Made a topic about Tales of Graces. but nobody posted.


you should pick it up. from what I've heard its really good. cant wait to play it. Ive bumped that from over FF XIII-2 when im able to play.


Lunar 2 was great even though the gameplay was really underwhelming and standard. One of my first rpgs tho so it holds a special place

Picked it up today. gonna play it after all the NCAA games are over. will post feelings after

I just picked up FF3 (6) on emulator, and I can't get past the part where you learn how to do a Blitz with Sabin, cause the computer won't register the input commands for some reason. Pretty bummed, cause that game rules

damn, and I hate to sy this but the game gets better a bit after Sabans story. Atleast I felt the game got better as you progressed

This shouldn't be a problem. I've played through this game many times on emulators and never had this issue.

-Make sure you are inputting the blitz move correctly.

-If that still doesn't work, try using your save state on a different copy of the ROM. Not sure if this will work but it's worth a try.

This game is truly one of the greatest JRPGs of all time, so don't give up on it too easily.

Here's my top five JRPGs in no particular order:

Chrono Trigger
This game blew everyone away with its dazzling 2d graphics. At the time a handful of games were starting to come out in 3d but Squaresoft took a painstaking effort to produce some brilliant colors and effects for the 16 bit system. The characters in this game were designed by the brilliant Akira Toriyama, some of you might be familiar with his work from the long running Dragon Ball series. The story is fun and complicated, the pacing is fast and the battles are intense.

Final Fantasy 3/6
Another incredible Squaresoft effort, and the last Final Fantasy to be designed in 2d. This game also pushes the graphical power of the SNES to the max, and is designed with a more dark, sinister color palette as opposed to Chrono Trigger's colorful, bouncy manga-esque characters. There are over a dozen playable characters in this game and dozens upon dozens hours of gameplay. If you are a fan of sidequests and nonlinear gameplay, this is the RPG you need to try--around midway through the game a major event happens and you are dropped into the wilderness, being able to complete the rest of the game in almost any order you see fit based on where you decide to go next.
This is a game you can really get lost in, and the story is polished and creative as well. Don't miss it.

Earthbound
This is a Japanese creation but if you didn't know better you might start off thinking it was made by Americans! It implants you in a cultural satire of JesusLand, a world that truly is America from an outsider's perspective. It then proceeds to hit on every funky, jazzy, and swingy note in American culture. This one is recommended mostly for the atmosphere it creates and the snarky laughs it generates, but it also has a fun, very challenging battle system, and the trippy battle screen is one of my personal favorites.

Final Fantasy 9
I know this game gets a lot of hate, but why? I guess some people just fell so much in love with the futuristic/steampunkish universes of 7 and 8, but the series before that was all about a magic and fantasy universe. This game brings all the great aspects of the oldschool FFs, introduces a new level of graphical power, and manages to have an intriguing storyline as well. The graphics upgrade from 8 to 9 is very noticeable and what's more impressive is, FF9 is a PS1 game. They made it look so much better, you would think it was an early PS2 game looking back on it.
One major downside to this game: I hate the card game. Never been able to totally understand it even though I've messed around with it quite a bit. I should just read a guide but now I hate the damn card game, so eff it.
Oh yeah, love the ability system in this game. Gives you a chance to really design your party members in the way you want to without them all becoming the same Well-Rounded Mage/Fighter/Healer character (ugh, FF8).

Final Fantasy 7
This one will always hold a special place in my heart, and I don't think I really need to explain why. Love the story, the twists, the great amount of freedom you have towards the end of the game, and the freedom to work with the materia system in creative ways. Plus this game just had so many secrets, back when game secrets were still secrets. This is probably one of the first games I knew of that EVERYBODY ended up using a walkthrough for, typically to get that damned Golden Chocobo. A valid criticism of this game is it would be damn near impossible to figure everything out without a guide, but for some reason, that just made people love it all the more.

Honorable Mentions
Disgaea
Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy XII

big thumbs up to :

secret of mana
chrono trigger
golden sun series
earthbound
disgaea 1+2
FF7 + FF9

but yeah SNES was the golden age of JRPG imo.

shining soul on sega is pretty awesome, and multiplayer was epic win.

I remember people making a fuss about Shenmue but i wasn't bothered much

Dragon Quest series.

Final Fantasy series.

I liked Illusion of Gaia.

Mana series.

Chrono Trigger

I was really upset that Final Fantasy XIII did not include the Japanese audio track on the PS3. I hated the American voice acting.

I have never played the Breath of Fire series but am thinking about playing them.

I really am upset that many good rpgs never make it over here in the U.S.

I don't get the hate for FFXII. I loved it. I am not a completionist by any means, but I must admit that I spent lots of hours defeating Yiazmat. I thought the combat system was pretty ingenious, and as a former Engineer who did a bunch of computer programming, setting your gauntlets was basically setting up a bunch of if then statements to guide you in battle, which I found very cool.