Eternal Sonata, Tales Of Graces and Star Ocean The Last Hope are 3 of my most precious JRPGs I spent many fantastic hours with. So yeah, absolutely agree with your list. Still have to check on White Knight Chronicles though.
lots of games I love in this list. Star Ocean 4, White Knight 2, and Eternal Sonata are the most epic grinds out there. And Eternal Sonata has my favorite graphics of all PS3 games.
@@saschafeld1707 Only if you wanted to get all the battle trophies. I think I'm in the last dungeon in Eternal Sonata now and I'm below level 40. I love when games do that. So much more power left to gain!
i have been subscribe to this channel for years, and i agree imo, we have a small but great community because of his channel, but unfortunately erick himself have a lack of communication with the community, this channel could be bigger, and the community can be stronger if erick can comunicate with us more(replying on yt comment, making poll, creating a discord channel etc) because honestly, i would love to spend my afternoon to talk about jrpg with this guy
Eternal Sonata is probably the best JRPG I've played on PS3. Folklore is also really great, really loved it for the art style and atmosphere and music.
If you're looking for better story and characters, definitely Escha & Logy, but Shallie has the better gameplay imo. It's the most refined version of the trilogy.
I kinda slept through the PS3 era, to be honest. My brother is the only one who would turn it on to play, in fact. And he wouldn't play any RPGs on it. I tried the SO The Last Hope Steam port but no matter how much I forced myself to push through the starting area I couldn't. I've mentioned this in some of your other videos but the only titles from the series I adore is the fan translated one for the SNES (I don't like the PSP remaster) and Till the End of Time. My only regret was that I never played Demon's Souls but I'm not gonna miss out on it thanks to the remake.
Hidden gems are good games that nobody really knows about and underrated games are games that are poorly rated by professional reviews or sometimes users, but are actually good indeed. Well that's how I see it anyway.
the avatar in WKC is totally useless in the single-player campaign as it has no importance to the story and will become just a stand in when one of the main characters temporarily leaves the party
I hated nino kunii. I played it from beginning to end. Loved the animation and artwork. But just hated that from beginning to end. They held your hand thru it all. Like you never played a video game before
I actually completely forgot that i played Folklore, and it might actually be the first JRPG i ever played, as i didn't play RPGs until i got my PS3! I don't remember if i actually beat it, and for some reason, i lost my copy during a move and never got around to replacing it, and finding a decent copy of it today is pretty damn hard... But i DO remember Eternal Sonata! For many years, it was my favorite game of all time, and the first game i actually printed out an entire online guide for! Even if the cutscenes can get both too long, while also explaining things you either already know, or any monkey could figure out, the battle system, music and visual style alone is enough to make me still hold fast that it's in my top 5 JRPGs of all time, mixed in with some Persona and Trails games...
I got Folklore as my first PS3 game and Eternal Sonata as my second. When my friend came to visit after the learnt I had the PS3 they expected me to have a bunch of fighting or soccer games but there i was with two totally unknown games that I totally loved from beginning to end. Folklore was amazing and the story fantastic and Eternal Sonata actually got me into classical music so I would recommend both of them entirely.
@@nyfrit Another thing i would like to see in more games today, is a system like Eternal Sonatas "Party Level", where the game expects more and more of you through taking away your resources, but in exchange giving you new and more powerful toys to play with! I still remember going into that secret dungeon in the dunes, get party level 6, and be completely floored that i can now use 6 of my specials at once, build up specials DURING specials, and even keep your special charges after battle! What i didn't expect was that the game now changes your button inputs between each round, so your Attack might end up Guarding and Special might be a normal attack, and it only resets to normal after a battle ends...
@@lambertar i love the battle system, but also liked the character, i dont remember the names but the mage girl AND the double wielder guy relationship was so cute AND genuine, liked the main character too
Battle princess of Arcadia's Legasistia Record of Agarest War if you live in North America the European version is physical in the PlayStation 3 is region free (except the two Persona 4 fighting games) as well as the Xbox 360 version it is also available on mobile. Lastly Vandal Hearts 3 flame of judgment.
Never realized that DD2 was underrated in the series. Shame too, since the attack animations and even the cut-in animations are probably the best in the series, what with how punchy and... animated- they are.
PSA to everyone here: PICK THESE GAMES UP NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In all seriousness, I have seen prices for PS3 games start to creep up and I highly encourage everyone here to pick up any PS3 titles they have been eyeing NOW while they are still reasonably priced.
I played it, i can see why people may really like it, but, after completing every quest available (except the bonus dungeon, fuck that), i can say the game lacks something that i can't really precisely tell Not considering how convoluted its combat system is, i didn't really like the story, it didn't feel well paced and not really that understandable (for my taste, at least)
I don't think Disgaea D2 is that unknown or underrated. Every time discussions about other games in the series pop up on Steam, people mention it. Every single time. That's how I came to know of it.
Tales of graces is quite famous for being the best battle system of the series. It does have some hard fights, but I would say Xillia 2 is the hardest one by a mile :p
Graces F may not be my favorite Tales game, but it was my first in the series & has gotten me to play so many other games in the series after so I have good memories of it
Agreed that Eternal Sonata is a great game, but the difficulty on the PS3 version is crazy compared to the Xbox 360 version. I've been replaying it recently (originally played on the 360), and have been surprised at how difficult it is.
Love your channel bro! You have great tastes in rpgs! 😁 I also love the entire Atelier series on all consoles! Including Mana Khemia 1 and especially 2! Lol. That one was absolutely hilarious! And Folklore was the very first PS3 game I've ever played! Love it!
I don't know why, but something tells me that the dark-haired shallie is your waifu from Atelier series. (Interestingly, the green-haired shallie is more popular) I've seen that in some parts, they give bad reviews to drakengard 3, I like that game. I see you recommend a lot of eternal sonata, but I always overlooked it.
Star oceant 4 was so good!!!and yes it has the best system in the series, resenanace of fate should be in the list too...,damn i dont know why people hate this game so much🙁
I never owned a PS3 or PS4, and I'm always amazed when I see screen shots of games from both systems. They look so similar, and I wouldn't be surprised if most PS4 games could have been released on the PS3. I had heard that the PS4 was minimally more powerful than the PS3 and it definitely shows. To be fair to the PS4, it has an amazing library of games regardless of it's hardware weakness. PS5 is a big step up in terms of hardware quality, and I really hope that some JRPGs are in development for it.
Yep, most of JRPGs released on PS4 could have been run properly by PS3 with little to none visible differences between the two versions. As an example, Tales of Berseria, Star Ocean 5 and Dragon Quest Heroes all have PS3 versions in Japan, and heck, some of PS4 JRPGs even had Vita versions released with some minor differences in performance.
For me the PS3 is the good enough system. Future graphical improvements are nice but I really don't care that much. Prior generations were much more of a true step change. I started playing in the NES days and every system felt like a major upgrade until PS3 to PS4. I care even less about the next upgrade to PS5 tbh.
What, no Natural Doctrine Erick ? I know you hate that game but I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding. I had to spend a lot of time in the beginning to experiment and understand the battle system. But once it sunk in, I got solidly addicted. The story is nothing great, the graphics are okay but that battle system is great.
I remember I really disliked Eternal Sonata the first time I played it, and it was the first game I ever returned for a trade-in at Gamestop. But then years later, I remembered that I did have fun with it and the story was melodramatic but it was also very sincere. I realized that I actually did like the game without realizing so I bought it again. I always laugh when I remember that it's the only game where the characters literally give you, the player, real-life advice when the credits roll. "Don't make the same mistakes that I did." I won't Claves. Thanks.
I played White Knicht Chronicles 1 + 2 and in several situations it was cleared, the game was more made for multiplayer than solo play. Eternal Sonata - I am happy i played it, because first i thought the graphics are too childish. The gameplay is pretty good tho.
Hey everyone. More then a year ago I bought Eternal Sonata on the PS3 just purely on Erick’s recommendation. He is right. The game is a masterpiece with its JRPG game design. The difficulty was tough but fair and there are lots of opportunities to grind if you need to. The battle system is very addicting as well. I loved the battles in this game. They are a lot of fun. Honestly the story was interesting but I really can’t say that aspect of it was top notch. But what is told to the player with the story was decent enough to keep me interested all the way to the end. The characters are also quite charming. You will easily form an attachment to them because of how they are written. And the music is some of the best I’ve experienced in any JRPG I have played. Erick made me a fan of this game and now I too can’t promote enough about how great it is. If you are a JRPG fan with a PS3, this one is easily a must own!
I'm one of those people who adored the first Disgaea (played through at least four times between PS2 and PSP), but basically ignored D2. I blame franchise fatigue. NIS leaned way too hard on this IP the last ten years. Add their super sleazy DLC models to everything after the second game, and my interest was almost fully sapped. Thanks for reminding me about it, though, I probably will pick it up on steep discount some day.
Great list, thank you. I'd say that Tears to Tiara II, Trinity Souls of Zill O'll, Ar noSurge, Lost Dimension, Trinity Universe, Fairy Fencer F and Agarest 2 are also pretty underrated. It always baffles me when people say that PS3 didn't have any good JRPGs when in actuality there were quite a lot of them. Just makes you wonder if those people really owned the console.
Yes! Watching the video, I kept telling myself I hope Eternal Sonata makes the list and it did! Such a masterpiece of a game. Thanks and keep up the great work.
No, Trails of Cold Steel 1 and 2 are not nearly popular enough yet, but are getting there slowly. Heck, I'd say that there's even an argument to be made that it's more 3 that has gotten more attention due to it being released on the Switch and Falcom saying that it's a "great jumping on point", totally ignoring 1 and 2. I recognize that was due to the whole xseed vs NISA thing, but it just further pushes the point that 1 and 2 are more underrated than Graces F and Eternal Sonata for example, which in contrast I knew about for years before anything Trails came up on my radar.
I'm so happy to see Star Ocean 4 on this list, but my major gripe with the game is that the grinding is slow and tough starting out, and I'm playing the ps4 remaster. Maybe the original ps3 version will be better. Luckily I own the ps3 version but sadly no ps3 console. I love star ocean so much I just had to have it though
Graces F is such a fantastic tales of, many people keep talking trash about the characters but for me they are fine, yeah the mc is a sleepover and bland character but if i could tolerate and like Rean and Lloyd , i can pass this guy, Symphonia characters are waaaaay worse , boring .....
I played most of the games. I can understand why they are rated so low. For disgaea d2 its just forgettable. You like the characters but the story is done. As for the white knight chronicles you are not a main character, nothing you do matters. You contribute nothing to the plot...tales of graces game where your not trying to save the world or something, S for your number one pick....its the ending. It sucked
Eternal Sonata is the game I try my best to get everyone to play. Crazy underrated. Amazing music, great battle systems, if you love music it's even a added bonus. It's amazes me how basicly no one talks about this amazing gift of a Rpg.
Eternal Sonata is another game that made me cry so much at the end! It's a truly beautiful story, I really recommend it to anyone who still has their 360 or PS3 (I have the 360 version). Tales of Graces F is a fairly good entry in the Tales of series, it's not in my top 3, but I definitely enjoyed playing it, and I really liked Sophie and Pascal! I actually wasn't so keen on Asbel as a protagonist, but he's not bad.
I knew I should have grabbed White Knight Chronicles...I remember looking at it for awhile haha Ar Tonelico Qoga I was playing when my PS3 broke down. I ran out and bought a new one just to continue playing it lol
It's kinda funny that you mentioned folklore, which is a snorefest, and eternal sonata, a pretty good game. I also bought white knight chronicles back in the day but I just couldn't get into it, I remember the gameplay being really slow and the world was kinda bland, but not dead like folklore.... According to the wikipedia article some of the people that worked on folklore were hired by tango gameworks, the studio that made evil within, which is actually a great game (the 1st one, 2nd was weird :p ). I would add resonance of fate to your list. It has an AWFUL plot, AWFUL characters but the game play is so cool plus you can build the most ridiculous guns in the history of videogames (and I wouldn't call it an hyperbole!).
You are correct that some of the criticisms against Star Ocean the Last Hope are exaggerated. A few days ago on the JRPG subreddit I saw a person say that the cutscenes were too long. While story, gameplay,music and characters are all subjective...time is objective. Star Ocean The Last Hope is one of the few non handheld HD era JRPGs that respect your time. Remember back in the PS1 era when 30 minute long cutscenes were saved for the ending? Now it's just Tuesday. Maybe since they hated the characters the cutscenes seemed to be longer than they really were.
Love the list. So tired of all the same old boring lists of every "popular" top 10. This was a refreshing lost and almost half of these titles I didn't know about. So u gave me some nice "new" titles for me to check out. Thanks bro!
Star Ocean: The Last Hope? Never actually played it, but I watched a playthrough some time ago. Or rather tried to; I was honestly bored. Really, Star Ocean never again reached the heights achieved by The Second Story.
I finished Eternal Sonata just yesterday after years of keeping it on the shelf cause I found it too difficult (i suck at games, imma be honest) but I can confirm, it is a great game. I definitely was missing out and I'm so glad my better judgement led me to never trade it or sell it. I knew what I had in my hands was not easy to find (never seen it in any store before or since i bought it, and also never seen anyone sell it second hand in my country). It is beautiful, the characters are all charming in their own way. I think the only thing i can't find here that I can find on like any Tales games, are more in-depth character interactions. But besides that, great visuals, the difficulty in the end just adds to the experience, and the battle system is really enjoyable when you get used to it. I also like how the party level up doesn't only come with benefits but also more challenge. Especially the last level. It makes you a little OP but at a fair price. SPOILER ALERT I really don't understand why they have you know that Viola has feelings for Jazz, to never touch on the topic again. Also, while I did ship Allegretto and Polka during gameplay, I feel like there was not enough build up to the ending. Like, yeah, they have a couple of slightly cute interactions but not enough to lead me where it ended up going at the very last moment. Also, the Villain is pretty basic. Evil for the sake of it lol.
I wanted white knight chronicles to test the online a few years back but never bought it. It’s crazy nearly most of these games I’ve almost bought when they were dirt cheap at GameStop around 2014
I thought white Knight chronicles 1 and 2 were awesome but the online mode being no longer available is like having half of the game. The online part was what kept me playing for a long time after the story. Ar tonelico qoga was cool too, eternal sonata was just amazing, the music, the battle system, the world, the anime graphics were all great, I just can't understand why people didn't love this game. Drakengard 3 not having a physical release (UK) probably hurt it, the first two were great games but were a relatively unknown series over here so I can see why they chose not to make a physical release for the third one.
Gonna disagree on some of those. At tonelico 3 is arguably the worst of the series, it has nothing wrong plotwise and if you played the other games it gives you a rather good world building but the combat is so boring. Drakengard 3 is not a bad game, is just a poorly optimized game and that hurts the same a lot. This game could be ported to newer consoles and be 10 times better by just better framerate. Tales of graces F, Disgaea D2 and Star ocean 4 are not underrated, just pretty mixed on the community. I love threm and SO4 has been the only star ocean that let you explore more than 1 planet. Agreed on Folkore and Eternal Sonata, would add Resonance of fate, Enchanted arms and Ar nosurge.
Ow boi how I love Disgaea D2, it's the only Disgaea game I played till the end game, now I actually wanna fire it up again after seeing this. Really not sure why it's so under the radar, maybe that it is exclusive to PS3, maybe it was released when other more popular games came out too, no idea honestly. Was always wondering about that myself.
I don't agree that Qoga is underrated. For me it's the worst game in this franchise (maybe Ciel nosurge would be worse). Still it's really important to play this game if you played previous 2. On side note - you don't need this game to fully understand Ar nosurge - it use only 1st ar tonelico references.
Pretty good list, played some of those (Disgaea D2, Tales of Graces F, Eternal Sonata) and want to give a try to the Atelier games, since Ayesha kinda put me away, so it's good to hear the other ones are better. That said, I am extremely confused as to what do you understand as Hidden Gem and what you do as Underrated, since some of the games on this list are definitely not underrated (for example: Eternal Sonata is generally well received by critics and users alike). This is not the first video in which you use those terms and I'm always unsure what do you mean.
I loved White knight chronicle, game was ahead of his time. Folklore was my older brother favorite game ever since he played the demo but at the time online purchase wasn't as common as it is now and getting a physical copy was a nightmare until I checked the game store at the mall and omg here it is I remember begging my mother because I knew how rare it was and how much my brother would love it. (I might be lucky now that I think about it I once found a special edition of Pandora's tower JRPG on WII during a local event and also got my hands on a Fire emblem IF/FATEs special edition on a gamestore page even though it was worse than getting a ps5 at a regular price)
you have no idea how useful you are to Emulator users like myself. (BTW if you need an artist/animator's touch for your youtube channel let me know) I've followed you for so long Its the least I can do.
I didn't play Eternal Sontata because it is not available on the PS store, and I failed to find a physical copy. I played the demo of Folklor and I like it, but at that time I already moved to the PS4 & forgot about it.
I loved Eternal Sonata too but I don't think it's the most criminally underrated jrpg on the system. I think Resonance of Fate and The Last Remnant are more underrated than most of the games on this list. They both happen to have PS4 ports too.
One reason reason D2 gets over looks is because many of us keep calling Disgaea 2 D2 for years and still do. D1, D2, D3, D4, D5 and now waiting on D6 it also has some side games.
Star Ocean is my favorite serie, and I love last hope, combats and characters are awsome, I want to play it once again! (So2 is my favorite of all time!)
IMO Eternal Sonata is such a terrible game, I honestly lack the words to describe how hard it was to beat for me because I just couldn't care less. To each his own of course.
I tried getting into Disgaea D2 and got a fair bit into it but then got bored. I'm weird but I find the disgaea series not as appealing as a whole and whenever I play they end up turning me off from srpgs for a little bit until I happen to play a good sprg once again. Otherwise I played them all except Folklore.
I tried to play the two atelier games escha logy and Aisha on PS now but PS now kept crashing and I can never get to a point where I can save so I think I'm going to buy these too for the PS4
As an underrated JRPG, I also think of the first two "Trails On Cold Steel" originally released on PS3 which are absolutely brilliant. One of the best gaming experiences of my life. Thank you for your list, I agree (almost) on everything ;)
The entire trails series honestly. It's not exactly underrated, since everyone that knows about it for the most part agrees they're amazing, particularly the stories, but it's kind of an obscure title for some reason....well, could be the length.
If I may make a suggestion, please have a tag or headline somewhere that has the title of the game you are currently talking about, please and thank you.
Eternal Sonata, Tales Of Graces and Star Ocean The Last Hope are 3 of my most precious JRPGs I spent many fantastic hours with.
So yeah, absolutely agree with your list. Still have to check on White Knight Chronicles though.
lots of games I love in this list. Star Ocean 4, White Knight 2, and Eternal Sonata are the most epic grinds out there. And Eternal Sonata has my favorite graphics of all PS3 games.
Eternal Sonata wasn`t SO much grind. One or twoe hours before a boss. Star Ocean 4 was far more extreme.
@@saschafeld1707 Only if you wanted to get all the battle trophies. I think I'm in the last dungeon in Eternal Sonata now and I'm below level 40. I love when games do that. So much more power left to gain!
You know what's criminally underrated? This channel.
Totally agree.
true
i have been subscribe to this channel for years, and i agree
imo, we have a small but great community because of his channel,
but unfortunately erick himself have a lack of communication with the community,
this channel could be bigger, and the community can be stronger if erick can comunicate with us more(replying on yt comment, making poll, creating a discord channel etc) because honestly, i would love to spend my afternoon to talk about jrpg with this guy
Erick Landon RPG, thank you so much for your amazing content!
Eternal Sonata is probably the best JRPG I've played on PS3. Folklore is also really great, really loved it for the art style and atmosphere and music.
Nice work as usual. Which Atelier game has the best story /characters between those 2: Escha & Logy or Shallie ?
If you're looking for better story and characters, definitely Escha & Logy, but Shallie has the better gameplay imo. It's the most refined version of the trilogy.
I kinda slept through the PS3 era, to be honest. My brother is the only one who would turn it on to play, in fact. And he wouldn't play any RPGs on it. I tried the SO The Last Hope Steam port but no matter how much I forced myself to push through the starting area I couldn't. I've mentioned this in some of your other videos but the only titles from the series I adore is the fan translated one for the SNES (I don't like the PSP remaster) and Till the End of Time.
My only regret was that I never played Demon's Souls but I'm not gonna miss out on it thanks to the remake.
Ar Tonelico 1 in PS2 got me traumatized with the fanservice and the extreme easy difficulty.
Eternal Sonata is georgeos, love it
Can anyone remember what was the name of that strategy jrpg where you get to play across five different generations of characters?
Agarest Generations of War.
@@Murasakitsuyukusa thank you
What's the difference between a 'hidden gem' and 'underrated'?
Hidden gems are good games that nobody really knows about and underrated games are games that are poorly rated by professional reviews or sometimes users, but are actually good indeed. Well that's how I see it anyway.
the avatar in WKC is totally useless in the single-player campaign as it has no importance to the story and will become just a stand in when one of the main characters temporarily leaves the party
I hated nino kunii. I played it from beginning to end. Loved the animation and artwork. But just hated that from beginning to end. They held your hand thru it all. Like you never played a video game before
ah drakengard 3 the worst final boss in the history of gaming
Eternal sonata was such a masterpiece
Yeah I definitely wish more people would talk about Folklore and Eternal Sonata. Excellent games.
I actually completely forgot that i played Folklore, and it might actually be the first JRPG i ever played, as i didn't play RPGs until i got my PS3!
I don't remember if i actually beat it, and for some reason, i lost my copy during a move and never got around to replacing it, and finding a decent copy of it today is pretty damn hard... But i DO remember Eternal Sonata! For many years, it was my favorite game of all time, and the first game i actually printed out an entire online guide for!
Even if the cutscenes can get both too long, while also explaining things you either already know, or any monkey could figure out, the battle system, music and visual style alone is enough to make me still hold fast that it's in my top 5 JRPGs of all time, mixed in with some Persona and Trails games...
I got Folklore as my first PS3 game and Eternal Sonata as my second. When my friend came to visit after the learnt I had the PS3 they expected me to have a bunch of fighting or soccer games but there i was with two totally unknown games that I totally loved from beginning to end. Folklore was amazing and the story fantastic and Eternal Sonata actually got me into classical music so I would recommend both of them entirely.
@@nyfrit Another thing i would like to see in more games today, is a system like Eternal Sonatas "Party Level", where the game expects more and more of you through taking away your resources, but in exchange giving you new and more powerful toys to play with!
I still remember going into that secret dungeon in the dunes, get party level 6, and be completely floored that i can now use 6 of my specials at once, build up specials DURING specials, and even keep your special charges after battle!
What i didn't expect was that the game now changes your button inputs between each round, so your Attack might end up Guarding and Special might be a normal attack, and it only resets to normal after a battle ends...
I wish Eternal Sonata would be remastered for the ps4 or steam i love that game but never got to finish it
Eternal Sonataaaaaaa!!!!!
Finally i see someone talking about graces F god damn
My favorite battle system in the Tales series.
Agreed!
@@lambertar i love the battle system, but also liked the character, i dont remember the names but the mage girl AND the double wielder guy relationship was so cute AND genuine, liked the main character too
Terrible story, characters and world tho.
Hubert and Pascal are probably the most fun I’ve had playing characters in Tales
Eternal sonata was a great game
Graces F is the goat jrpg battle system.
Eternal Sonata is my favorite game of all time. There is no other game like it.
Not gonna lie, I loved Eternal Sonata.
The titles system in Tales of Graces f is my favorite mechanic in any Tales game so far.
good video man next do best ps3 digital only jrpgs so I can pick them up before the store shuts down
RPG site made a list
What’s the link?
Battle princess of Arcadia's
Legasistia
Record of Agarest War if you live in North America the European version is physical in the PlayStation 3 is region free (except the two Persona 4 fighting games) as well as the Xbox 360 version it is also available on mobile.
Lastly Vandal Hearts 3 flame of judgment.
Tales of Xillia 2 is a must!
I love Star Ocean The Last Hope, Tales of Grace's F. I consider these 2 a couple of my favorite games of those series.
I still play tales of graces f new game plus and I got the last hope 4K a few months on sale
@@mysetlist2118 Yeah me too.
Really?! I want to punch the idiot who made that one trick pony batttle system. Hated that thing.
@@PtPartss
That weird movement thing that you had to use on the bosses and certain enemies is the problem. It gets tedious and frusterating.
Graces F was my first Tales game and I've been looking for one as good ever since. And D2 was the best Disgaea game, hands down, in my opinion.
Never realized that DD2 was underrated in the series. Shame too, since the attack animations and even the cut-in animations are probably the best in the series, what with how punchy and... animated- they are.
PSA to everyone here: PICK THESE GAMES UP NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In all seriousness, I have seen prices for PS3 games start to creep up and I highly encourage everyone here to pick up any PS3 titles they have been eyeing NOW while they are still reasonably priced.
I love SO4: The Last Hope! :-) And ES is one of my favourite RPGs!
You should talk about Resonance of Faith, that game has much more to offer than people think
Its on my list of favorite games.
I played it, i can see why people may really like it, but, after completing every quest available (except the bonus dungeon, fuck that), i can say the game lacks something that i can't really precisely tell
Not considering how convoluted its combat system is, i didn't really like the story, it didn't feel well paced and not really that understandable (for my taste, at least)
I don't think Disgaea D2 is that unknown or underrated. Every time discussions about other games in the series pop up on Steam, people mention it. Every single time. That's how I came to know of it.
I like how you ended the video with trails of cold steel battle theme you should make a video about top 5 ps3 jrpgs only on ps3
Can we consider Folklore a spiritual successor or something linked to the Shadow Hearts series T__T
Tales of graces is quite famous for being the best battle system of the series.
It does have some hard fights, but I would say Xillia 2 is the hardest one by a mile :p
Sorry about the store closing for PS3 and Vita...
Now go out there and buy those PS5 Digital Only consoles!
I have played Eternal Sonata, it's one of the best games out there.
You look like the Mandalorian, THATS AWESOME
Graces F may not be my favorite Tales game, but it was my first in the series & has gotten me to play so many other games in the series after so I have good memories of it
Sony should make all PS3 exclusive games into 5USD before closing down the store (closing sale or something)...
Finally graces getting the love it deserves
Agreed that Eternal Sonata is a great game, but the difficulty on the PS3 version is crazy compared to the Xbox 360 version. I've been replaying it recently (originally played on the 360), and have been surprised at how difficult it is.
The lack of jrpgs on the Xbox is to thanks for me playing the greatness that is eternal sonata
Love your channel bro! You have great tastes in rpgs! 😁 I also love the entire Atelier series on all consoles! Including Mana Khemia 1 and especially 2! Lol. That one was absolutely hilarious! And Folklore was the very first PS3 game I've ever played! Love it!
I don't know why, but something tells me that the dark-haired shallie is your waifu from Atelier series. (Interestingly, the green-haired shallie is more popular)
I've seen that in some parts, they give bad reviews to drakengard 3, I like that game.
I see you recommend a lot of eternal sonata, but I always overlooked it.
Star oceant 4 was so good!!!and yes it has the best system in the series, resenanace of fate should be in the list too...,damn i dont know why people hate this game so much🙁
Your writing and narration has gotten much better. Keep up the good work
SO4 is actually my favorite in the series. I'm very glad it was ported to pc a few years ago.
Always happy to see folklore love
Dude... I got platinum on Tales of Graces f. lol
I never owned a PS3 or PS4, and I'm always amazed when I see screen shots of games from both systems. They look so similar, and I wouldn't be surprised if most PS4 games could have been released on the PS3. I had heard that the PS4 was minimally more powerful than the PS3 and it definitely shows. To be fair to the PS4, it has an amazing library of games regardless of it's hardware weakness. PS5 is a big step up in terms of hardware quality, and I really hope that some JRPGs are in development for it.
Yep, most of JRPGs released on PS4 could have been run properly by PS3 with little to none visible differences between the two versions. As an example, Tales of Berseria, Star Ocean 5 and Dragon Quest Heroes all have PS3 versions in Japan, and heck, some of PS4 JRPGs even had Vita versions released with some minor differences in performance.
For me the PS3 is the good enough system. Future graphical improvements are nice but I really don't care that much. Prior generations were much more of a true step change. I started playing in the NES days and every system felt like a major upgrade until PS3 to PS4. I care even less about the next upgrade to PS5 tbh.
What, no Natural Doctrine Erick ?
I know you hate that game but I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding. I had to spend a lot of time in the beginning to experiment and understand the battle system. But once it sunk in, I got solidly addicted. The story is nothing great, the graphics are okay but that battle system is great.
Yeah, once you learn the battle system and the tricks to its mechanic, the game becomes sooo much more enjoyable.
I want to play eternal sonata, but isn't on pc.
I wish Graces was on the Switch.
I remember I really disliked Eternal Sonata the first time I played it, and it was the first game I ever returned for a trade-in at Gamestop. But then years later, I remembered that I did have fun with it and the story was melodramatic but it was also very sincere. I realized that I actually did like the game without realizing so I bought it again.
I always laugh when I remember that it's the only game where the characters literally give you, the player, real-life advice when the credits roll. "Don't make the same mistakes that I did." I won't Claves. Thanks.
I played White Knicht Chronicles 1 + 2 and in several situations it was cleared, the game was more made for multiplayer than solo play.
Eternal Sonata - I am happy i played it, because first i thought the graphics are too childish. The gameplay is pretty good tho.
Eric... you can’t recommend Drakengard 3 to people without warning them of the “final battle”.
Hey everyone. More then a year ago I bought Eternal Sonata on the PS3 just purely on Erick’s recommendation. He is right. The game is a masterpiece with its JRPG game design. The difficulty was tough but fair and there are lots of opportunities to grind if you need to. The battle system is very addicting as well. I loved the battles in this game. They are a lot of fun. Honestly the story was interesting but I really can’t say that aspect of it was top notch. But what is told to the player with the story was decent enough to keep me interested all the way to the end. The characters are also quite charming. You will easily form an attachment to them because of how they are written. And the music is some of the best I’ve experienced in any JRPG I have played. Erick made me a fan of this game and now I too can’t promote enough about how great it is. If you are a JRPG fan with a PS3, this one is easily a must own!
Eternal Sonata (or Trusty Bell: The Dream of Chopin in JPN) is gorgeous. :-)
Kinda hard to find a PS3 physical copy here in México, but yes! Great game!
Even the Xbox 360 version is good to play. Very cheap digitally.
I'm one of those people who adored the first Disgaea (played through at least four times between PS2 and PSP), but basically ignored D2. I blame franchise fatigue. NIS leaned way too hard on this IP the last ten years. Add their super sleazy DLC models to everything after the second game, and my interest was almost fully sapped. Thanks for reminding me about it, though, I probably will pick it up on steep discount some day.
Kind of sad Disgaea d2 is not available digitally or on any other platform.
I played in PS Now
I managed to get the collectors edition and guide bundle when Nisa USA had a sale.
The game and all its DLC is still up on the EU Store actually.
@@Murasakitsuyukusa it has dlc?
@@bustergundo516 Yep, tons of DLC characters including Plume from Battle Princess and Metallia from The Witch and the Hundred Knight.
Great list, thank you. I'd say that Tears to Tiara II, Trinity Souls of Zill O'll, Ar noSurge, Lost Dimension, Trinity Universe, Fairy Fencer F and Agarest 2 are also pretty underrated. It always baffles me when people say that PS3 didn't have any good JRPGs when in actuality there were quite a lot of them. Just makes you wonder if those people really owned the console.
Yes! Watching the video, I kept telling myself I hope Eternal Sonata makes the list and it did! Such a masterpiece of a game. Thanks and keep up the great work.
No, Trails of Cold Steel 1 and 2 are not nearly popular enough yet, but are getting there slowly. Heck, I'd say that there's even an argument to be made that it's more 3 that has gotten more attention due to it being released on the Switch and Falcom saying that it's a "great jumping on point", totally ignoring 1 and 2. I recognize that was due to the whole xseed vs NISA thing, but it just further pushes the point that 1 and 2 are more underrated than Graces F and Eternal Sonata for example, which in contrast I knew about for years before anything Trails came up on my radar.
I'm so happy to see Star Ocean 4 on this list, but my major gripe with the game is that the grinding is slow and tough starting out, and I'm playing the ps4 remaster. Maybe the original ps3 version will be better. Luckily I own the ps3 version but sadly no ps3 console. I love star ocean so much I just had to have it though
Graces F is such a fantastic tales of, many people keep talking trash about the characters but for me they are fine, yeah the mc is a sleepover and bland character but if i could tolerate and like Rean and Lloyd , i can pass this guy, Symphonia characters are waaaaay worse , boring .....
Atelier Escha is very expensive to get lately for those who will try and find a copy.
Folklore, ninja gaiden sigma and dark sector were my first games when I got my first ps3. Great games
I played most of the games. I can understand why they are rated so low. For disgaea d2 its just forgettable. You like the characters but the story is done. As for the white knight chronicles you are not a main character, nothing you do matters. You contribute nothing to the plot...tales of graces game where your not trying to save the world or something, S for your number one pick....its the ending. It sucked
I think the first Nier was underrated. Everyone just talks about Automata but....I really enjoyed Nier! XD
Eternal Sonata is the game I try my best to get everyone to play. Crazy underrated. Amazing music, great battle systems, if you love music it's even a added bonus. It's amazes me how basicly no one talks about this amazing gift of a Rpg.
Eternal Sonata is another game that made me cry so much at the end! It's a truly beautiful story, I really recommend it to anyone who still has their 360 or PS3 (I have the 360 version). Tales of Graces F is a fairly good entry in the Tales of series, it's not in my top 3, but I definitely enjoyed playing it, and I really liked Sophie and Pascal! I actually wasn't so keen on Asbel as a protagonist, but he's not bad.
I knew I should have grabbed White Knight Chronicles...I remember looking at it for awhile haha Ar Tonelico Qoga I was playing when my PS3 broke down. I ran out and bought a new one just to continue playing it lol
It's kinda funny that you mentioned folklore, which is a snorefest, and eternal sonata, a pretty good game. I also bought white knight chronicles back in the day but I just couldn't get into it, I remember the gameplay being really slow and the world was kinda bland, but not dead like folklore.... According to the wikipedia article some of the people that worked on folklore were hired by tango gameworks, the studio that made evil within, which is actually a great game (the 1st one, 2nd was weird :p ).
I would add resonance of fate to your list. It has an AWFUL plot, AWFUL characters but the game play is so cool plus you can build the most ridiculous guns in the history of videogames (and I wouldn't call it an hyperbole!).
You are correct that some of the criticisms against Star Ocean the Last Hope are exaggerated. A few days ago on the JRPG subreddit I saw a person say that the cutscenes were too long. While story, gameplay,music and characters are all subjective...time is objective. Star Ocean The Last Hope is one of the few non handheld HD era JRPGs that respect your time. Remember back in the PS1 era when 30 minute long cutscenes were saved for the ending? Now it's just Tuesday. Maybe since they hated the characters the cutscenes seemed to be longer than they really were.
Love the list. So tired of all the same old boring lists of every "popular" top 10. This was a refreshing lost and almost half of these titles I didn't know about. So u gave me some nice "new" titles for me to check out.
Thanks bro!
Star Ocean: The Last Hope? Never actually played it, but I watched a playthrough some time ago. Or rather tried to; I was honestly bored. Really, Star Ocean never again reached the heights achieved by The Second Story.
I finished Eternal Sonata just yesterday after years of keeping it on the shelf cause I found it too difficult (i suck at games, imma be honest) but I can confirm, it is a great game. I definitely was missing out and I'm so glad my better judgement led me to never trade it or sell it. I knew what I had in my hands was not easy to find (never seen it in any store before or since i bought it, and also never seen anyone sell it second hand in my country). It is beautiful, the characters are all charming in their own way. I think the only thing i can't find here that I can find on like any Tales games, are more in-depth character interactions. But besides that, great visuals, the difficulty in the end just adds to the experience, and the battle system is really enjoyable when you get used to it.
I also like how the party level up doesn't only come with benefits but also more challenge. Especially the last level. It makes you a little OP but at a fair price.
SPOILER ALERT
I really don't understand why they have you know that Viola has feelings for Jazz, to never touch on the topic again.
Also, while I did ship Allegretto and Polka during gameplay, I feel like there was not enough build up to the ending. Like, yeah, they have a couple of slightly cute interactions but not enough to lead me where it ended up going at the very last moment.
Also, the Villain is pretty basic. Evil for the sake of it lol.
I wanted white knight chronicles to test the online a few years back but never bought it. It’s crazy nearly most of these games I’ve almost bought when they were dirt cheap at GameStop around 2014
I thought white Knight chronicles 1 and 2 were awesome but the online mode being no longer available is like having half of the game. The online part was what kept me playing for a long time after the story.
Ar tonelico qoga was cool too, eternal sonata was just amazing, the music, the battle system, the world, the anime graphics were all great, I just can't understand why people didn't love this game. Drakengard 3 not having a physical release (UK) probably hurt it, the first two were great games but were a relatively unknown series over here so I can see why they chose not to make a physical release for the third one.
Gonna disagree on some of those.
At tonelico 3 is arguably the worst of the series, it has nothing wrong plotwise and if you played the other games it gives you a rather good world building but the combat is so boring.
Drakengard 3 is not a bad game, is just a poorly optimized game and that hurts the same a lot. This game could be ported to newer consoles and be 10 times better by just better framerate.
Tales of graces F, Disgaea D2 and Star ocean 4 are not underrated, just pretty mixed on the community. I love threm and SO4 has been the only star ocean that let you explore more than 1 planet.
Agreed on Folkore and Eternal Sonata, would add Resonance of fate, Enchanted arms and Ar nosurge.
Ow boi how I love Disgaea D2, it's the only Disgaea game I played till the end game, now I actually wanna fire it up again after seeing this. Really not sure why it's so under the radar, maybe that it is exclusive to PS3, maybe it was released when other more popular games came out too, no idea honestly. Was always wondering about that myself.
I don't agree that Qoga is underrated. For me it's the worst game in this franchise (maybe Ciel nosurge would be worse). Still it's really important to play this game if you played previous 2.
On side note - you don't need this game to fully understand Ar nosurge - it use only 1st ar tonelico references.
Pretty good list, played some of those (Disgaea D2, Tales of Graces F, Eternal Sonata) and want to give a try to the Atelier games, since Ayesha kinda put me away, so it's good to hear the other ones are better.
That said, I am extremely confused as to what do you understand as Hidden Gem and what you do as Underrated, since some of the games on this list are definitely not underrated (for example: Eternal Sonata is generally well received by critics and users alike). This is not the first video in which you use those terms and I'm always unsure what do you mean.
I loved White knight chronicle, game was ahead of his time. Folklore was my older brother favorite game ever since he played the demo but at the time online purchase wasn't as common as it is now and getting a physical copy was a nightmare until I checked the game store at the mall and omg here it is I remember begging my mother because I knew how rare it was and how much my brother would love it.
(I might be lucky now that I think about it I once found a special edition of Pandora's tower JRPG on WII during a local event and also got my hands on a Fire emblem IF/FATEs special edition on a gamestore page even though it was worse than getting a ps5 at a regular price)
I love Disgaea D2
you have no idea how useful you are to Emulator users like myself. (BTW if you need an artist/animator's touch for your youtube channel let me know) I've followed you for so long Its the least I can do.
I didn't play Eternal Sontata because it is not available on the PS store, and I failed to find a physical copy.
I played the demo of Folklor and I like it, but at that time I already moved to the PS4 & forgot about it.
I loved Eternal Sonata too but I don't think it's the most criminally underrated jrpg on the system. I think Resonance of Fate and The Last Remnant are more underrated than most of the games on this list. They both happen to have PS4 ports too.
One reason reason D2 gets over looks is because many of us keep calling Disgaea 2 D2 for years and still do. D1, D2, D3, D4, D5 and now waiting on D6 it also has some side games.
Sympathics games, but the real underrated rpg are on PS2, the awesome Xenogears and Shadow Hearts 2 , my best rpg.
Star Ocean is my favorite serie, and I love last hope, combats and characters are awsome, I want to play it once again! (So2 is my favorite of all time!)
IMO Eternal Sonata is such a terrible game, I honestly lack the words to describe how hard it was to beat for me because I just couldn't care less. To each his own of course.
I tried getting into Disgaea D2 and got a fair bit into it but then got bored. I'm weird but I find the disgaea series not as appealing as a whole and whenever I play they end up turning me off from srpgs for a little bit until I happen to play a good sprg once again.
Otherwise I played them all except Folklore.
I tried to play the two atelier games escha logy and Aisha on PS now but PS now kept crashing and I can never get to a point where I can save so I think I'm going to buy these too for the PS4
As an underrated JRPG, I also think of the first two "Trails On Cold Steel" originally released on PS3 which are absolutely brilliant. One of the best gaming experiences of my life.
Thank you for your list, I agree (almost) on everything ;)
You must've missed the last 30 seconds of this video
The entire trails series honestly. It's not exactly underrated, since everyone that knows about it for the most part agrees they're amazing, particularly the stories, but it's kind of an obscure title for some reason....well, could be the length.
I played Eternal Sonata and its one of the beat jrpg for the xbox360 and ps3
White Knight sucks, both plot and gameplay.
FF 13-2 is criminally underrated and gets a lot of hate. Great list as always.
If I may make a suggestion, please have a tag or headline somewhere that has the title of the game you are currently talking about, please and thank you.
This intro was always epic you should bring it back !
I’m curious what the difference between hidden gem and underrated is to you? I always thought those were the same thing
I had to sell my copy of eternal sonata alongside some other games because money was short back then, it's the one game i regret selling :/