I love RPGs, always have. I'm an american and back in the 90's if you were a fan of RPGs, you were considered boring or a nerd among your peers. We weren't nerds just had a better attention span for these games...
I'm from the UK only got a hand full of JRPGs on the snes it wasn't until the PlayStation 1 and the success of final fantasy 7 that we started getting them released in spades over here :)
i liked chrono cross at first, but I kept running into game breaking bugs that completely stopped progress, I know it happened at least twice after so many hours of playing... But I also broke FF7 back then, i remember the buggy refused to go back across the ocean on the ship
Of all rpgs i have played for 20 years until now, i can say that i always go back to play Chrono Cross and every single time i feel the same, going back to where i was 8 years old and my cousin lent me Chrono Cross.
That's a good place to start. Even though I often trash on Chrono Cross, it's a decent game really and especially good for beginners due to it's lack of difficulty. If I hadn't played Chrono Trigger before Cross, I wouldn't have been disappointed by Cross as much as it just didn't measure up to it's predecessor.
Same thing here, but my 1st was Phantasy Star 4 for my Mega-drive. (Eu alugava a fita para jogar no final de semana, não entendia nada mas por algum motivo aquele jogo me cativou)
@@cuyo02 I think that's the primary reason. Because even if "Eternia" was copyrighted, it's still not a good enough reason to call the game "Tales of Destiny II". Also it was probably the second Tales game released in the west at the time.
@@rikterterran3833 it could be both though. Avoiding a potential lawsuit from mattel IS actually an excellent motivation for a rename. From there well, if they're gonna rename anyway why not try to bank on a known name? 😅
@@kyushirokun that was my point, though. To avoid copyright, they could have named it something like "Tales of Eternity". So I'm guessing brand recognition was their primary motivation.
Breath of Fire III was my favorite on PS1, along with FFIX, and launched my love for Dragons! I would love to have remakes for BoF3 or 4!! It's sad that we didn't get some of those RPG here in France... and I remember some games were all in english too... playable now but before? ;_; Great video!
bold statement, playing it now and have never beaten it before. So far its excellent. I hate the delay into battle though, I have missed so many jumps because of this. I honestly knock a damn point off it for that lol. Music is amazing and story and characters are pretty great so far :)
my profile says it too. Xenogears is a fucking master piece. it has so much potential given that this game was rushed in its 2nd disc because the fund was transferred to FF7, Squaresoft was in a brink of bankruptcy before and had to choose between Xenogears or FF7. Sadly, we know the answer it was FF7. either way, Squaresoft won though. wish they would remake Xenogears so we could see the full potential of it
@DarkHunter the last disc the story got ruined.the budget was none existenced.great game still.but for me I'd go with legend of dragoon or suikoden 2.but cant go wrong with either
true, Funny thing is I bought it when it came out and I beat it but found it very complicated in terms of story, writing style, crafting and puzzles etc but really enjoyed it nontheless for the cool combat and atmosphere and characters etc. I was about 12 at the time. Years later in 2015 I decided to finish it again but now I was much older of course and could get a much better grasp of the story and characters and crafting. I genuinely enjoyed it more in 2015 than I did in 2000 lol'! fantastic game, One of the best on ps1 imo, My only real critique is I wish it had a quick weapon swap button rather than having to go into menu whole time.
I hardly ever hear of Legend of Legaia anymore. It has always been right up there with FF7 and Ocarina of Time as the best of all time. It was fantastic and Im always dissappointed to find that so many havent even heard of it. It had a huge impact on my childhood.
i know, i figured it sold a lot worse considering the way they acted as though it was a big failure and dropped the series. just because it didn't sell as much as ff, which already had a large fan base. if they would have continued the series and improved on each new game, it may have one day surpassed ff. for their first rpg being that good, i think they could have made an rpg that blew away ff if they kept at it.
Background music takes me back to my childhood days. Breathe of Fire III was my #1, to me back then the world of BO3 is big and I need to explore everything... It's bitter sweet remembering those days.
I saw Parasite Eve clocking in at 1.9 million for second place and then Dragon Quest 7 clocking in at 4.3 for first place, and I was like d***!!! All these legendary RPGs on the list of 25, and the first place more than DOUBLED the second place which is insane. Then.... I saw the Final Fantasy sale liste. G** D***!!!
This is like a list of my favorite games lol. I own about 80% of these games and so many hidden/forgotten gems. Musashi would be an amazing remake/remaster, legaia is so unique with its combat. Chrono Cross is still my favorite rpg as well. I love Saga Frontier, but I easily understand why people hate it, its a game better played on replay, when you know whats going on. At that point its a great series of 8-15h campaigns, great for little bursts between other games.
Final Fantasy VII - IX kinda changed me forever as a person. Guess I’m not alone in that regard. Genuinely surprised to not hear Vagrant Story named. Or Jade Cocoon.
The first video game I ever played was Final Fantasy 3 on the Super Nintendo (now known as 6) I was only 5 but it solidified my love of RPGs so the PS1 era is my favorite gaming gen I experienced. Also that's when Squaresoft was killing the JRPGs. Final Fantasy Tactics is my favorite game of all time followed my Legend of Mana.
Chrono Cross my love. I'm pleased to see almost all my favorite games on the list, sadly BoF 4 didn't make it but 3 was amazing too. I'm very surprised to see Digimon world in this list too, one of my favorites of all time. Great video Erick, keep it up!
Legend of Legaia was the first RPG i played on the PS1 and finish it within a day because i dont have a memory card and did not know that a memory card exist. Ahahah
Legend of Dragoon and Breath of Fire 3 are probably my favorite games of all time. I own or have played most of the games on this list. I'm currently playing Chrono Cross again after like 15 years. I've always heard that Legend of Dragoon didn't have a sequel or anything because it sold poorly. I was surprised to see it on the list.
That's a pretty stunning list. Judging by Suikoden 2's print I'm surprised it cracked the top 25 at all. The Final Fantasy titles altogether on PS1 using the numbers here account for a total sales figure of 26.6 million copies sold worldwide. Holy hell that's high. I had no idea that DW7 sold well over 4 million copies, I mean, it does make sense but in that era that is damn impressive for a game without "Final" and "Fantasy in its name". Great job with this. Looking forward to other sales lists in the future!
Thumbs up to Parasite Eve and Parasite Eve 2. The first one was epic but quite difficult game to me. I was only able to play it via an emulator because I live in EU. Chrono Cross was awesome, as well.
@Erick is this a new series you plan on doing on every console? Or was this a one off for the PS1 alone? Either way thank you very much Sir was a fun watch.
vagrant story makes me a SOLID HARDCORE 100% perfectionist gamer, by getting all 100 stats to all ultimate wpn armor headgear gloves, footgear and shield all Damascus ultimate final set. it took me 1yr for me to complete everything, and that's the beginning every time I play RPG/JRPG game I want a 100% perfect completion gameplay :)
i'm very surprised ffix sold so well. nobody i knew gave a crap about ps1 at that point, they all moved onto ps2. i was the only one i knew who bought ff9. they were all waiting for ffx, which imo doesn't even compare to ix.
I subscribed when u said that ur favorite jrpg game is Chrono Cross. Chrono Cross Final Fantasy 8 Star Ocean 1st departure (psp) Final Fantasy Tactics So many jrpg games that I played in the PS1. But this is my all time favorites.
vagrant story, ffviii, chrono cross, PE1 and xenogears. been a gamer for over 30 years now it's hard for me to imagine those 5 games ever dropping out of my top 10 favorite games of all time
Fantastic video Eric, thank you 🙂 Haha I really wish some of these games were released in Europe too! Until today I also still haven't been able to get many that either weren't sold in or had a very small number sold in Australia 😆 Very glad to have gotten a couple of great NTSC ones though, including Xenogears and your favourite mentioned Chrono Cross 😄
Omg Mega Man Legends and Legend of Legaia are the two most iconic and favorite PS1 games from my childhood. They are the very top, just as good if not better than Ocarina of Time and FF7 respectively.
The graphics and battle system of Legaia are leagues ahead of everything else on this list, which all look like upgraded hand drawn SNES jrpg copies. It's just on an entirely different scale. If only they hadn't lost the original devs for Legaia 2 when they decided to scrap the original story and go with the most boring bland cliche rpg ever, that only slightly resembled Legaia 1. That was a huge bust, I don't think I even beat Legaia 2 because I was just boring as hell, after I was so freakin hyped up to play it too.. And MegaMan Legends is just the shizz, I still feel the pain from Capcom getting our hopes up for Legends 3 only just to destroy them by cancelling shortly after. They did get a lot of backlash from it, I still to this day am disinclined to play their other games.
They didn't release Eternia here in the U.S. because Mattel had a copyright on the "Eternia" name, due to He-Man & the Masters of the Universe. Thanks to that & naming it Destiny II, we never got my most anticipated "Tales of" game -- the "true" Destiny 2. Why Namco didn't call it something else is beyond me, but I believe they called it Destiny II because the 1st Destiny sold well in the US. Destiny (PS1) is actually my favorite Tales game, as well as my 1st Tales. Wish we'd gotten the PS2 director's cut remake, too.
kinda funny if you say "world wide" if most of the games where no availalbe in PAL regions so not the EU. So for PE2: :this game was available in the EU (and even had german text) the first game was not available at all therefore PE2 has a larger sales number
Very interesting video! Especially the comparation of sales in japan/rest of the world. I didn't expect Arc the Lad and Musashi were so popular in japan.
Same here. I had arc the lad collection with everything including the paper stands and rubber thumsticks that was in a box set. No one I knew not have ever known have played the games but I actually loved them.
i remember checking the ps3 store's ps1 classics for legend of dragoon almost every day and being so surprised and happy when it was actually on there one day.
a lot of these good ps1 rpgs are on the ps3 store. ff7, 8, 9, and tactics, dragoon, vagrant story, pretty sure wild arms 1 & 2 and arc the lad 2 & 3 are on there. also a lot of great ps2 rpgs that i got on there, mostly atlus games. persona 3 & 4, nocturne, digital devil saga 1 & 2. i was so glad i held onto my ps3 when i found all these great rpgs on the store that aren't on the ps4 store.
WoW, those ff numbers really put into perspective how massive the franchise was(still is), when it only managed to lose to the second best seller in its genre, which is also happens to be considered a national treasure level fairy tail... with an offshoot that wasnt even that expensive to make... and each other game sold so much better, that same second place would need to almost sell 2x as much more to defeat even 1 of the main games...
Nice info. My favorite ones in order. 1) Suikoden 2 (favorite game ever) 2) Chrono Cross 3) Breath of Fire 3 (I am sorry, I didn't like BoF4 that much) 4) Valkyrie Profile. *Final Fantasy Tactics (favorite in the franchise) *FF7, favorite main title.
I find it very interesting how the games that had most of their sales from Japan were sprite-based or had chibi graphics and very few of the sprite based games in general sold very well outside of it, just SO2 and Xenogears. When you consider that the American RPG boom was FFVII and how a lot of people would dismiss any game without 3D graphics, it makes sense. I've always felt for the PAL Regions having missed out on so many amazing games. Parasite Eve was probably the only Survival Horror game I wasn't too terrified to play. Probably because it was less reliant on jump scares and more about the atmosphere.
Well modded ps1s were so common back then we didn't really miss out if a game didn't get released over here officially we'd either get it from an local import store and pay an extra £20 at the time for it or somebody knew a guy who would have a list of all the latest releases in America and burn a copy for you for a few quid It's how I was able to play xenogears and chrono cross back in the day we did pretty well in the ps1 gen for getting JRPGs but there was still a lot we missed or some strange releases like parasite Eve 2 but not 1 or how we didn't get wild arms 2 despite getting the first one yet we got vagrant story so yeah it was a strange time haha
i was surprised ffix sold so well, most people moved onto ps2 by then. i bought ffix but i didn't know anyone else who did, they all acted like it was stupid to waste my $ on a ps1 game instead of getting a ps2 game.
Fun Fact about Xenogears the very reason the 2nd disc was rushed because Squaresoft was in a brink of bankruptcy before, it had the choose between Xenogears or FFVII, sadly FFVII was chosen instead of Xenogears. thus the result is Xenogears 2nd disc was so rushed it's like watching a story lol. either way, Squaresoft would've won if they choose Xenogears. Fun Fact 2nd about Xenogears Xenogears was considered to be a Final Fantasy game before it was named Xenogears, but it was too dark, it has mechs, and stayed too far from what Final Fantasy was, thus it was given a different name. what we now know as Xenogears. A quote straight from wikipedia. "The first title, Xenogears, was originally proposed as a storyline for Final Fantasy VII, but was allowed to be developed as its own project. After Square shifted its focus onto the Final Fantasy series"
@@paulsmith9192 I'm referring to Xenogears place as to why I said "sadly". Don't get my wrong, I'm also a fan and FFVII is my first JRPG and the sole reason why I love RPGs in general. Played VII more than I can count with my fingers. I just explained why Xenogears Disc 2 is rushed. I'm not bashing on FFVII or whatever you might have interpreted it, you don't have to tell me it's a Classic and etc2. cause until now, I'm playing PS1 JRPs (currently FFIX Unleashed Mod).
Honestly, Arc the Lad 2 for me is the best underrated game I've played on the PS1. Just like Chrono Cross, it's the music that sticks with me to this day whoever is the composer for Arc the Lad 1 and 2 deserves more recognition. It's so 90s anime, but in an amazingly good way. Gives me Yu YU Hakusho ED / GTO ED2 vibes. Not to mention the battle system on those games are simple, but rewards your for playing smartly. I played Arc the Lad 2 before I turned 10, and even I finished it! That's not to say it's an easy game. Hell no. It's just that the system isn't complicated for a kid to understand, but still manageable enough that it doesn't block anyone out from enjoying the whole game.
nice video, interesting to see the numbers of the games and how some of the best were truly hidden gems. Though technically Vagrant Story is part of the Final Fantasy 12/Tactics world
@@gethermedel3620 All three were set in the world of Ivalice for starters. Vagrant Story is even listed in the Final Fantasy Wiki. finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Vagrant_Story
almost all these games that didn't sell well in USA, my grandpa had and them gave them to me when he was done with it. That's how I became a jrpg fan as a kid
I find it interesting that so many of the top 5 were not released in Europe - no Dragon Quest, Parasite Eve, Chrono cross or Xenogears (all of which I would have bought if they came out in the UK)
what is so good about valkyrie profile? you cant grind your main units effectively because you need to also grind the other units for odin but the monsters dont respawn without spending two days. i also read that you can solo the game but the combo special takes atleast 8 hits to fill i really like how the main story is just recruit units and send them to odin but no character development between the main cast is not what rpg's are about
well, to be fair, BoF4 was released in 2000, so it makes sense the ps2 was almost out of the door by then, its safe to assume people just were looking foward to it. also, i remember the reviews of 4 not being that good. they werent bad, but most people felt like it wasnt a big leap foward compared with 3, and it didnt help that the dragon forms were very lackluster by comparisson. to many it felt like a big step backwards.
I feel that BOF III's biggest contribution was that classic SNES animation graphic like style. It helped the game feel familiar with some improvements as well. I, for one, have difficulty playing BOF IV because of its pastel color scheme. It has always been an eyesore to me. Also, at the time that I started to get into BOF IV, I was very cultured into anime by then. So those animated cut scenes didn't strike me as a good quality. I really do want to give that game a chance, but maybe first, I need a version of it where the color scheme can be brighter and more lively and vibrant. Maybe a little more detail to those animation scenes wouldn't hurt either.
Hi! I wonder if the numbers for Dragon Quest 7 are representative of the sells done back at the time. In Europe we didn't get that game, I'm surprised that you said that the game sold 4 millions worldwide. Perhaps that number takes count of the 3DS remake sells?, that was the only official release of the game here in Europe.
I wish I had a time machine solely so I can time travel back to the 90s and buy all these games brand new for $60 PS1 is my personal favorite time with a console and I missed out on buying so many great games because I was only 10 and couldn't buy anything for myself. Not like today.
We also have to remember advertising just wasn’t big for our PG’s back then. Any of those games dropped right now on the PlayStation store or the Xbox store I would sell millions if any of those games were remade from the bottom up they could become game of the year contenders. Could you imagine if they re-made vagrant story. What if they literally remade parasite Eve something similar to what we saw with resident evil two. Hell like I said most of these games could literally just get re-released in emulated form and they would sell millions. They could literally charge $20 per game and we would spend it. If they remade some of them we would fly through the roof. I remember the square Started their RPG initiative a few years back now they should’ve just remade some of their classics.
Oh wow, Arc the Lad 2 is nostalgic. Gameplay wise, it's outdated and you'll want to emulate it for speed hacking. But no game comes close to the playing the adventurer/bounty hunter for hire trope in a modern setting in ps1.
I'd bet 100% that brave fencer Musashi only sold well because of the FF8 demo that was included... at least thats why me and my friend bought it. We didnt end up giving it a serious try until probably a year later.
That punch at the end... I knew FFIX didn't sold as much as 7 & 8, but I didn't know the gap was that big. But it doesn't matter. For me, IX will always be the best FF.
I think a lot of people like the magitech aesthetic of 6, 7, and 8 more than the pure fantasy crystal aesthetic. I know 6 and 7 are my favorites over 9 or 4. I like the first half of 8 (through the garden battle) but the second half left a bad taste in my mouth about that game.
i feel like you can point to a "FF7 Effect" and a "FF8 Effect" with these numbers. Most of the top half of this list was stuff that came out in between 7 & 8, riding the worldwide JRPG boom, while the sequels with lesser numbers tended to be toward the end of that period or post-FF8. Not sure how much younger fans know this, but FF8 got a massive backlash from the English-speaking world at the time and was almost certainly the moment that drove the more mainstream audience away from the genre. It seems have a lot more defenders nowadays, but i think you can look at the drop from 8's numbers to 9's as an indicator of this - especially given that 9 got much better reviews at the time! Anyway, glad to see my favs Valkyrie Profile & Suikoden II make the list at all, and Saga Frontier (yes, i am an eternal truther for that game) almost on par with some of Square's more hyped releases!
![Run Away - Tzuyu(TWICE) ツウィ 쯔위 [Music Bank] | KBS WORLD TV 240906](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KnHNNyAYiu0/mqdefault.jpg)
I love RPGs, always have. I'm an american and back in the 90's if you were a fan of RPGs, you were considered boring or a nerd among your peers. We weren't nerds just had a better attention span for these games...
yup people had that stupid stigma before that video games were not cool
Agreed
I'm from the UK only got a hand full of JRPGs on the snes it wasn't until the PlayStation 1 and the success of final fantasy 7 that we started getting them released in spades over here :)
@@HollowRick wonderful feeling, wasn't it?
@@bryanfrye8770 oh it was :D shame we still missed out on a few classics but having a chipped PlayStation 1 got around that :)
Chrono Cross was the first RPG i played in the PS1. Now i am a RPG fan 100%
Funny. Chrono trigger was the first rpg I played on the SNES and got hooked.
FF7 was mine
Breath of fire 4 is the best
i liked chrono cross at first, but I kept running into game breaking bugs that completely stopped progress, I know it happened at least twice after so many hours of playing...
But I also broke FF7 back then, i remember the buggy refused to go back across the ocean on the ship
Of all rpgs i have played for 20 years until now, i can say that i always go back to play Chrono Cross and every single time i feel the same, going back to where i was 8 years old and my cousin lent me Chrono Cross.
Chrono Cross was my first JRPG. I am Brazilian. At time I was 10 years old and didn't understand english. I toke an entire year to finish this game.
O meu foi FF 7 e Star Ocean 2, imagina o sofrimento do moleque.
That's a good place to start. Even though I often trash on Chrono Cross, it's a decent game really and especially good for beginners due to it's lack of difficulty. If I hadn't played Chrono Trigger before Cross, I wouldn't have been disappointed by Cross as much as it just didn't measure up to it's predecessor.
Same thing here, but my 1st was Phantasy Star 4 for my Mega-drive.
(Eu alugava a fita para jogar no final de semana, não entendia nada mas por algum motivo aquele jogo me cativou)
@@acidwizard6528 . I am of thoae who played Trigger first but didn't like it (it bored me), but played Cross and I loved it for completely.
@@x2rmav puts kkkkk quando joguei esses ja sabia o suficiente de inglês
Due to copyrights with Mattel they didn't name it Tales of Eternia (He-man), I still have my copy of it back in my parents house in Venezuela
oh! that makes sense!. I thought it was to capitalize on the "fame" of the first one.
Nah, it's more of trying to get the people to know it's a sequel to Destiny.
@@cuyo02 I think that's the primary reason. Because even if "Eternia" was copyrighted, it's still not a good enough reason to call the game "Tales of Destiny II". Also it was probably the second Tales game released in the west at the time.
@@rikterterran3833 it could be both though. Avoiding a potential lawsuit from mattel IS actually an excellent motivation for a rename. From there well, if they're gonna rename anyway why not try to bank on a known name? 😅
@@kyushirokun that was my point, though. To avoid copyright, they could have named it something like "Tales of Eternity". So I'm guessing brand recognition was their primary motivation.
Breath of Fire III was my favorite on PS1, along with FFIX, and launched my love for Dragons!
I would love to have remakes for BoF3 or 4!!
It's sad that we didn't get some of those RPG here in France... and I remember some games were all in english too... playable now but before? ;_;
Great video!
Absolutely
Xenogears is the best JRPG released for the first playstation.
bold statement, playing it now and have never beaten it before. So far its excellent. I hate the delay into battle though, I have missed so many jumps because of this. I honestly knock a damn point off it for that lol. Music is amazing and story and characters are pretty great so far :)
my profile says it too.
Xenogears is a fucking master piece. it has so much potential given that this game was rushed in its 2nd disc because the fund was transferred to FF7, Squaresoft was in a brink of bankruptcy before and had to choose between Xenogears or FF7. Sadly, we know the answer it was FF7.
either way, Squaresoft won though.
wish they would remake Xenogears so we could see the full potential of it
@DarkHunter the last disc the story got ruined.the budget was none existenced.great game still.but for me I'd go with legend of dragoon or suikoden 2.but cant go wrong with either
Suikoden 2 is better.
The first disc is amazing. I just pretend the 2nd doesn't even exist. It's garbage and ruins the game as a whole.
I would love to see a list where you do just the numbers outside of Japan. That might help explain what gets localized/sequels and what doesn't.
I am happy that Chrono Cross and Suikoden II are part of this ranking
I can't believe how underrated Vagrant Story was. One of the best rpgs for the PSX.
true, Funny thing is I bought it when it came out and I beat it but found it very complicated in terms of story, writing style, crafting and puzzles etc but really enjoyed it nontheless for the cool combat and atmosphere and characters etc. I was about 12 at the time. Years later in 2015 I decided to finish it again but now I was much older of course and could get a much better grasp of the story and characters and crafting. I genuinely enjoyed it more in 2015 than I did in 2000 lol'! fantastic game, One of the best on ps1 imo, My only real critique is I wish it had a quick weapon swap button rather than having to go into menu whole time.
I tried having a friend playing it but he found the battle and affinity system too overcomplicated. It is truly a gem but it was not for everyone.
I hardly ever hear of Legend of Legaia anymore. It has always been right up there with FF7 and Ocarina of Time as the best of all time. It was fantastic and Im always dissappointed to find that so many havent even heard of it. It had a huge impact on my childhood.
legend of legai is my favorite.and ffviii..
I've been recently playing it, it's fantastic, love the music!
The legends of Dragoon is my favorite RPG of all time I never thought it sold that well
i know, i figured it sold a lot worse considering the way they acted as though it was a big failure and dropped the series. just because it didn't sell as much as ff, which already had a large fan base. if they would have continued the series and improved on each new game, it may have one day surpassed ff. for their first rpg being that good, i think they could have made an rpg that blew away ff if they kept at it.
imo it's the best ps1 jrpg
What about the Persona series? Persona 1 and 2. I had Persona 2 Eternal punishment since childhood and one of my most favorite games ever!
Background music takes me back to my childhood days. Breathe of Fire III was my #1, to me back then the world of BO3 is big and I need to explore everything... It's bitter sweet remembering those days.
If you plan to make a series of videos like this, can you put the Japan/Europe/NA sales on screen for us? I'd like to see how they split.
I saw Parasite Eve clocking in at 1.9 million for second place and then Dragon Quest 7 clocking in at 4.3 for first place, and I was like d***!!! All these legendary RPGs on the list of 25, and the first place more than DOUBLED the second place which is insane. Then.... I saw the Final Fantasy sale liste. G** D***!!!
How nostalgic! I loved many of these games growing up. In particular star ocean 2 and xenogears
Parasite Eve is my favorite game, and I was shocked to see it at number 2.
For Christmas, i got a ps1 with Brave Fencer Musashi, and let's just say, it holds a very special place in my heart.
This is like a list of my favorite games lol. I own about 80% of these games and so many hidden/forgotten gems. Musashi would be an amazing remake/remaster, legaia is so unique with its combat. Chrono Cross is still my favorite rpg as well. I love Saga Frontier, but I easily understand why people hate it, its a game better played on replay, when you know whats going on. At that point its a great series of 8-15h campaigns, great for little bursts between other games.
Final Fantasy VII - IX kinda changed me forever as a person. Guess I’m not alone in that regard.
Genuinely surprised to not hear Vagrant Story named. Or Jade Cocoon.
So happy to see that breath of fire 3 is in the 1 mil bracket
legend of legaia will have special place in my heart, the battle system, the story , beautiful
Wished I would've stuck with it. I was kinda coming out of the JRPG stuff and my collection got lost.
The first video game I ever played was Final Fantasy 3 on the Super Nintendo (now known as 6) I was only 5 but it solidified my love of RPGs so the PS1 era is my favorite gaming gen I experienced.
Also that's when Squaresoft was killing the JRPGs. Final Fantasy Tactics is my favorite game of all time followed my Legend of Mana.
Chrono Cross my love. I'm pleased to see almost all my favorite games on the list, sadly BoF 4 didn't make it but 3 was amazing too. I'm very surprised to see Digimon world in this list too, one of my favorites of all time. Great video Erick, keep it up!
Dude! That was freaking interesting! I never would have guessed Brave Fencer Musashi sold so well!
I had no idea either. It turns out more people know that game than I previously thought.
It sold due to extra sqaresoft disc which is Final Fantasy
Legend of Legaia was the first RPG i played on the PS1 and finish it within a day because i dont have a memory card and did not know that a memory card exist. Ahahah
Legend of Dragoon, Tales of Eternia, Saga Frontier, Vagrant Story and Valkyrie Profile ❤️
Legend of Dragoon and Breath of Fire 3 are probably my favorite games of all time. I own or have played most of the games on this list. I'm currently playing Chrono Cross again after like 15 years. I've always heard that Legend of Dragoon didn't have a sequel or anything because it sold poorly. I was surprised to see it on the list.
That's a pretty stunning list. Judging by Suikoden 2's print I'm surprised it cracked the top 25 at all. The Final Fantasy titles altogether on PS1 using the numbers here account for a total sales figure of 26.6 million copies sold worldwide. Holy hell that's high. I had no idea that DW7 sold well over 4 million copies, I mean, it does make sense but in that era that is damn impressive for a game without "Final" and "Fantasy in its name". Great job with this. Looking forward to other sales lists in the future!
It's Dragon Quest, it always sell like that in Japan, it's par on course with all the main series even today. DQXI sold about these numbers too.
Dragon Quest 7 is my JRPG favorite of all times
Chrono Cross is my ALL TIME FAVORITE GAME PERIOD. #1 RPG at the very least
Thumbs up to Parasite Eve and Parasite Eve 2. The first one was epic but quite difficult game to me. I was only able to play it via an emulator because I live in EU. Chrono Cross was awesome, as well.
Did it work well on the emulator?
@Erick is this a new series you plan on doing on every console? Or was this a one off for the PS1 alone? Either way thank you very much Sir was a fun watch.
Thanks for including the FF numbers. It was interesting to see them as well.
vagrant story makes me a SOLID HARDCORE 100% perfectionist gamer, by getting all 100 stats to all ultimate wpn armor headgear gloves, footgear and shield all Damascus ultimate final set. it took me 1yr for me to complete everything, and that's the beginning every time I play RPG/JRPG game I want a 100% perfect completion gameplay :)
The music of the begining 1:00 min is from Final fantasy the crystal bearers. I just wanted to say it.
Thanks for including the ff figures at the end.
i'm very surprised ffix sold so well. nobody i knew gave a crap about ps1 at that point, they all moved onto ps2. i was the only one i knew who bought ff9. they were all waiting for ffx, which imo doesn't even compare to ix.
I subscribed when u said that ur favorite jrpg game is Chrono Cross.
Chrono Cross
Final Fantasy 8
Star Ocean 1st departure (psp)
Final Fantasy Tactics
So many jrpg games that I played in the PS1. But this is my all time favorites.
@Koko Bop I like cross,but wanted a true chrono sequel. It should of been called something else.
vagrant story, ffviii, chrono cross, PE1 and xenogears. been a gamer for over 30 years now it's hard for me to imagine those 5 games ever dropping out of my top 10 favorite games of all time
Suikoden 2 is awesome! One of the most underrated games I've ever played
Fantastic video Eric, thank you 🙂 Haha I really wish some of these games were released in Europe too! Until today I also still haven't been able to get many that either weren't sold in or had a very small number sold in Australia 😆 Very glad to have gotten a couple of great NTSC ones though, including Xenogears and your favourite mentioned Chrono Cross 😄
Omg Mega Man Legends and Legend of Legaia are the two most iconic and favorite PS1 games from my childhood. They are the very top, just as good if not better than Ocarina of Time and FF7 respectively.
The graphics and battle system of Legaia are leagues ahead of everything else on this list, which all look like upgraded hand drawn SNES jrpg copies. It's just on an entirely different scale. If only they hadn't lost the original devs for Legaia 2 when they decided to scrap the original story and go with the most boring bland cliche rpg ever, that only slightly resembled Legaia 1. That was a huge bust, I don't think I even beat Legaia 2 because I was just boring as hell, after I was so freakin hyped up to play it too..
And MegaMan Legends is just the shizz, I still feel the pain from Capcom getting our hopes up for Legends 3 only just to destroy them by cancelling shortly after. They did get a lot of backlash from it, I still to this day am disinclined to play their other games.
They didn't release Eternia here in the U.S. because Mattel had a copyright on the "Eternia" name, due to He-Man & the Masters of the Universe. Thanks to that & naming it Destiny II, we never got my most anticipated "Tales of" game -- the "true" Destiny 2. Why Namco didn't call it something else is beyond me, but I believe they called it Destiny II because the 1st Destiny sold well in the US. Destiny (PS1) is actually my favorite Tales game, as well as my 1st Tales. Wish we'd gotten the PS2 director's cut remake, too.
I still enjoyed Wild arms 2 no matter what anyone says buddy!
kinda funny if you say "world wide" if most of the games where no availalbe in PAL regions so not the EU. So for PE2: :this game was available in the EU (and even had german text) the first game was not available at all therefore PE2 has a larger sales number
Very interesting video! Especially the comparation of sales in japan/rest of the world. I didn't expect Arc the Lad and Musashi were so popular in japan.
Comparation é bom hein, Seu Creysson kkkkk
Same here. I had arc the lad collection with everything including the paper stands and rubber thumsticks that was in a box set. No one I knew not have ever known have played the games but I actually loved them.
It's always Suikoden 2 for me. That game did everything right. Finished it for 7th time now.
I bought a sealed copy of Suikoden II for 19.99 $ at a Canadian Store.
What a steal. o.O
First Parasite Eve also was JP and NA only. Only second one was released in EU sadly.
Yeah that's right but there are a lot of translation patches, for example i am italian ad se have a full fan translation.
Nice video still i was shocked breath of fire 4 not that popular it sell less.
I loved Legends of Mana. Still have my original new game + on a memory card.
Sadly, most of these games are quite expensive (physical).
Great list, thanks!
i remember checking the ps3 store's ps1 classics for legend of dragoon almost every day and being so surprised and happy when it was actually on there one day.
a lot of these good ps1 rpgs are on the ps3 store. ff7, 8, 9, and tactics, dragoon, vagrant story, pretty sure wild arms 1 & 2 and arc the lad 2 & 3 are on there. also a lot of great ps2 rpgs that i got on there, mostly atlus games. persona 3 & 4, nocturne, digital devil saga 1 & 2. i was so glad i held onto my ps3 when i found all these great rpgs on the store that aren't on the ps4 store.
WoW, those ff numbers really put into perspective how massive the franchise was(still is), when it only managed to lose to the second best seller in its genre, which is also happens to be considered a national treasure level fairy tail... with an offshoot that wasnt even that expensive to make... and each other game sold so much better, that same second place would need to almost sell 2x as much more to defeat even 1 of the main games...
Nice info.
My favorite ones in order.
1) Suikoden 2 (favorite game ever)
2) Chrono Cross
3) Breath of Fire 3 (I am sorry, I didn't like BoF4 that much)
4) Valkyrie Profile.
*Final Fantasy Tactics (favorite in the franchise)
*FF7, favorite main title.
Say whaaat didn't expect DMW1 so high on the list. Definitely one of the best games I've ever played
I find it very interesting how the games that had most of their sales from Japan were sprite-based or had chibi graphics and very few of the sprite based games in general sold very well outside of it, just SO2 and Xenogears. When you consider that the American RPG boom was FFVII and how a lot of people would dismiss any game without 3D graphics, it makes sense.
I've always felt for the PAL Regions having missed out on so many amazing games.
Parasite Eve was probably the only Survival Horror game I wasn't too terrified to play. Probably because it was less reliant on jump scares and more about the atmosphere.
Well modded ps1s were so common back then we didn't really miss out if a game didn't get released over here officially we'd either get it from an local import store and pay an extra £20 at the time for it or somebody knew a guy who would have a list of all the latest releases in America and burn a copy for you for a few quid
It's how I was able to play xenogears and chrono cross back in the day we did pretty well in the ps1 gen for getting JRPGs but there was still a lot we missed or some strange releases like parasite Eve 2 but not 1 or how we didn't get wild arms 2 despite getting the first one yet we got vagrant story so yeah it was a strange time haha
The most underrated FF main title sold more than the most popular rpg in Japan lol
i was surprised ffix sold so well, most people moved onto ps2 by then. i bought ffix but i didn't know anyone else who did, they all acted like it was stupid to waste my $ on a ps1 game instead of getting a ps2 game.
I bought the ps1 just for ff7. Great game. Lots of great games on this list that I’ve played.
Fun Fact about Xenogears
the very reason the 2nd disc was rushed because Squaresoft was in a brink of bankruptcy before, it had the choose between Xenogears or FFVII, sadly FFVII was chosen instead of Xenogears. thus the result is Xenogears 2nd disc was so rushed it's like watching a story lol.
either way, Squaresoft would've won if they choose Xenogears.
Fun Fact 2nd about Xenogears
Xenogears was considered to be a Final Fantasy game before it was named Xenogears, but it was too dark, it has mechs, and stayed too far from what Final Fantasy was, thus it was given a different name.
what we now know as Xenogears.
A quote straight from wikipedia.
"The first title, Xenogears, was originally proposed as a storyline for Final Fantasy VII, but was allowed to be developed as its own project. After Square shifted its focus onto the Final Fantasy series"
@Gether Medel sadly?ff7 is a classic one of my favourite jrpgs. Ff7 saved square
@@paulsmith9192 I'm referring to Xenogears place as to why I said "sadly".
Don't get my wrong, I'm also a fan and FFVII is my first JRPG and the sole reason why I love RPGs in general.
Played VII more than I can count with my fingers.
I just explained why Xenogears Disc 2 is rushed. I'm not bashing on FFVII or whatever you might have interpreted it, you don't have to tell me it's a Classic and etc2. cause until now, I'm playing PS1 JRPs (currently FFIX Unleashed Mod).
Honestly, Arc the Lad 2 for me is the best underrated game I've played on the PS1. Just like Chrono Cross, it's the music that sticks with me to this day whoever is the composer for Arc the Lad 1 and 2 deserves more recognition. It's so 90s anime, but in an amazingly good way. Gives me Yu YU Hakusho ED / GTO ED2 vibes.
Not to mention the battle system on those games are simple, but rewards your for playing smartly.
I played Arc the Lad 2 before I turned 10, and even I finished it! That's not to say it's an easy game. Hell no. It's just that the system isn't complicated for a kid to understand, but still manageable enough that it doesn't block anyone out from enjoying the whole game.
nice video, interesting to see the numbers of the games and how some of the best were truly hidden gems. Though technically Vagrant Story is part of the Final Fantasy 12/Tactics world
I would love to see the articles or story how the Vagrant Story is connected to FFXII/Tactics World
@@gethermedel3620 All three were set in the world of Ivalice for starters. Vagrant Story is even listed in the Final Fantasy Wiki. finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Vagrant_Story
Tales of Eternia may have had an issue with the Masters of the Universe franchise in using the name Eternia.
almost all these games that didn't sell well in USA, my grandpa had and them gave them to me when he was done with it. That's how I became a jrpg fan as a kid
Sad that Breath of Fire IV didn't made it in the entry: it's the best game of the entire BOF series.
I find it interesting that so many of the top 5 were not released in Europe - no Dragon Quest, Parasite Eve, Chrono cross or Xenogears (all of which I would have bought if they came out in the UK)
I think the reason bof4 sold poorly is i think the ps2 is already released by the time it was launched in US. BoF4 is also my fave in the series
Loved that rocking intro got me to sub.
what is so good about valkyrie profile? you cant grind your main units effectively because you need to also grind the other units for odin but the monsters dont respawn without spending two days. i also read that you can solo the game but the combo special takes atleast 8 hits to fill
i really like how the main story is just recruit units and send them to odin but no character development between the main cast is not what rpg's are about
You have Megaman Legends on the list but not Castlevania: Symphony of the Night which have more RPG elements on it?
i have been one of the rare people in europe buying some of theses rpg's from north america back then; some video games store's been importing them :)
Legend of legaia was one of my favorites, same with digimon world I loved the item randomization I'm dw it made you want to replay it
Except final fantasy.... Nice
I love Saga Frontier and I can't wait for the HD remaster to release soon
Great video as always, keep up the great work!
Should do these vids for other systems
well, to be fair, BoF4 was released in 2000, so it makes sense the ps2 was almost out of the door by then, its safe to assume people just were looking foward to it. also, i remember the reviews of 4 not being that good. they werent bad, but most people felt like it wasnt a big leap foward compared with 3, and it didnt help that the dragon forms were very lackluster by comparisson. to many it felt like a big step backwards.
I feel that BOF III's biggest contribution was that classic SNES animation graphic like style. It helped the game feel familiar with some improvements as well. I, for one, have difficulty playing BOF IV because of its pastel color scheme. It has always been an eyesore to me. Also, at the time that I started to get into BOF IV, I was very cultured into anime by then. So those animated cut scenes didn't strike me as a good quality. I really do want to give that game a chance, but maybe first, I need a version of it where the color scheme can be brighter and more lively and vibrant. Maybe a little more detail to those animation scenes wouldn't hurt either.
My Fav One Until Now is Xenogear. So sad that this game dosen't have chance to have a remake.
Vagrant story!!! My very 1st and favourite game
wild arms got me into jrpg... always the best one for me :) followed by ff7 :D
Hi! I wonder if the numbers for Dragon Quest 7 are representative of the sells done back at the time. In Europe we didn't get that game, I'm surprised that you said that the game sold 4 millions worldwide. Perhaps that number takes count of the 3DS remake sells?, that was the only official release of the game here in Europe.
I wish I had a time machine solely so I can time travel back to the 90s and buy all these games brand new for $60
PS1 is my personal favorite time with a console and I missed out on buying so many great games because I was only 10 and couldn't buy anything for myself. Not like today.
Back then, companies struggled with marketing.
Today the situation is better, but still not optimal.
Who is the middle character in the thumbnail?
Brave fencer Musashi is a Wonderful game!
We also have to remember advertising just wasn’t big for our PG’s back then. Any of those games dropped right now on the PlayStation store or the Xbox store I would sell millions if any of those games were remade from the bottom up they could become game of the year contenders. Could you imagine if they re-made vagrant story. What if they literally remade parasite Eve something similar to what we saw with resident evil two. Hell like I said most of these games could literally just get re-released in emulated form and they would sell millions. They could literally charge $20 per game and we would spend it. If they remade some of them we would fly through the roof. I remember the square Started their RPG initiative a few years back now they should’ve just remade some of their classics.
Oh wow, Arc the Lad 2 is nostalgic.
Gameplay wise, it's outdated and you'll want to emulate it for speed hacking. But no game comes close to the playing the adventurer/bounty hunter for hire trope in a modern setting in ps1.
Thanks for this video, i enjoyed it, Erick.
Excelent list! congrats man!
I'd bet 100% that brave fencer Musashi only sold well because of the FF8 demo that was included... at least thats why me and my friend bought it. We didnt end up giving it a serious try until probably a year later.
That punch at the end... I knew FFIX didn't sold as much as 7 & 8, but I didn't know the gap was that big. But it doesn't matter. For me, IX will always be the best FF.
FF8 did well riding the success of FF7 and left such a bad taste in everyones mouths that it ruined it for FF9 sadly T_T.
I think a lot of people like the magitech aesthetic of 6, 7, and 8 more than the pure fantasy crystal aesthetic. I know 6 and 7 are my favorites over 9 or 4. I like the first half of 8 (through the garden battle) but the second half left a bad taste in my mouth about that game.
@@luvlybaluga . In my case it had nothing to do with thay, I loved 7 and 8, and I didn't like 9.
Suikoden 2 still ma fav rpg game so far ✌️
Damm i feel bad the two Lunar Legends didn't even make it
love xenogears
number 3 and 4 ................. ULTRA COMBO
i feel like you can point to a "FF7 Effect" and a "FF8 Effect" with these numbers. Most of the top half of this list was stuff that came out in between 7 & 8, riding the worldwide JRPG boom, while the sequels with lesser numbers tended to be toward the end of that period or post-FF8.
Not sure how much younger fans know this, but FF8 got a massive backlash from the English-speaking world at the time and was almost certainly the moment that drove the more mainstream audience away from the genre. It seems have a lot more defenders nowadays, but i think you can look at the drop from 8's numbers to 9's as an indicator of this - especially given that 9 got much better reviews at the time!
Anyway, glad to see my favs Valkyrie Profile & Suikoden II make the list at all, and Saga Frontier (yes, i am an eternal truther for that game) almost on par with some of Square's more hyped releases!
Make a video of best selling JRPGs of all time. It doesn't matter the platform 😎
From which game is that outro? Sounds amazing anyway!
TBF, piracy is really rampant during those times & it extended to Ps2.
Is Grandia just not counted because it was on the Saturn as well?
Bof 3 and 4 for me was the best the animation graphics abd storyline is well done