01:00 - Breath of Fire IV. 02:11 - Chrono Trigger. 04:57 - Grandia II. 06:28 - Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. 07:41 - Suikoden II. 09:38 - Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber. 11:11 - Final Fantasy X. 13:26 - Shining Force II.
@@kingty2550 yeah I don't normally advocate games getting remakes. I kinda feel like it tarnishes the original and usually is a emulated cash grab. But this is one the few I really wish they woulda redid. Things like NES being remade is neat. But like retconning ff7 to look like the ac movie I feel is a cashgrab the story was already epic the characters were all pretty fleshed out. But meh pple buy em.
Lunar Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2 Eternal Blue are tied for my second favorite JRPG right behind Suikoden 2, and just ahead of FF6 and Chrono Trigger. So yeah, I'd recommend them...
I stumbled upon Chrono Trigger back in the summer of 95 at a mall I had never been to. I had heard nothing about it, but to be fair I had stopped taking/reading gaming mags. When I got home I was absolutely blown away. That was my senior year of college and had a lot of great memories, CT being one of them.
Yeah I didn't see anything about it in magazines. I wasn't really super into JRPGs at the time, but I think something about the cover drove me to rent it. Its been my favorite game ever since. Its probably what got me into JRPGs in the first place.
I saw chrono trigger in a blockbuster video. Didn't know anything about it, but it was squaresoft, so I gave it a go. My friend and I fell in love with it right away. It really maxed out the super nintendo, and is just as much fun now as it was back in the day.
I never paid attention to it when i was younger.. Thought it was some kind of bullet hell shooting going by the title.. It’s only after getting Cross I found out about it.. I didn’t really get into the rpg genre til I was much older upon discovering stuff like Fire Emblem, Chrono Trigger & later Suikoden.. All I really knew back in the day was Zelda
Here's some other classic JRPGs that have aged well and still very worth playing IMO: 1) Phantasy Star IV 2) TERRANIGMA 3) Secret of Mana 4) Live A Live 5) Bahamut Lagoon 6) Tales of Phantasia 7) Tales of Symphonia 8) Phantasy Star Online: Blueburst 9) LUNAR Silver Star Story 10) LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue 11) Princess Crown 12)Shining Force 1
Tales of Phantasia SNES and Tales of Symphonia have not aged well. Tales of the Abyss has aged way better. Same with Secret of Mana. also make sure you're talking about Lunar Silver Star CD or Harmony. Silver Star Story Complete is a dumpster fire thanks to Working Designs thinking they're From Software.
@@GiordanDiodato Complete on PS1 was my first experience with it, so I forgive it its faults. Also enjoyed the PSP “remake,” but I wish the series would continue.
Shining Force 2 is one the most under appreciated JRPG's of all time. It got lost being on the genesis, where the major majority of notable rpg titles appeared on the SNES. If it had been released on the SNES it would have been seen as one of the all time greats along side some of the others of the era.
I know it's pretty unpopular by comparison, but I also enjoyed shining in the darkness which is kind of like a parallel universe with the same villain but in a first person dungeon crawler format. Seeing some overlap between the games tickled me when I played these as a kid
@@MasterFaiyn it's not a "parallel" universe, not the same villain. The "Darksol" there is Mephisto, son of the real Darksol and Michaela from SF1. SF Gaiden: Final Conflict on Game Gear is a prequel to both that game and SF2. Ian, the protagonist, is the son of Kane (so Max's nephew) and father of Bowie.
So glad to see some love for Shining Force 2. It was my favorite game as a kid, and still one of my favorites to this day. It held up surprisingly well, and the music is iconic. I really hope that someday we'll get new Shining Force games in that style.
@@kingmasterlord another great game. I really liked that one because the protagonist and I share the same name. And shining force was my first RPG as a 4 game Sega compilation I got for about ten bucks on the PC. I played in the 90s but it was just 2d platform games and 3d platformers on the 64. I discovered all the rpg gems as an adult
@@pogopope Well in my personal opinion *most* tri-ace/Enix/Square RPGs from back then are too easy. Dragon quest is the only series that has some more punishing entries but only because of arbitrary reasons you can easily circumvent. It's really good dude, if you like RPGs.
@@FreeFlow__ You didn't like it? I love how fast paced and frantic it can become. And the wide range of specials keep it interesting. It's definitely not like many other star ocean titles. The only one I'd compare it to is 2 and it's still vastly different. What didn't you like about the combat dude? I'd honestly like to hear your criticism against it, not to challenge you, but to learn the critical perspective of something I find cool and see it from the other side. The game is a translation and little is known about it in the U.S. among the gaming public because most never got to play it. So, thoughts if you don't mind?
I think Lufia II for the SNES has aged really well too. There are no random encounters, the puzzles make it an unique game, the familiars breeding make up for the simplicity of the battle system and the story is enterteining enough. Great game.
Completely agree with how well this one has aged. I replayed it last year and it was one of the few games from my childhood (that I've tried recently) that gripped me and wouldn't let go. I was actually disappointed it didn't have any post-game content or much in the way of sidequests.
I personally couldnt get into it. I seem to remember I kept hitting points early on where it turned out that I needed to grind specific classes to survive specific battles with no warning of what was coming.
The problem is that it's way too grindy for a game released in 2004. If you haven't gotten Multiheal by the time you fight Dhoulmagus, you're going to be grinding until you do.
@@Default78334 idk i always thought the game a good amount of grinding. All modern jrps have close to no challenge, dq8 has a lot of challenge, and grinding in jrpgs for me has always felt to give player how are less knowledgeable a way at still surpassing hard encounters but out leveling them. Idk if you compare dq8 to say dq11, dq11 often times to easy with the extra mods on. I often crave to play another jrp like dq8. Where you actually need to think and use every in your arsnal to win
@@zedrico8577 SMT: Nocturne is a challenging game. You overcome difficult encounters, not by grinding levels, but by understanding the combat and fusion system to create tools to overcome challenges. DQ8, on the other hand has a pretty solid level gate with the Dhoulmagus fight. If you don't have Angelo at level 30, you're going to have major trouble winning without being incredibly lucky because he will just dish out multi-hit damage faster than you can heal it, and will regularly nerf your buff spells if you try that method to avoid damage. The other possibilities involve either grinding alchemy recipes or grinding the casino. This is a problem because most people playing through the game at a normal pace will be in the low to mid 20's by the time they reach that fight.
@@Default78334 ya idk i dont remember that fight being that challenging, (also keep in mind its been probably 10 years since i played)and seeing hes the main villian it helps make the moment more intense. I tried a smt game years back and i really did try to like it, but just couldnt seem to enjoy it. I have close to zero memories of that. I cant even remember any of the characters, i also found the ui and information in the game to be bloated. Is was a smt game on ds.
Suikoden 2 is one of the best jrpg ever made for me. It's one of the jrpg that's most enjoyable to replay again and again. The story is top notch, the art is phenomenal , the combat is fast pace and fun, the boss is cool as shit and challenging. Not to mention so many wonderful collectables , as well as able to upgrade your base. The length of the story is at the right length too with no filler ark , and no need to waste time grinding level. This game literally speaks perfection to me, and many other later jrpg still can't replicate the success of Suikoden 2. Many jrpg suffers from slow pace battle system, filler ark , and grindy combat. Suikoden 2 is like the outlier there opposing all the tedium of jrpg.
Terranigma is still a blast to play even now. Though it's an Action jrpg. Simple but fun combat, great nuanced story, great music, and the feel you are actively building the world. It's so good even I, who usually avoids action rpgs, love it, haha...
Second that. One of the games I regularly replay. It's a shame it was never released in the US officially over some particularly bad timing. Long story short: The localization was finished but Square jumped ship off the US before it released so it never made it to stores.
FF4 - 6 have also aged really well, probably why pixel remasters are doing so well. The problem with 4 is the difficulty for people who are not used to it and random battles. The problem with 5 is the insane grind for job points! I am one of the people that fantasize about 6 with Octopath Traveler graphics! Completely agree with your assessment of 7-9! I saw Earthbound in intro, but didn't hear you talk about it. That one has also stood the test of time.
FF6 pixel remaster would be lovely with Octopath’s graphics… But, it should retain options. Offer it in its original form & have extras. That iOS remake was atrocious. If it includes the gba content that would be a dream.
It seems our dream of VI with OT graphics is coming true, let’s just hope it retains all the content of the GBA version and it is available on ALL consoles and devices.
I, too dream of some sort of FF6 remake. It is still my favorite FF. It has a unique spirit from the rest of the series that I've never been able to objectively pin down.
@@lconfig2117 being that we’re both in agreement that FF6 is our personal favorites; I’ll speak my mind why FF6 is considered best by some. Stellar music. Love the character themes & it’s “remixes”. You hear Figaro Castle and it’s wistful remix, “Coin Song”. Same for Locke and Forever Rachel. Terra’s theme is injected to several other themes/songs. Art direction; FF4 & 5 looked liked crayons compared to FF6. It pushed what the SNES could handle. I’m still in awe of that snow mech intro. Character development; -A confused girl who accepts who she is & learns what love is; and that it’s worth fighting for. -A renegade thief who wants to change the past. Seeks redemption. -A would be prince who threw it all away for his freedom. Ultimately to master himself. -A man who lost everything, but fights for hope. Later, he confronts those demons & triumphs. Could go on, but the game speaks for itself. Play FF6. The game had it all.
Love FF5, completed it 2 or 3 times. But I played on an emulator and probably used fast forward occasionally. Its plot much less memorable than FF4/6/7 but when actually playing, it was very enjoyable! Can’t say the same about certain parts of, say, FF7.
As a Breath of Fire 4 enjoyer, I was really happy to see that game on this list. And it was the first mention too. I think it's really underrated, probably because it had to compete with the Final Fantasy series on the PS.
Loved the BoF series although 3 has to be my favorite an the best aged one in my opinion. In 4 they started leaning into more 3D sprites and they just don't look as polished as the 2D ones.
Story and mechanics-wise, it's basically the halfway point between Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger, with music and aesthetics that kinda resemble a grungier Super Metroid in places, which is pretty impressive for a game that predates all three of the SNES games I mentioned.
Just a heads up for anyone who reads this and wants to play/replay it. There's a retranslation of the game that make the story flow much better. Replayed it last year and it's a much more enjoyable experience with the new translation.
even though I love the game, finished it and everything, I wouldnt say it aged well, at all. I remember playing it in the Sega emulator around year 2000, and it looked and felt archaic even at that time... super good game and fun too nonetheless for sure
Final Fantasy X was my first FF game/jrpg ever. I'd never played a turn based rpg or had any concept of what that was. I'd just heard talk about how good of a game it was so I saw it in the store one day and though "Hmm, wonder what all the hype is about. Guess I'll buy it." And the rest is history
I just got an original chrono trigger cartridge. Haven't played it yet, I'm finishing up ff4. I missed out on the classic snes rpg's as a kid. It's amazing how well some of those games hold up.
It's crazy to me how nobody has ever mentioned radiata stories and infinite undiscovery for the ps2.....those rpgs are amazing and I've been waiting for remasters forever lol
@Doppelganger D recent? 😂😂😂 wtf the xbox came out in 2005 you tweaking dude....that's 17 years ago...I think that's more than enough time to see if something aged well lmao not a good point you made bruh
Wow I never realized till now how much of a masterpiece Chrono trigger truly is. Just crazy to think 3 of some of the biggest creators ever worked on this.. Still need to finish it myself though
I know, I am pretty alone with this opinion, but from my point of view Chrono Trigger is ludicrously overrated. It is a good game and has phenomenal visuals for its time but in terms of depth, story, content, gameplay etc. it pales in comparison to games like Terranigma, Final Fantasy VI - IX, Xenogears, Suikoden 2, Lost Odyssey, Persona 4 and 5, Dragon Quest VIII and XI, Xenoblade 1 and 2 and many more games from each generation since the SNES era. Personally I consider it to be nowhere near the best rpgs of all time.
Chrono Trigger is a fantastic game. However I am more of a fan of real-time combat rather than turn-based. Last week I completed Terranigma (SNES) and absolutely loved it. The magic system wasn't well implemented (I only used it once the entire game!) But I still preferred it to Chrono Trigger just for it's unique gameplay, settings and storyline. Well worth playing.
I just want to say thank you for including Ogre Battle 64, it is one of my all time favorite games. It is so over looked in the N64 catalogue, and is the best RPG on the system.
Great list! I recently played through the Quintet action RPGs in order (Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigna) and they really hold up well, both gameplay wise but also story and theme wise. They're very mature and deal a lot with the inevitably of death, hitting a lot harder now as an adult than as a kid when I first played them. Really hope we get a remake or remaster of them now that they have done an ActRaiser remake. Playing through Tales of Abyss now and remembering Symphonia, I think both of those games have aged pretty well and could still be a lot of fun to play for modern gamers.
Thanks! I played Terranigma a few years back and agree it would have been good for this list, I wanted to spread out the generations a bit though and already had 3 others from that time period I thought of first but it'll be good for part 2. Haven't played the other 2 Quintet games in a long time however so I need to do that here eventually Abyss/Symphonia are good examples as well, I should be finishing Symphonia in the next couple days actually and have had a lot of fun with it overall. Looking forward to talking about that one in the video on it real soon
Tales of Vesperia is probably the best in the series, although the new Tales of Arise is close. I recommend trying them out if you haven't since you like tales. Symphonia and abyss are great as well. I feel like the series didn't come to form until Symphonia, the older titles dungeon level design, (and honestly a major critique of even the newer games) is some of the most repetitious dungeon level design of all time. Also another classis that aged extremely well for the SNES? The original star ocean translation. No joke it's my top 5 jrpgs of all time it's one of my favorite SNES games.
It's a crime Abyss is stuck on PS2, one of most annoying non-Microsoft consoles to emulate. Like I play these games from the couch, Steam Big Picture is a must to avoid running to PC with keyboard and mouse, older Tales games run smooth on RetroArch.... Later have PC ports. Abyss is stuck in "do I really have to boot up PCSX2 with its clumsy UI? Limbo.
For some reason Grandia 2 reminded me of the time when I was freshman in highschool, I drew Ryudo so many times in class, as his character model was quite easy to grasp. I always loved the fact that he said ''Skye take flight!" in one of his skills, I mean, voice acting in battle was quite unique at that time.
HD remaster doesn't feel retro at all, I would actually suggest a cut-off at X exactly with older games than it being retro (9 deliberately goes for nostalgia aesthetics), and it starting the "next gen" FFs that still haven't changed much in presentation since. Voice acting, big budget cutscenes etc.
Suikoden 2 was the first game i got emotionally invested in, and when the end of the Matilda arc happened, and then the ending itself happened, i was a teary mess
Breath of Fire IV, Suikoden II, and Chrono Trigger will always be my top 3 favorites. The characters, map, story, battle system, and of course, the musics. For me, no modern JRPG can match those 3.
Honorable mention: chrono trigger's inspiration... Live A Live. it has 7 scenarios each with unique gameplay based around time periods. It's music is by the legend behind super mario rpg's music yoko shimomura, shares a director with chrono trigger and even a few sound effects. It's battle system is innovative its like chess but mixed with an rpg. It needs more people to care about it and ask for a official english translation. they said they would if enough people cared iirc.
I was not expecting Mario RPG on this list, I am actually really happy to see it there. People always scoff about that game when you try to compare it to other JRPGs but I think it's a phenomenal game. Earthbound, Chrono trigger, and Final Fantasy Tactics are my other favorite JRPGs as well. (Can't exclude Terranigma though, I know it's a real time RPG so it isn't in the running for this list but my god that freaking game. So good)
The first 2 Lunar games are some classics that's charm and sense of adventure are quite timeless. I haven't played the first Lunar in awhile now but did play the 2nd a few years ago and had a great time with it. Still prefer the first one by a bit I think though
I find myself playing through Lunar 1 every few years. I remember picking it up as a kid and not knowing anything about it. It absolutely took me by surprise. I still get tingles down my spine anytime I hear the title music.
Graphics were really good, for GBA. But no, I don’t consider it to be a great RPG. It felt boring and formulaic. Didn’t even finish it. Wouldn’t put it into my top 20 RPGs. In the list of RPGs I’ve played, it is closer to the end.
Glad to see BoF IV getting the recognition it deserves. It was the first Breath of Fire game I played and I loved everything about it, from the gameplay, characters and graphics.
For Dreamcast I would add the Skies of Arcadia. Graphic was very beautiful. For PS1 Tales of Eternia should look pretty well even now. For Sega Beyond oasis was one of my favourite one should look pretty good even now. I think even Phantasy star 2 looks not so bad, but many random encounters
Legend of Mana was my favorite game as a kid, the remastered one looks crisp and great, would highly recommend! Thousand Arms by Atlus on ps1 helped me learn how to talk to girls in middle school with the dating sim aspect, many thought it was crap but I thought it was a solid rpg!
I'm a big fan of a lot of these. I also particularly like Phantasy Star 4 on Genesis and Alundra on PlayStation. Not sure if they're will preserved or not, just some of my favorites.
@@kainhighwind2 They never officially released them in English, but (in case you didn't know) there're a couple of lovely Playstation 2 remakes for the first 2 games. It's a real shame the series they were remade for ran out of gas before they could do PS3 and 4.
Paper Mario the thousand year door still looks amazing and the writing is top-notch. It's a Nintendo styled game that feels like it's not from Nintendo but it also feels like it's from Nintendo at the same time, it's weird to explain but it's a very unique Mario story
I’m glad Suikoden and Suikoden 2 are still getting love. I played the first back around ‘98 and it’s been in my Top 3 games of all time ever since! I think Earthbound could’ve made this list, even though it’s cryptic in a few places. Even Earthbound Beginnings is incredible just for being a seamless open world RPG on the NES, (too bad its battle system is grind-heavy).
I have Suikoden 1 as well. I remember a character dying in one of the mass battles and I found out that they’re gone forever. I think I played it once or twice since games like Tomb Raider and Resident Evil took up most of that time. I still have my backwards comp PS3 so maybe I’ll pop it back in again.
@@dycedarg19 Yes, permadeath in the wars is annoying but fairly easy to avoid after recruiting the ninjas. The easiest person to lose is actually Pahn in his 1-on-1 battle against Leo. I believe he needs to be decently leveled up before the fight and there’s still little room for error on the rock-paper-scissors-like combat.
@@kingty2550 That’s the biggest problem right there. The first time I played through, I don’t think he had anything equipped and he was definitely under leveled.
i felt the same thing with Chrono Trigger. I first experienced RPGs during the PS era. Had a taste of SNES Final Fantasy when they were "remastered" on PS but couldn't enjoy any of them (FF anthology and Chronicle). Chrono Trigger was an exception, though. It has great art; the character sprites were more expressive than FF. Battles were done on the field, something that was even still unusual during the PS era JRPGs. I remember the loading wasn't great, but the games was super enjoyable.
Shining Force, Shining Force 2 and Shining Force CD are amazing! Shining Force CD for me wins out among the three but it's like 1 and 2 are tied at 9.9 and CD is 10. As for other games that are still great to play today: Skies of Arcadia Legends on Gamecube. The Dreamcast original is still great and has the better soundtrack but the Gamecube version has far less random encounters which in the original were flat out obscene with regards to how often they happen (though personally I enjoyed the game so much I didn't care which goes to show how good it is). Star Ocean Second Story for PS1 for many reasons but the biggest being you can play it twice from completely different character perspectives giving it good replay value. And last would be Lunar Silver Star Story Complete on PS1 and it's sequel Lunar Eternal Blue.
@@joe_schmoe_420 true but sadly outside of Japan only the second game was released. Plus the upgraded visuals on the character portraits and the battle animations, in my opinion, make it the best looking Shining Force game out of them all.
Ogre Battle 64 is one of my all time favorites. I remember being really disappointed playing it at first but after an hour or so I was hooked. A friend of mine played thru several times and found many secrets. No other game like it, I wish there was a port or remake.
Another game that has aged very well is Xenogears. The story is by far one of the most philosophical, the battle system will always keep you on your toes, and the music is breath taking (Yasonori Matsuda). I can't speak for Xenosaga (I like those games personally, but I've run into a lot of people who don't).
Didn’t age well to me. Couldn’t even finish the last dungeon with characters in the late 80s. Just was boring by that point the last dungeon was way too puzzling and it was already getting out of hand with that the whole disc 2
I'm new to this channel and it's awesome! Is there a released video on the Suikoden series? Suikoden III was the first I played and I LOVED the intro cutscene and music, the variety of characters with their intertwined stories forcing you to see things from different perspectives was mind blowing for me at the time, as I was used to the typical good vs evil struggles. The concept of runes ND true runes was very cool story wise and building the town was a lot of fun. I played Suikoden IV but couldn't get myself to finish and the reason deserves its own discussion: *voice acting can make or break a game*. Until now I feel games without voice acting were more inmnersive for me, made me pour some of my soul/imagination to the different game characters and added the Role Playing part to JRPG. With voice being added it felt more like being an espectator. (getting sidetracked... Back to Suikoden IV) In my opinion, Suikoden IV had BAD voice acting design, probably because protagonist being always silent made it super awkward, I just couldn't finish.
I literally just played Shining Force II because it was on sale on Steam. I still think Star Ocean: The Second Star Story and Lunar Silver Star Story have aged well. Great eye for the classics and I really appreciate your take on the JRPG subject. Keep up the great work.
Great games and two of my all time favorites, haven't played them in awhile though so need to do that here eventually and cover them in more detail. Would love to do retrospectives on those two titles in due time. Thanks for the support as well, will do!
underrated????? is on literally every list of best JRPGs off all time... all of them, literally. Every JRPG fan in this planet knows about it, Id say after FF7 and Chono Trigger is the most known old-school JRPG my friend :D
Thank you! Yeah I’ve played Valkyrie Profile, great game for sure and you are right that I’ve yet to talk about it on the channel before which I do need to fix. Admittedly I first played it when I was really young so I think some of the grimdark-ish nature was a little much for me back then, but it’s probably one that I would come to really like in my adult years now. Thanks for reminding me!
Only modern ports though. It hasn't aged well in the case that you can get soft locked into a 2 battle run you can't win because you saved before the 2nd battle. But that's not an issue for WOTL. It's a beautiful game and it feels very modern with the Remaster. Too bad FF 7 couldn't get a proper Remaster, fixing some of the sprite work and using non compressed backgrounds...
An unknown Japan-only Square RPG that went by unnoticed but holds up amazingly wenn (imo), is Treasure of the Rudras, the animations are veeery great for the SNES, the music as well and the magic system is really "something else"
I definitely agree with this list. Someone mentioned the original Star ocean and I'd definitely agree with that. I'd say every suikoden hold up great. One or obscure if you're only a Consol gamer and not a J RPG, is the original divine divinity. Such a solid rpg head to toe.
This list was AWESOME!!! You even managed to get some Shining love in there, cant go wrong with that! lol Still a ton of other games you can add so Im hoping for a part 2 someday... :P
Thank you! Of course, I've got mad love for the Shining Force series even if I've still unfortunately yet to play the 3rd one (one day though). And part 2 will definitely be coming in due time after we put out some different content first!
FFX used to be one of my favorite games when I was younger, but I recently tried playing it again, and it just wasn't doing it for me anymore. I played FFVI for the first time recently though, and that ended up being one of the best games I've ever played. I would definitely categorize Suikoden II and Chrono Trigger as timeless games; both are still amazing.
Final fantasy 6 was okay for me but since it was hyped up I was kinda disappointed x(. The design and stuff like that were still really good though. Try 4 and Tactics if you haven't
@@Sauvenil going back and playing it still feels good. The pacing is great, and it's one of my favorite iterations of turn based battle systems; to me, battle feels punchy and exciting. Ff7 by counterexample feels painfully slow when I play the OG these days
Gaming Broductions: - "Apart from Mario RPG, I started into JRPGs during the PSX era." Me, playing RPG's from the ZX Spectrum's era: - "I don't care. Grate video, I loved it".
While a lot of my favorite RPGs have aged rather well in my opinion, I also have to be honest and admit that my nostalgia might make me more accepting of their outdated mechanics than I would be otherwise. Personally I think having a unique and visually pleasing artstyle like *Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Mother 3,* and *Suikoden 2* is a big factor in making a game feel truly timeless. One question though; how old does a game has to be for one to say it has "aged well"? Like, would a Wii game be too recent?
Definitely feel you on the art style having a pretty big impact on how well it holds up. Not saying the graphics have to be absolutely incredible or anything but having memorable character designs/locations and an aesthetically pleasing style in general can go a long way in getting me immersed in and having more patience with some of the other game's potential shortcomings. That's gonna vary depending on who you ask I'm sure but as of right now I feel like anything from the PS3/Wii generation is still maybe a bit too recent, in my opinion of course. My personal cut-off was the PS2/Gamecube generation for this video
@@GamingBroductions Yeah, that seems like a fair cut-off point. I think most of the great GC RPGs have aged really well, and those are generally some of my favorite RPGs as well. But since I grew up on them I'm admittedly pretty biased lol.
My cut off is before PS3. I still play Persona 5 here and there on my PS3 so to me PS3 era is still alive... but barely. Maybe when the next version of PS5s launch the PS3 will be retro, including WiiU. as it is i kinda feel Wii has hit that retro mark only because it was already kinda dated at launch.
Recently played through Dragon Force on emulator and it was a lot of fun. It becomes a little micro managy later in the end game but man the battles are beautiful and I loved the Working Designs localization.
Thank you for keeping it real about FF 7, 8, and 9! I've caught a lot of flack online for saying those games have aged poorly lol. I think it's because so many people have strong nostalgia for those games but I don't so I can look at them differently
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion in a hobby as subjective as gaming so don't let some of the fanboys get to you lol, some of them can be a bit too passionate with nostalgia playing a heavy role like you mentioned. I do think some parts of them are timeless for sure but recognize not every single aspect may have aged perfectly for those that didn't grow up with them Just curious, as someone who doesn't seem to have nostalgia with FF titles was there a particular game in the series that really managed to impress you on first playthrough?
Ff 7 graphics ( having no nostalig feelings throughwords it) has aged almost unbereble when it comes to graphics, the story is worth it for the topics but still.... I disagree with ff9 though, graphics looks better, only world map look bad
I do agree with his point about FF 7,8,9. But they have they own charm and other flaws too which didn't mentioned. But the thing is they change quite a bit the major features in the FF X, like world map and ATB, the world map alone giving a major drawbacks to me back then so I haven't play it even to this date although I want to try it sometimes, exploring and finding secret places is one of the main features of RPG FF 9 do that quite well with chocograph.
Yu-Gi-Oh Falsebound Kingdom for the GameCube is a little more modern than Ogre Battle. The only difference is you can direct your combat units, which personally I like more and also the inclusion of the Yu-Gi-Oh cast and monsters is a plus!
Breath of Fire 4 is the very first JRPG i've ever played! I hold dear to it in my heart! Very special for me! I'm a writer. Even thou i write poems, i'm sure i could say this : the first urge for writing a story came because i played this game.
Pretty funny, I randomly clicked your video and found that pretty much every game you mentioned are my absolute favorites. Shining Force 2 is criminally underrated, people might know of it but in my experience they have rarely tried it.
Chrono Trigger, Breath of Fire IV and The Legend of Dragoon are the JRPG trio of my life, missed that last one on the list. Thank you for this content bro.
U and me both, friend. PUT MARIO RPG ON SWITCH ONLINE ALREADY NINTENDO!!! Can you imagine? Probably some BS with copyrights and stuff since Square developed it. (Ahhhhhh, remember when they were just called Square, or Square Soft?) At least I have Matio RPG on SNES Classic and every emulator known to man i suppose....including handheld ones, but i want it on Switch NSO!
miss the days of running through places holding L1 and R1 in fear of a RBE, get that instant flee up and outta there... Luckely most save points also healed you back then too. Though if you didnt stock up your still probably screwed.
I can live with them in dungeons, but when they use them in the open world where you are trying to explore, they get tedious and annoying. It's the one bad thing that Dragon Quest 8 does to an otherwise awesome game .
I liked how FFXII did it the most. Save crystals made the game interesting and challenging, at least until you start stock piling them lol. What they shoulda done is made them rare mining material or rather rare boss drops, this way your more likely to save in towns and hold on to the few you would be getting for later.
I don't get what's exciting about it : if anything, it just feels unfair (especially when coupled with ambushes), makes the world less alive and it kills the fun of exploration.
It's hard for me to look at games that are 3D and say they aged well. Too much uncanny valley. 2D ages so well bc of it having an overall aesthetic, more than just utilitarian polygons
I gave you like just for putting Suikoden II on the list. I played a lot of RPGs (Western and Japanese), and this particular entry of the franchise is still one of my favorite of all time.
FFX is not the first FF I would recommend. Personally, I think it's ass. FF6 would be the one I recommend. FFX has some the issues that make some of the current FFs so bad. The cinematic experience should not replace a good story, or game play. The long hallway gameplay of FFX( and XIII) makes the game linear and monotonous. Rather as well play Mystic Quest.
I don't know the best place to ask you this. Do you have a list of challenge runs of games and how their difficulty compares to "regular"(unrestricted) playthroughs? For instance, among games with random encounters (including those you cannot run from), which are hardest to low-level run. Also, speed run, item/money restrictions, and how easily that is done.
Wow a Sega Genesis game! I am happy to see one. The Shining Force/Darkness series is amazing and Phantasy Star series as well hold up nicely to any of the most popular series. The replay value of Phantasy Star 3 makes it a top title; although many get distracted by the lackluster graphics. Phantasy Star 2 is just as good as ANY Final Fantasy game of the same era.
I still had an Atari 2600 when I saw the original Phantasy Star on the Sega base system in the late 1980's. I liked the look so much I went out and bought a Sega.
There is one game series that few people talk about nowadays: Lufia. The second in the series is my personal favorite (Rise of the Sinistrals), however the other games deserve a lot of praise themselves. I would have loved to see some more Lufia games come out and all, but the last one that we got was a remake of Lufia 2 which they kinda blew it.
I played Suikuden Tierkies (something like that) recently and absolutely adore this game, but it looked entirely different from the Suikuden you showed here?
Thank you for the SF2 mention, the CT heraldry, and not mentioning FFVI, as it’s nearly always on such lists. Not that I dislike FFVI, but the ability for every character to learn every spell, dilutes the flavor of the game after awhile, and the characters lose personality. I’d have never known about the SF games if they’d not included them on Sega Channel for some months way back when. They’ve had a spot on my lists for 20+ years now, all because of that inclusion
01:00 - Breath of Fire IV.
02:11 - Chrono Trigger.
04:57 - Grandia II.
06:28 - Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars.
07:41 - Suikoden II.
09:38 - Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber.
11:11 - Final Fantasy X.
13:26 - Shining Force II.
0:10 Final Fantasy Ⅲ
0:28 Earth Bound
disappointing
Xenogears was amazing. It’s too bad it didn’t get the fame it deserved though. It really was a masterpiece of a jrpg.
@@Xenofan111 only because it was unfinished. Definitely one of my favorites
@@kingty2550 yeah I don't normally advocate games getting remakes. I kinda feel like it tarnishes the original and usually is a emulated cash grab.
But this is one the few I really wish they woulda redid.
Things like NES being remade is neat.
But like retconning ff7 to look like the ac movie I feel is a cashgrab the story was already epic the characters were all pretty fleshed out. But meh pple buy em.
Lunar Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar 2 Eternal Blue are tied for my second favorite JRPG right behind Suikoden 2, and just ahead of FF6 and Chrono Trigger.
So yeah, I'd recommend them...
I stumbled upon Chrono Trigger back in the summer of 95 at a mall I had never been to. I had heard nothing about it, but to be fair I had stopped taking/reading gaming mags. When I got home I was absolutely blown away. That was my senior year of college and had a lot of great memories, CT being one of them.
Yeah I didn't see anything about it in magazines. I wasn't really super into JRPGs at the time, but I think something about the cover drove me to rent it. Its been my favorite game ever since. Its probably what got me into JRPGs in the first place.
I saw chrono trigger in a blockbuster video. Didn't know anything about it, but it was squaresoft, so I gave it a go. My friend and I fell in love with it right away. It really maxed out the super nintendo, and is just as much fun now as it was back in the day.
I never paid attention to it when i was younger.. Thought it was some kind of bullet hell shooting going by the title.. It’s only after getting Cross I found out about it.. I didn’t really get into the rpg genre til I was much older upon discovering stuff like Fire Emblem, Chrono Trigger & later Suikoden.. All I really knew back in the day was Zelda
Here's some other classic JRPGs that have aged well and still very worth playing IMO:
1) Phantasy Star IV
2) TERRANIGMA
3) Secret of Mana
4) Live A Live
5) Bahamut Lagoon
6) Tales of Phantasia
7) Tales of Symphonia
8) Phantasy Star Online: Blueburst
9) LUNAR Silver Star Story
10) LUNAR 2: Eternal Blue
11) Princess Crown
12)Shining Force 1
Thanks, & much appreciated for putting your efforts to write it all
I watch it,
Lunar!!! One of the best.
Tales of Phantasia SNES and Tales of Symphonia have not aged well. Tales of the Abyss has aged way better. Same with Secret of Mana.
also make sure you're talking about Lunar Silver Star CD or Harmony. Silver Star Story Complete is a dumpster fire thanks to Working Designs thinking they're From Software.
@@GiordanDiodato Complete on PS1 was my first experience with it, so I forgive it its faults. Also enjoyed the PSP “remake,” but I wish the series would continue.
Great list.
Shining Force 2 is one the most under appreciated JRPG's of all time. It got lost being on the genesis, where the major majority of notable rpg titles appeared on the SNES. If it had been released on the SNES it would have been seen as one of the all time greats along side some of the others of the era.
SF series truly, really deserve a modern remaking, a proper continuation and revival, such a freaking amazing games...
one of the few games i've played multiple times
I know it's pretty unpopular by comparison, but I also enjoyed shining in the darkness which is kind of like a parallel universe with the same villain but in a first person dungeon crawler format. Seeing some overlap between the games tickled me when I played these as a kid
First one is great too. I've replaced Shining Force 1 & 2 many times.
@@MasterFaiyn it's not a "parallel" universe, not the same villain. The "Darksol" there is Mephisto, son of the real Darksol and Michaela from SF1. SF Gaiden: Final Conflict on Game Gear is a prequel to both that game and SF2. Ian, the protagonist, is the son of Kane (so Max's nephew) and father of Bowie.
Breath of Fire 4 is such a wonderful, underappreciated game. Great decision to include it here! One of the best OSTs of all time, too.
I like it way more than Grandia 2 & Chrono Trigger. The music & vibe is the best.
Do you know any game similar?? Just perfect for me
@@Gorotsukiii Maybe Dragon Quest. classic anime turned RPG type of game.
@@terrytong8665 I think you got it backwards
One of my all time favorite RPGs
So glad to see some love for Shining Force 2. It was my favorite game as a kid, and still one of my favorites to this day. It held up surprisingly well, and the music is iconic. I really hope that someday we'll get new Shining Force games in that style.
Truly is one of SEGA'S best creations.
ever play Grandia?
@@kingmasterlord another great game. I really liked that one because the protagonist and I share the same name. And shining force was my first RPG as a 4 game Sega compilation I got for about ten bucks on the PC. I played in the 90s but it was just 2d platform games and 3d platformers on the 64. I discovered all the rpg gems as an adult
Star ocean for SNES, the original, I highly recommend playing the translation. It aged impeccably and has gorgeous sprites and snappy combat.
I heard it’s too easy
@@pogopope Well in my personal opinion *most* tri-ace/Enix/Square RPGs from back then are too easy. Dragon quest is the only series that has some more punishing entries but only because of arbitrary reasons you can easily circumvent. It's really good dude, if you like RPGs.
combat system sucks
@@FreeFlow__ You didn't like it? I love how fast paced and frantic it can become. And the wide range of specials keep it interesting. It's definitely not like many other star ocean titles. The only one I'd compare it to is 2 and it's still vastly different. What didn't you like about the combat dude? I'd honestly like to hear your criticism against it, not to challenge you, but to learn the critical perspective of something I find cool and see it from the other side. The game is a translation and little is known about it in the U.S. among the gaming public because most never got to play it. So, thoughts if you don't mind?
Is it possible to play the original Star Ocean on iOS or PC?
I think Lufia II for the SNES has aged really well too. There are no random encounters, the puzzles make it an unique game, the familiars breeding make up for the simplicity of the battle system and the story is enterteining enough. Great game.
First game that ever made kid me cry.
Dat ending was unexpected back in the day...
Except on the overworld map.
@@ThanatosZero true! 😅
Completely agree with how well this one has aged. I replayed it last year and it was one of the few games from my childhood (that I've tried recently) that gripped me and wouldn't let go. I was actually disappointed it didn't have any post-game content or much in the way of sidequests.
Well, no random encounters in the dungeons. Oh the world map though, there are.
FF Tactics is still pretty amazing in my opinion.
I second this opinion
I personally couldnt get into it. I seem to remember I kept hitting points early on where it turned out that I needed to grind specific classes to survive specific battles with no warning of what was coming.
Real talk. That game hasn't aged a day.
FF Tactic on GBA is the best
Indeed, too bad there are people who don't like tactical games as it's easily the best possible one.
Dragon Quest 8 applies for sure! Beautiful cel shaded graphics with Akira toriymas design style...doesn't get old
Ya this is definitely a game i think about atleast one a momth
The problem is that it's way too grindy for a game released in 2004. If you haven't gotten Multiheal by the time you fight Dhoulmagus, you're going to be grinding until you do.
@@Default78334 idk i always thought the game a good amount of grinding. All modern jrps have close to no challenge, dq8 has a lot of challenge, and grinding in jrpgs for me has always felt to give player how are less knowledgeable a way at still surpassing hard encounters but out leveling them. Idk if you compare dq8 to say dq11, dq11 often times to easy with the extra mods on. I often crave to play another jrp like dq8. Where you actually need to think and use every in your arsnal to win
@@zedrico8577 SMT: Nocturne is a challenging game. You overcome difficult encounters, not by grinding levels, but by understanding the combat and fusion system to create tools to overcome challenges. DQ8, on the other hand has a pretty solid level gate with the Dhoulmagus fight. If you don't have Angelo at level 30, you're going to have major trouble winning without being incredibly lucky because he will just dish out multi-hit damage faster than you can heal it, and will regularly nerf your buff spells if you try that method to avoid damage. The other possibilities involve either grinding alchemy recipes or grinding the casino. This is a problem because most people playing through the game at a normal pace will be in the low to mid 20's by the time they reach that fight.
@@Default78334 ya idk i dont remember that fight being that challenging, (also keep in mind its been probably 10 years since i played)and seeing hes the main villian it helps make the moment more intense. I tried a smt game years back and i really did try to like it, but just couldnt seem to enjoy it. I have close to zero memories of that. I cant even remember any of the characters, i also found the ui and information in the game to be bloated. Is was a smt game on ds.
Suikoden 2 is one of the best jrpg ever made for me.
It's one of the jrpg that's most enjoyable to replay again and again.
The story is top notch, the art is phenomenal , the combat is fast pace and fun, the boss is cool as shit and challenging.
Not to mention so many wonderful collectables , as well as able to upgrade your base.
The length of the story is at the right length too with no filler ark , and no need to waste time grinding level.
This game literally speaks perfection to me, and many other later jrpg still can't replicate the success of Suikoden 2.
Many jrpg suffers from slow pace battle system, filler ark , and grindy combat. Suikoden 2 is like the outlier there opposing all the tedium of jrpg.
did u play the first game? i dont rlly wanna play the first game so what do u think
Terranigma is still a blast to play even now. Though it's an Action jrpg. Simple but fun combat, great nuanced story, great music, and the feel you are actively building the world. It's so good even I, who usually avoids action rpgs, love it, haha...
Yes 💖
ITS SO GOOD. GAHHHH
Second that. One of the games I regularly replay. It's a shame it was never released in the US officially over some particularly bad timing. Long story short: The localization was finished but Square jumped ship off the US before it released so it never made it to stores.
FF4 - 6 have also aged really well, probably why pixel remasters are doing so well.
The problem with 4 is the difficulty for people who are not used to it and random battles.
The problem with 5 is the insane grind for job points!
I am one of the people that fantasize about 6 with Octopath Traveler graphics!
Completely agree with your assessment of 7-9!
I saw Earthbound in intro, but didn't hear you talk about it. That one has also stood the test of time.
FF6 pixel remaster would be lovely with Octopath’s graphics…
But, it should retain options. Offer it in its original form & have extras.
That iOS remake was atrocious.
If it includes the gba content that would be a dream.
It seems our dream of VI with OT graphics is coming true, let’s just hope it retains all the content of the GBA version and it is available on ALL consoles and devices.
I, too dream of some sort of FF6 remake. It is still my favorite FF. It has a unique spirit from the rest of the series that I've never been able to objectively pin down.
@@lconfig2117 being that we’re both in agreement that FF6 is our personal favorites;
I’ll speak my mind why FF6 is considered best by some.
Stellar music. Love the character themes & it’s “remixes”.
You hear Figaro Castle and it’s wistful remix, “Coin Song”.
Same for Locke and Forever Rachel. Terra’s theme is injected to several other themes/songs.
Art direction;
FF4 & 5 looked liked crayons compared to FF6.
It pushed what the SNES could handle.
I’m still in awe of that snow mech intro.
Character development;
-A confused girl who accepts who she is & learns what love is; and that it’s worth fighting for.
-A renegade thief who wants to change the past. Seeks redemption.
-A would be prince who threw it all away for his freedom. Ultimately to master himself.
-A man who lost everything, but fights for hope.
Later, he confronts those demons & triumphs.
Could go on, but the game speaks for itself.
Play FF6.
The game had it all.
Love FF5, completed it 2 or 3 times. But I played on an emulator and probably used fast forward occasionally. Its plot much less memorable than FF4/6/7 but when actually playing, it was very enjoyable! Can’t say the same about certain parts of, say, FF7.
As a Breath of Fire 4 enjoyer, I was really happy to see that game on this list. And it was the first mention too. I think it's really underrated, probably because it had to compete with the Final Fantasy series on the PS.
Loved the BoF series although 3 has to be my favorite an the best aged one in my opinion. In 4 they started leaning into more 3D sprites and they just don't look as polished as the 2D ones.
BoF 3 and 4 are true gems that got overshadowed at the time but we're better than FF in my opinion. I love Final Fantasy, don't get me wrong.
@@nobodyspecial115 Fully agree on this.
Phantasy Star IV. The plot, the OST and the combo abilities made it a worthy finale to the series.
Story and mechanics-wise, it's basically the halfway point between Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger, with music and aesthetics that kinda resemble a grungier Super Metroid in places, which is pretty impressive for a game that predates all three of the SNES games I mentioned.
imo the last HARD phantasy star, all the action combat games are TO EASY for me, i dont even strategize i literally just play thru
Yes! I don't remember much about it now, except the enjoyment.
Just a heads up for anyone who reads this and wants to play/replay it. There's a retranslation of the game that make the story flow much better. Replayed it last year and it's a much more enjoyable experience with the new translation.
even though I love the game, finished it and everything, I wouldnt say it aged well, at all. I remember playing it in the Sega emulator around year 2000, and it looked and felt archaic even at that time... super good game and fun too nonetheless for sure
Final Fantasy X was my first FF game/jrpg ever. I'd never played a turn based rpg or had any concept of what that was. I'd just heard talk about how good of a game it was so I saw it in the store one day and though "Hmm, wonder what all the hype is about. Guess I'll buy it." And the rest is history
It's the only fully turn based main Final Fantasy since 3 too!
I just got an original chrono trigger cartridge. Haven't played it yet, I'm finishing up ff4. I missed out on the classic snes rpg's as a kid. It's amazing how well some of those games hold up.
It's crazy to me how nobody has ever mentioned radiata stories and infinite undiscovery for the ps2.....those rpgs are amazing and I've been waiting for remasters forever lol
umm infinite was 360 exclusive
I adored Radiata Stories, but its so niche.
@@cobbil yeah but it was still a very good game especially in the ps2 era
@@Ubu90 this video isnt exclusive to playstation though just good RPGs that aged well....both these still look pretty nice on the ps2 and are good
@Doppelganger D recent? 😂😂😂 wtf the xbox came out in 2005 you tweaking dude....that's 17 years ago...I think that's more than enough time to see if something aged well lmao not a good point you made bruh
Terranigma aged really well in my opinion
Great pick. I played this one a few years back and do remember thinking the same at the time
Tales of Phantasia, Xenogears and Seiken Densetsu 3
One of the best games of all time my friend
I saw the thumbnail and thinked of Terranigma instantly 💖💖😊
Wow I never realized till now how much of a masterpiece Chrono trigger truly is. Just crazy to think 3 of some of the biggest creators ever worked on this.. Still need to finish it myself though
I know, I am pretty alone with this opinion, but from my point of view Chrono Trigger is ludicrously overrated. It is a good game and has phenomenal visuals for its time but in terms of depth, story, content, gameplay etc. it pales in comparison to games like Terranigma, Final Fantasy VI - IX, Xenogears, Suikoden 2, Lost Odyssey, Persona 4 and 5, Dragon Quest VIII and XI, Xenoblade 1 and 2 and many more games from each generation since the SNES era. Personally I consider it to be nowhere near the best rpgs of all time.
Chrono Trigger is a fantastic game. However I am more of a fan of real-time combat rather than turn-based. Last week I completed Terranigma (SNES) and absolutely loved it. The magic system wasn't well implemented (I only used it once the entire game!) But I still preferred it to Chrono Trigger just for it's unique gameplay, settings and storyline. Well worth playing.
Wait till he learns about FFV VI dev team
I just want to say thank you for including Ogre Battle 64, it is one of my all time favorite games. It is so over looked in the N64 catalogue, and is the best RPG on the system.
I agree. It’s a masterpiece! Amazing gameplay, amazing replay value, fantastic story, and perfect music. There’s no game like it.
Great list! I recently played through the Quintet action RPGs in order (Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigna) and they really hold up well, both gameplay wise but also story and theme wise. They're very mature and deal a lot with the inevitably of death, hitting a lot harder now as an adult than as a kid when I first played them. Really hope we get a remake or remaster of them now that they have done an ActRaiser remake.
Playing through Tales of Abyss now and remembering Symphonia, I think both of those games have aged pretty well and could still be a lot of fun to play for modern gamers.
Thanks! I played Terranigma a few years back and agree it would have been good for this list, I wanted to spread out the generations a bit though and already had 3 others from that time period I thought of first but it'll be good for part 2. Haven't played the other 2 Quintet games in a long time however so I need to do that here eventually
Abyss/Symphonia are good examples as well, I should be finishing Symphonia in the next couple days actually and have had a lot of fun with it overall. Looking forward to talking about that one in the video on it real soon
Tales of Vesperia is probably the best in the series, although the new Tales of Arise is close. I recommend trying them out if you haven't since you like tales. Symphonia and abyss are great as well. I feel like the series didn't come to form until Symphonia, the older titles dungeon level design, (and honestly a major critique of even the newer games) is some of the most repetitious dungeon level design of all time. Also another classis that aged extremely well for the SNES? The original star ocean translation. No joke it's my top 5 jrpgs of all time it's one of my favorite SNES games.
It's a crime Abyss is stuck on PS2, one of most annoying non-Microsoft consoles to emulate.
Like I play these games from the couch, Steam Big Picture is a must to avoid running to PC with keyboard and mouse, older Tales games run smooth on RetroArch.... Later have PC ports. Abyss is stuck in "do I really have to boot up PCSX2 with its clumsy UI? Limbo.
For some reason Grandia 2 reminded me of the time when I was freshman in highschool, I drew Ryudo so many times in class, as his character model was quite easy to grasp. I always loved the fact that he said ''Skye take flight!" in one of his skills, I mean, voice acting in battle was quite unique at that time.
I really hope they bring Ogre Battle 64 to the new Switch online service.
Man that would be amazing. Would also help bring some much needed awareness to the series
I know they're not purely JRPG's but both Dark Cloud & Dark Cloud 2/ Chronicle have aged pretty well.
Oh no…they have NOT.
Suikoden 2 didn't age well
It was already a masterpiece to begin with
My old dusty bones rattling at FFX being called retro gaming.
HD remaster doesn't feel retro at all, I would actually suggest a cut-off at X exactly with older games than it being retro (9 deliberately goes for nostalgia aesthetics), and it starting the "next gen" FFs that still haven't changed much in presentation since. Voice acting, big budget cutscenes etc.
not to mention Chrono Trigger's multiple endings which was innovative and also went with the time line altering theme of the game
Suikoden 2 was the first game i got emotionally invested in, and when the end of the Matilda arc happened, and then the ending itself happened, i was a teary mess
Breath of Fire IV, Suikoden II, and Chrono Trigger will always be my top 3 favorites.
The characters, map, story, battle system, and of course, the musics.
For me, no modern JRPG can match those 3.
Honorable mention: chrono trigger's inspiration... Live A Live. it has 7 scenarios each with unique gameplay based around time periods. It's music is by the legend behind super mario rpg's music yoko shimomura, shares a director with chrono trigger and even a few sound effects. It's battle system is innovative its like chess but mixed with an rpg.
It needs more people to care about it and ask for a official english translation. they said they would if enough people cared iirc.
Also, aren't a lot of the characters similar ideas? A robot, a caveman, etc.
@@Alic4444 it is a piece of art.. play it and complete it to find out what truly makes it unique.
So… you saw the direct, right? 😁 Any thoughts?
You predicted the remaster!
@@nightingale897 squares is gonna copyright strike everything it's cool but everything comes at a price with square monkeys paw.
I was not expecting Mario RPG on this list, I am actually really happy to see it there. People always scoff about that game when you try to compare it to other JRPGs but I think it's a phenomenal game. Earthbound, Chrono trigger, and Final Fantasy Tactics are my other favorite JRPGs as well. (Can't exclude Terranigma though, I know it's a real time RPG so it isn't in the running for this list but my god that freaking game. So good)
How someone can make something as perfect as Chronotrigger is beyond me. The music, story and gameplay... Its just.... Lost for words.
One game I come back to regularly is the PS1 version of Lunar. Might be nostalgia though...
The first 2 Lunar games are some classics that's charm and sense of adventure are quite timeless. I haven't played the first Lunar in awhile now but did play the 2nd a few years ago and had a great time with it. Still prefer the first one by a bit I think though
I find myself playing through Lunar 1 every few years. I remember picking it up as a kid and not knowing anything about it. It absolutely took me by surprise. I still get tingles down my spine anytime I hear the title music.
I played this game for the first time quite recently. I really liked it
@@GamingBroductions I'd vote for the Sega CD versions over the PS versions for the better soundtracks.
Golden sun (gba) should be on the list. The story, mechanic, plot twist.. even the graphic is outstanding for gba games
I never got to play the Golden Sun games. I wish there was a Switch collection or something.
@@SomaKitsune Forget that. We should campaign for an HD-2D remake like with Dragon Quest III.
@@paperluigi6132 nah, 2D sprites and 3D background like DQ 4,5,6 on NDS is the way. Too bad not many games use the style.
Graphics were really good, for GBA. But no, I don’t consider it to be a great RPG. It felt boring and formulaic. Didn’t even finish it.
Wouldn’t put it into my top 20 RPGs. In the list of RPGs I’ve played, it is closer to the end.
Glad to see BoF IV getting the recognition it deserves. It was the first Breath of Fire game I played and I loved everything about it, from the gameplay, characters and graphics.
The whole series is criminally underrated! BoF 3 was my first RPG an I've been in love with the genre an this series ever since!
too bad it's censored in its localized release. ah well
For Dreamcast I would add the Skies of Arcadia. Graphic was very beautiful. For PS1 Tales of Eternia should look pretty well even now. For Sega Beyond oasis was one of my favourite one should look pretty good even now. I think even Phantasy star 2 looks not so bad, but many random encounters
Thank you for mentioning Skies of Arcadia 👍
It blows my mind that Eternia still doesn't have a Steam release.
Legend of Mana was my favorite game as a kid, the remastered one looks crisp and great, would highly recommend! Thousand Arms by Atlus on ps1 helped me learn how to talk to girls in middle school with the dating sim aspect, many thought it was crap but I thought it was a solid rpg!
I'm a big fan of a lot of these. I also particularly like Phantasy Star 4 on Genesis and Alundra on PlayStation. Not sure if they're will preserved or not, just some of my favorites.
Phantasy Star IV has some of the best music I've ever heard out of a video game. The regular battle theme still gets my blood pumping to this day!
PS4 totally holds up. There's some cracks and age starting to show, but it's undeniably the best, and best holding up, of the original 4 games.
@@kainhighwind2 They never officially released them in English, but (in case you didn't know) there're a couple of lovely Playstation 2 remakes for the first 2 games. It's a real shame the series they were remade for ran out of gas before they could do PS3 and 4.
haha, just commented the same before seeing this about PSIV. Such an amazing experience.
I think Phantasy Star II is a great rpg, particularly with the Improvement mod. Just realized I like it more than PSIV now.
Paper Mario the thousand year door still looks amazing and the writing is top-notch. It's a Nintendo styled game that feels like it's not from Nintendo but it also feels like it's from Nintendo at the same time, it's weird to explain but it's a very unique Mario story
Great video. This video deserves more likes and views. Only game I feel should have made the list is Phantasy Star IV for the Sega Genesis.
Great list - I was surprised to see Ogre Battle 64 but I totally agree
Thank you. It's one of those games that I feel like everyone who's played it generally loves it but is just sadly overlooked these days
@@GamingBroductions Exactly! Such an amazing game!
I have lots of games I regret getting rid of , Ogre Battle 64 is the one that bothers me the most.
I’m glad Suikoden and Suikoden 2 are still getting love. I played the first back around ‘98 and it’s been in my Top 3 games of all time ever since!
I think Earthbound could’ve made this list, even though it’s cryptic in a few places. Even Earthbound Beginnings is incredible just for being a seamless open world RPG on the NES, (too bad its battle system is grind-heavy).
I have Suikoden 1 as well. I remember a character dying in one of the mass battles and I found out that they’re gone forever. I think I played it once or twice since games like Tomb Raider and Resident Evil took up most of that time. I still have my backwards comp PS3 so maybe I’ll pop it back in again.
@@dycedarg19 Yes, permadeath in the wars is annoying but fairly easy to avoid after recruiting the ninjas.
The easiest person to lose is actually Pahn in his 1-on-1 battle against Leo. I believe he needs to be decently leveled up before the fight and there’s still little room for error on the rock-paper-scissors-like combat.
@@dracoerrarus4834 decently leveled with good gear and upgraded weapon makes it easy
@@kingty2550 That’s the biggest problem right there. The first time I played through, I don’t think he had anything equipped and he was definitely under leveled.
Always get giddy when I see Suikoden mentioned in these lists.
Suikoden 2 possibly favorite game of all time. Have to import save file from S1 though.
i felt the same thing with Chrono Trigger. I first experienced RPGs during the PS era. Had a taste of SNES Final Fantasy when they were "remastered" on PS but couldn't enjoy any of them (FF anthology and Chronicle). Chrono Trigger was an exception, though. It has great art; the character sprites were more expressive than FF. Battles were done on the field, something that was even still unusual during the PS era JRPGs. I remember the loading wasn't great, but the games was super enjoyable.
Shining Force, Shining Force 2 and Shining Force CD are amazing! Shining Force CD for me wins out among the three but it's like 1 and 2 are tied at 9.9 and CD is 10. As for other games that are still great to play today: Skies of Arcadia Legends on Gamecube. The Dreamcast original is still great and has the better soundtrack but the Gamecube version has far less random encounters which in the original were flat out obscene with regards to how often they happen (though personally I enjoyed the game so much I didn't care which goes to show how good it is). Star Ocean Second Story for PS1 for many reasons but the biggest being you can play it twice from completely different character perspectives giving it good replay value. And last would be Lunar Silver Star Story Complete on PS1 and it's sequel Lunar Eternal Blue.
Shining force cd was a compilation of 2 game gear sf games
Theyre short but still fun
@@joe_schmoe_420 true but sadly outside of Japan only the second game was released. Plus the upgraded visuals on the character portraits and the battle animations, in my opinion, make it the best looking Shining Force game out of them all.
@@chaospoet just wish we had gotten ALL of 3
@@Ubu90 You mean the Sega Saturn Shining Force 3? There are roms and repros with English translations for parts 2 and 3.
Star Ocean 2 does have two character perspectives sure, but who's going to play as Claude freaking Kenni xD
Nice to see Ogre Battle 64 get some love. I played that game several times to get all the different endings.
Ogre Battle 64 is one of my all time favorites. I remember being really disappointed playing it at first but after an hour or so I was hooked. A friend of mine played thru several times and found many secrets.
No other game like it, I wish there was a port or remake.
I only played Chrono Trigger last year and had such a delight with it. I played it on the DS because it never came out in PAL territories before.
Another game that has aged very well is Xenogears. The story is by far one of the most philosophical, the battle system will always keep you on your toes, and the music is breath taking (Yasonori Matsuda). I can't speak for Xenosaga (I like those games personally, but I've run into a lot of people who don't).
I don't think so. The disc 2 is just text
Didn’t age well to me. Couldn’t even finish the last dungeon with characters in the late 80s. Just was boring by that point the last dungeon was way too puzzling and it was already getting out of hand with that the whole disc 2
I'm new to this channel and it's awesome! Is there a released video on the Suikoden series? Suikoden III was the first I played and I LOVED the intro cutscene and music, the variety of characters with their intertwined stories forcing you to see things from different perspectives was mind blowing for me at the time, as I was used to the typical good vs evil struggles. The concept of runes ND true runes was very cool story wise and building the town was a lot of fun.
I played Suikoden IV but couldn't get myself to finish and the reason deserves its own discussion: *voice acting can make or break a game*. Until now I feel games without voice acting were more inmnersive for me, made me pour some of my soul/imagination to the different game characters and added the Role Playing part to JRPG. With voice being added it felt more like being an espectator. (getting sidetracked... Back to Suikoden IV) In my opinion, Suikoden IV had BAD voice acting design, probably because protagonist being always silent made it super awkward, I just couldn't finish.
I literally just played Shining Force II because it was on sale on Steam. I still think Star Ocean: The Second Star Story and Lunar Silver Star Story have aged well. Great eye for the classics and I really appreciate your take on the JRPG subject. Keep up the great work.
Great games and two of my all time favorites, haven't played them in awhile though so need to do that here eventually and cover them in more detail. Would love to do retrospectives on those two titles in due time. Thanks for the support as well, will do!
The Lunar series 😍
Was looking for the Lunar series 😔
Suikoden II is so criminally underrated.
Anyone who has only heard of it/never heard of it, please do yourself a favor and play it. It's that amazing.
underrated????? is on literally every list of best JRPGs off all time... all of them, literally. Every JRPG fan in this planet knows about it, Id say after FF7 and Chono Trigger is the most known old-school JRPG my friend :D
I'm old enough too remember when JRPG'S were just called RPG'S!
Great choices, very good list. I have re-played 4 of them the last 2 years, still waiting for something like that to come out again
Nice one. Have you played Valkyrie Profile?I haven't seen it mentioned in any of your videos.
Keep up the good work!
Thank you! Yeah I’ve played Valkyrie Profile, great game for sure and you are right that I’ve yet to talk about it on the channel before which I do need to fix. Admittedly I first played it when I was really young so I think some of the grimdark-ish nature was a little much for me back then, but it’s probably one that I would come to really like in my adult years now. Thanks for reminding me!
Nice review - I am old enough to remember when these games came out and played them!
I played Suikoden for the first time, 2 months ago and it blew me away
a well earned like and subscribe for the content. the description of chrono trigger... you really hit the nail to the head..
What a great birthday present! Thanks for making such fantastic videos about something your so passionate about. Keep up the great work!
No problem! Appreciate the kind words and glad to hear you’re enjoying the content. Happy birthday btw, hope it was a good one!
Great to hear Ogre Battle remembered!
Use to rent this gem from Blockbuster, hard to beat in one rental period lol.
Loved the choices here. For me i think i would have mentioned Final Fantasy Tactics. Hopefully Triangle Strategy fills that void for me.
Only modern ports though. It hasn't aged well in the case that you can get soft locked into a 2 battle run you can't win because you saved before the 2nd battle. But that's not an issue for WOTL. It's a beautiful game and it feels very modern with the Remaster. Too bad FF 7 couldn't get a proper Remaster, fixing some of the sprite work and using non compressed backgrounds...
Props for showing a clip of Legend of Legia. My all time favorite game!
I'd love a new JRPG with fighting games moves like that one had
I SEE GUARDIAN'S CRUSADE I LIKE
Guardian's Crusade is pure love
An unknown Japan-only Square RPG that went by unnoticed but holds up amazingly wenn (imo), is Treasure of the Rudras, the animations are veeery great for the SNES, the music as well and the magic system is really "something else"
I definitely agree with this list. Someone mentioned the original Star ocean and I'd definitely agree with that. I'd say every suikoden hold up great. One or obscure if you're only a Consol gamer and not a J RPG, is the original divine divinity. Such a solid rpg head to toe.
Love FF X, I appreciate your reasoning, you only got into jrpgs during the ps1 era too, but FF VI is the Final Fantasy that should be on this list.
This list was AWESOME!!! You even managed to get some Shining love in there, cant go wrong with that! lol
Still a ton of other games you can add so Im hoping for a part 2 someday... :P
Thank you! Of course, I've got mad love for the Shining Force series even if I've still unfortunately yet to play the 3rd one (one day though). And part 2 will definitely be coming in due time after we put out some different content first!
@@GamingBroductions Not sure what vid youre posting next but I cant wait to see it! :) Keep it up!
Shining Force 2!! Yes!! 100%. Still play this through every other year.
FFX used to be one of my favorite games when I was younger, but I recently tried playing it again, and it just wasn't doing it for me anymore. I played FFVI for the first time recently though, and that ended up being one of the best games I've ever played. I would definitely categorize Suikoden II and Chrono Trigger as timeless games; both are still amazing.
FFX was too linear for my taste - it was like playing a movie. I liked being able to wander more in a game. FFX had none of that.
Final fantasy 6 was okay for me but since it was hyped up I was kinda disappointed x(. The design and stuff like that were still really good though. Try 4 and Tactics if you haven't
Ffx has only gotten better w age imo
@@joncliffmckinley5868 Why do you think so?
@@Sauvenil going back and playing it still feels good. The pacing is great, and it's one of my favorite iterations of turn based battle systems; to me, battle feels punchy and exciting.
Ff7 by counterexample feels painfully slow when I play the OG these days
Gaming Broductions: - "Apart from Mario RPG, I started into JRPGs during the PSX era."
Me, playing RPG's from the ZX Spectrum's era: - "I don't care. Grate video, I loved it".
SUIKODEN 2, HELL YEAHH ❤️🔥🔥
A classic for sure! One of the first I thought of here
FFII & FFIII on SNES both need to be on this list. So basically a Top 10
While a lot of my favorite RPGs have aged rather well in my opinion, I also have to be honest and admit that my nostalgia might make me more accepting of their outdated mechanics than I would be otherwise. Personally I think having a unique and visually pleasing artstyle like *Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Mother 3,* and *Suikoden 2* is a big factor in making a game feel truly timeless.
One question though; how old does a game has to be for one to say it has "aged well"? Like, would a Wii game be too recent?
Definitely feel you on the art style having a pretty big impact on how well it holds up. Not saying the graphics have to be absolutely incredible or anything but having memorable character designs/locations and an aesthetically pleasing style in general can go a long way in getting me immersed in and having more patience with some of the other game's potential shortcomings. That's gonna vary depending on who you ask I'm sure but as of right now I feel like anything from the PS3/Wii generation is still maybe a bit too recent, in my opinion of course. My personal cut-off was the PS2/Gamecube generation for this video
@@GamingBroductions Yeah, that seems like a fair cut-off point. I think most of the great GC RPGs have aged really well, and those are generally some of my favorite RPGs as well. But since I grew up on them I'm admittedly pretty biased lol.
My cut off is before PS3.
I still play Persona 5 here and there on my PS3 so to me PS3 era is still alive... but barely.
Maybe when the next version of PS5s launch the PS3 will be retro, including WiiU.
as it is i kinda feel Wii has hit that retro mark only because it was already kinda dated at launch.
I am so happy to see Shinning forced 2 in the list! This was the game of my childhood!
Shining Force III, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Shadow Hearts: Covenant and Dragon Force have aged really well.
Recently played through Dragon Force on emulator and it was a lot of fun. It becomes a little micro managy later in the end game but man the battles are beautiful and I loved the Working Designs localization.
I forgot all about Shadow Hearts. Fantastic
Love Shadow Hearts! I have all 3 games that came out on the PS2, wish they'd do a remake or at least a remaster of the first 2
Ayyy, The Legend of Dragoon. I like that small mention. That combat system was unique and immersive.
Thank you for keeping it real about FF 7, 8, and 9! I've caught a lot of flack online for saying those games have aged poorly lol. I think it's because so many people have strong nostalgia for those games but I don't so I can look at them differently
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion in a hobby as subjective as gaming so don't let some of the fanboys get to you lol, some of them can be a bit too passionate with nostalgia playing a heavy role like you mentioned. I do think some parts of them are timeless for sure but recognize not every single aspect may have aged perfectly for those that didn't grow up with them
Just curious, as someone who doesn't seem to have nostalgia with FF titles was there a particular game in the series that really managed to impress you on first playthrough?
@@GamingBroductions I really enjoyed Final Fantasy X a lot! The battle system is fantastic, I really wish more FF games utilized the CTB system.
Ff 7 graphics ( having no nostalig feelings throughwords it) has aged almost unbereble when it comes to graphics, the story is worth it for the topics but still.... I disagree with ff9 though, graphics looks better, only world map look bad
I do agree with his point about FF 7,8,9.
But they have they own charm and other flaws too which didn't mentioned.
But the thing is they change quite a bit the major features in the FF X, like world map and ATB, the world map alone giving a major drawbacks to me back then so I haven't play it even to this date although I want to try it sometimes, exploring and finding secret places is one of the main features of RPG FF 9 do that quite well with chocograph.
Ff9 looks awesome, moguri mod insanely good, story and game play is best in the series, writing in ff7 remake is horrible compared to ff9
Breath of 3 and 4 is really special for me hits me really hard in nostalgia and my childhood, i genuinely enjoyed every bit of playing it
Same! BoF 3 was my first RPG so I have an extreme love for these games.
Yu-Gi-Oh Falsebound Kingdom for the GameCube is a little more modern than Ogre Battle. The only difference is you can direct your combat units, which personally I like more and also the inclusion of the Yu-Gi-Oh cast and monsters is a plus!
Random Yu-Gi-Oh spin-offs FTW! I personally loved Duelist of the Roses, or whatever its called.
Breath of Fire 4 is the very first JRPG i've ever played! I hold dear to it in my heart! Very special for me!
I'm a writer. Even thou i write poems, i'm sure i could say this : the first urge for writing a story came because i played this game.
It's only a decade old, but I would say Dragons Dogma has also aged really well.
10 YEARS ALREADY?My god, I'm old.
Pretty funny, I randomly clicked your video and found that pretty much every game you mentioned are my absolute favorites.
Shining Force 2 is criminally underrated, people might know of it but in my experience they have rarely tried it.
amen!
Chrono Cross aged really well too. I was hoping you would mention it, especially since you used some of it's music in your outro.
Chrono Trigger, Breath of Fire IV and The Legend of Dragoon are the JRPG trio of my life, missed that last one on the list. Thank you for this content bro.
I want a real Super Mario RPG sequel more than I want half-life 3.
U and me both, friend. PUT MARIO RPG ON SWITCH ONLINE ALREADY NINTENDO!!! Can you imagine? Probably some BS with copyrights and stuff since Square developed it. (Ahhhhhh, remember when they were just called Square, or Square Soft?) At least I have Matio RPG on SNES Classic and every emulator known to man i suppose....including handheld ones, but i want it on Switch NSO!
@@Slangwell squaresoft made super Mario rpg. If the company was still squaresoft I would want a sequel. Square enix would just screw it up
Another solid video...so glad I found this channel. Hoping it grows even more. Keep up the good work.
Personally I love random encounters. Low hp and zero potions trying to get to the next town. Exciting
miss the days of running through places holding L1 and R1 in fear of a RBE, get that instant flee up and outta there...
Luckely most save points also healed you back then too. Though if you didnt stock up your still probably screwed.
I can live with them in dungeons, but when they use them in the open world where you are trying to explore, they get tedious and annoying. It's the one bad thing that Dragon Quest 8 does to an otherwise awesome game .
I liked how FFXII did it the most.
Save crystals made the game interesting and challenging,
at least until you start stock piling them lol.
What they shoulda done is made them rare mining material or rather rare boss drops, this way your more likely to save in towns and hold on to the few you would be getting for later.
I don't get what's exciting about it : if anything, it just feels unfair (especially when coupled with ambushes), makes the world less alive and it kills the fun of exploration.
Love your video! Whatcing this at the hospita lwith a broken back and it made my stay there a lot better! Keep it up
It's hard for me to look at games that are 3D and say they aged well. Too much uncanny valley. 2D ages so well bc of it having an overall aesthetic, more than just utilitarian polygons
I'd say Playstation 2 games already looked good in 3d.
PS1 and N64 though - not so much.
I gave you like just for putting Suikoden II on the list. I played a lot of RPGs (Western and Japanese), and this particular entry of the franchise is still one of my favorite of all time.
FFX is not the first FF I would recommend. Personally, I think it's ass. FF6 would be the one I recommend. FFX has some the issues that make some of the current FFs so bad. The cinematic experience should not replace a good story, or game play. The long hallway gameplay of FFX( and XIII) makes the game linear and monotonous. Rather as well play Mystic Quest.
I don't know the best place to ask you this. Do you have a list of challenge runs of games and how their difficulty compares to "regular"(unrestricted) playthroughs? For instance, among games with random encounters (including those you cannot run from), which are hardest to low-level run. Also, speed run, item/money restrictions, and how easily that is done.
I hate Final Fantasy X
Me too
Love that Suikoden and Shining Force get attention for how awesome they are
Wow a Sega Genesis game!
I am happy to see one. The Shining Force/Darkness series is amazing and Phantasy Star series as well hold up nicely to any of the most popular series. The replay value of Phantasy Star 3 makes it a top title; although many get distracted by the lackluster graphics. Phantasy Star 2 is just as good as ANY Final Fantasy game of the same era.
I still had an Atari 2600 when I saw the original Phantasy Star on the Sega base system in the late 1980's. I liked the look so much I went out and bought a Sega.
There is one game series that few people talk about nowadays: Lufia. The second in the series is my personal favorite (Rise of the Sinistrals), however the other games deserve a lot of praise themselves. I would have loved to see some more Lufia games come out and all, but the last one that we got was a remake of Lufia 2 which they kinda blew it.
11:04 it's been leaked that it might come to the NSO+ pass as a N64 game. That might be a good chance to play the game for a relatively low price.
Always great work from you guys. Thank you!
I played Suikuden Tierkies (something like that) recently and absolutely adore this game, but it looked entirely different from the Suikuden you showed here?
Thank you for the SF2 mention, the CT heraldry, and not mentioning FFVI, as it’s nearly always on such lists. Not that I dislike FFVI, but the ability for every character to learn every spell, dilutes the flavor of the game after awhile, and the characters lose personality.
I’d have never known about the SF games if they’d not included them on Sega Channel for some months way back when. They’ve had a spot on my lists for 20+ years now, all because of that inclusion