I agree with your list. To piggyback off that, in the 90s, a lot of us kids didn't have our own console, as it was for the family. We did have our own handheld devices, though, so titles like Saga 2 or maybe Golden Sun for younger kids was perhaps the first JRPG that was something we owned just for us isntead of something we shared. That sense of ownership maybe wasn't influential to the industry as a whole, but to us individuals, it was huge
Very true! I was lucky enough to have my own stuff as my parents didn't really game and I was an only child. But I can only imagine having to share stuff back then. Would've been hard!
Not so much a staple jrpg, but the legend of heroes series starting with Trails in the Sky weaves an ongoing narrative throughout its 13 games. Something that happened in game 1 is referenced in game 9. The world building is unprecedented.
I remember playing the original Dragon Quest when I was a kid, Dragon Warrior since I'm in the states. It's painful to show it to a younger person now and they tell you how boring it is. It's a shame to see at almost 40 years old how shallow kid's lives are now with the constant stimulation and the lack of imagination and wonder that helped make a game like that thrilling. Remember being on road trips and looking out the window? I really feel sorry for them.
Couldn't agree more honestly. There's a reason for that... phones & iPads!!! The thought and imagination deletion devices. Too sad. Things were so simple even when I was a kid (born in 93 here).
Dragon Quest 1989, Final Fantasy 1990, Shining in the Darkness 1991, Phantasy Star 3 1991, FF4 1991 (US release dates). Playing these as a kid, it was absolutely stunning how fast the genre was growing and evolving. The five years from 89 to 94 pretty much defined everything that made me into the RPG lover I am today.
Great list and maybe if I had to sort of add more to the list Maybe the original Secret of Mana for the SNES mostly its implementation of Co-op, and one of the earliest Action RPGs. In a way influence some action RPGs you see today (mostly Tales etc) Another maybe Super Mario RPG: The Legend of the Seven Stars, obviously setting the foundation for Mario RPGs but also popularising the whole “Timed Attack Inputs” and also blend a formula of both RPG elements while staying true in its core being Mario. (Could also be one of those being a lowkey intro to JRPGs)
Great video and perfect game list. Could not have curated a better one. DQ, CT, FF6 and FF7 were hugely influential and they all stand the test of time. Yes, even DQ! ha
Fantastic video!!! All great choices too! I was hoping you’d include Pokémon so super happy about that! I think it solidified the love for JRPGs for a lot of us!
Final Fantasy 4 was more important than Final Fantasy 7. Not necessarily better, but probably the most important game its in own series and the second most important JRPG ever made next to Dragon Quest (though you can make cases for Dragon Quest 3, Phantasy Star, and Final Fantasy being on the same level as FF4).
Fantastic list, Erek! The OG Pokemon was unprecedented, and the ripple effect it caused during the 90s is something I'll never forget, such a nostalgic and beautiful game.
Awesome video, Erek. That list is spot on!! If you would want to extend this list I'd say Phantasy Star Online may be pretty important, as it was the first JRPG on consoles with online multiplayer. But it sure wasn't as groundbreaking as the games you mentioned. 🐻
I'm very biased, but I think the timed hits system in Super Mario RPG deserves a shout out. It showed that turn based mechanics could be more than just spamming A to win. I don't know if SMRPG was the very first to do it, but it certainly made it popular for future titles.
Youre missing out on one of the greatest RPGs of all time which is the YS series! You go back to YS 1 & 2 it definitely brought alot to the RPG genre as a whole. Its a shame that the series doesnt get more recognition. These two games alone are some of the best action JRPGs ever made, combat is really well balanced with top notch level & dungeon design as well as the story telling. They are also well paced which obviously helps when wanting to go back to play the game. Its a series i really feel i need to advocate for these days as they often get missed over the other greats. Either way great video and definitely plenty of food for thought here!
@@ErekLadd you do. I hope that you'll jump into it an be blown away by it! The beauty is you can start on any of them in the series because they're all self contained stories except for Ys 1&2.. YS 1&2 are connected
I'm surprised you didn't mention EarthBound. It was the first funny & weird JRPG to reach a mainstream audience, larely thanks to its odd marketing materials and modern-day setting. It since has gone on to inspire countless indie games, most notably Undertale. That final fight against Giygas is a wholly unique existential nightmare of an experience that no game, to my knowledge, has been able to replicate.
I do agree with Earthbound having a huge impact for sure. Maybe not quite as immediate as the ones mentioned in the video. I did want to include it but I figured I better keep the video brief and only discuss five. Easily in my top two games of all time though. I love Earthbound!
I received a PS1 for Christmas of 97 and FF7 was one of the games I got. I’ve been hooked on JRPGs since then . I went back and played several I missed from earlier consoles. FFVII and FFIX are my favorites. Hoping for an FFIX remake one day. Nice video!!
Good list. Sephiroth is argueably the most iconic JRPG villain, and one of the most iconic in gaming as a whole, with only a few such as Bowser and Ganon above him. (Unless you count Mewtwo as a villain, which I don't. He is anime villain, not gaming)
I'm going to get shit for this (potentially) I believe that the Rance series must be included in this, while not widely known outside of Japan you truthfully can't understand the development of Japanese media in the modern era without it similar to how you can't understand the development of JRPGs without Dragon Quest. Rance is a Japanese eroge, which essentially means it is a gameplay focused hentai game. Rance however introduced tons of features that would become common both in Japanese media and the JRPG genre. The first game I can find which instituted an "auto-battle" system in order to allow quicker grinding is Rance 3: The Fall of Leazas which came out in 1991 at the very least it was the most well-known in Japan to have this mechanic at that time. On top of this the Rance series pioneered world-building and literary tropes still used today. For instance leveling up is done via calling upon a level God to increase your level once you have reached the required amount of experience (in most Rance games), this is a in-universe piece of lore and also allows the player to control what level they are at in case one fears being too strong for a fight (though the gameplay of the early games makes that hard to justify). This means that basically any game, light novel, or anime that has leveling-up as a piece of world-building likely owes it too Rance. On top of this a far more common trope in hentai is that the Demon King is a cute girl, this also once again comes from the Rance series. Rance himself also is the most popular eroge protagonist, it is a matter of public record that the reason eroge news outlets divide popularity polls by sex, is because Rance dominated all popularity polls. In a game series with tons of women, competing in an industry full of people who solely care about hentai, Rance's sheer charisma as a character made him the most popular in all of eroge. There's also the massive legacy Rance leaves behind as a franchise, it ended in 2018 and started in 1898 which makes it one of the longest running JRPG franchises of all time. Rance also ventured into SRPGs with 2 of the most prolific SRPGs of all time, Kichikuou Rance and Rance 7 (Sengoku Rance). Both of these allowed the player to change how numerous storylines played out via their choices such as who to ally with or what date a specific territory was taken. Very few SRPGs actually allow your choice of missions to matter, both of these games allow talking to someone on a specific date to be an important decision or the construction of new facilities to result in entirely new plotlines for characters. Kichikuou Rance was good enough it became the highest-selling eroge upon release and stayed that way until it was overtaken by Fate an eroge that in order to achieve mainstream success removed ALL of the hentai (which Fate btw wouldn't exist without Rance). Rance also manages to re-invent itself nearly every game, which makes it amongst the most creative game franchises ever made potentially the most creative. You can't compare 1 to 3, 3 to 4.1, 4.1 to Kichikuou, Kichikuou to 5, 5 to 6, ect... Most of the games are completely different than the ones that came before it. With Rance X (the final and not 10th entry in the franchise ironically enough) being the most different and also having the largest video game script ever made by a wide margin. Which is terrifying because Rance X is a JRPG not a visual novel, and alone it is bigger than most VN franchises in sheer word count, a writer for IGN Japan went on record saying that Rance X is the 2018 GOtY according to him (his statement causing a funny misconception that IGN Japan's GOTY was Rance X). I can go on much longer, but this post is already massive enough. My point is in sheer importance Rance as a franchise (or an individual game likely Rance 3) deserves to be on this list. Likely I would replace FF6, FF6 I genuinely think is the best FF game, but in terms of importance it really isn't that important for the genre. EDIT: Because other people are talking about representation, I would argue Rance should be included to represent the PC market. The PC market is inseparable from the eroge market, and Rance is the king of Eroge.
Part 2 or a video for JRPGS after the 5th generation? Here's some of my picks: FF10, Kingdom Hearts, Tales of Symphonia, Shin Megami Tensei III, Persona 3, Fire Emblem Awakening, Bravely Default, Xenoblade, Demon's Souls, etc. Just to name a few.
Shin Megami Tensei & Persona, though I have yet to play any yet, but we wouldn't have Pokémon if not for that! But Dark Souls, more than Demon's Souls, was pretty impactful, spawning the whole "Soulslike" sub-genre! And I would be remiss, growing up with Sega, to NOT mention Phantasy Star or Shining Force! Can we say Nier...? I can confidently say Star Ocean, though, at least! And, last, but certainly not least, the Digimon World & Story games, I would DEFINITELY be remiss I didn't mention those!
The most important games in jrpgs that kind of a hard question to answer however in my opinion ff7 original I don’t like it however I can’t deny how much ff7 did to the genre. Ff10 another ff title ff10 was probably one the most iconic ps2 game to this day the lvl up tree is being used in probably every rpg not just for jrpg. Tales of symphony I know it’s overrated however the tales series have been using the action rpg combat since literally there first tales game however symphony is what made the franchise popular and now almost every jrpg is an action based game however the tales series are the Original of action combat in jrpg. Xenoblade chronicles the Wii game I remember this game when it was just a Japan exclusive the internet went crazy for that and they did a campaign to bring to the west and they succeeded. Persona 4 golden it’s my first persona game and it was perfect I have become a fan to the persona game after literally playing just 10 minutes from p4g it’s an iconic game and it built the hype for p5
Earthbound CANT be on this list. It’s very simple. It’s not important. No one was checking for earthbound back in 95-96. It’s status as “good” can ONLY be conveyed through nostalgia glasses which is reinforced with herd mentality from the internet. Thus status as “cult classic”.
I agree with you. And this is the reason why I left it off. I considered games that had immediate impact whereas Earthbound did not do well right away and still is considered that cult classic. I love it lots! And it has such great impact now - but back then not so much.
Earthbound deserves to be in list like such. So many indie titles are directly inspired from the Mother series such as Undertale, Omori, Eastward, Mother 3, Deltarune, Yume Nikki, Lisa and so on
I agree. Don't get me wrong, it's a great game but no means greatest ever, far from it. Remember though, having this opinion apparently means you have the wrong opinion, so many fans get upset if you don't agree
I agree with your list. To piggyback off that, in the 90s, a lot of us kids didn't have our own console, as it was for the family. We did have our own handheld devices, though, so titles like Saga 2 or maybe Golden Sun for younger kids was perhaps the first JRPG that was something we owned just for us isntead of something we shared. That sense of ownership maybe wasn't influential to the industry as a whole, but to us individuals, it was huge
Very true! I was lucky enough to have my own stuff as my parents didn't really game and I was an only child. But I can only imagine having to share stuff back then. Would've been hard!
Not so much a staple jrpg, but the legend of heroes series starting with Trails in the Sky weaves an ongoing narrative throughout its 13 games. Something that happened in game 1 is referenced in game 9. The world building is unprecedented.
I remember playing the original Dragon Quest when I was a kid, Dragon Warrior since I'm in the states. It's painful to show it to a younger person now and they tell you how boring it is. It's a shame to see at almost 40 years old how shallow kid's lives are now with the constant stimulation and the lack of imagination and wonder that helped make a game like that thrilling. Remember being on road trips and looking out the window? I really feel sorry for them.
Couldn't agree more honestly. There's a reason for that... phones & iPads!!! The thought and imagination deletion devices. Too sad. Things were so simple even when I was a kid (born in 93 here).
Dragon Quest 1989, Final Fantasy 1990, Shining in the Darkness 1991, Phantasy Star 3 1991, FF4 1991 (US release dates). Playing these as a kid, it was absolutely stunning how fast the genre was growing and evolving. The five years from 89 to 94 pretty much defined everything that made me into the RPG lover I am today.
Those were some great years for RPGs. I can only imagine being around then and experiencing everything as it came out. What a time to be alive!
Great list and maybe if I had to sort of add more to the list
Maybe the original Secret of Mana for the SNES mostly its implementation of Co-op, and one of the earliest Action RPGs. In a way influence some action RPGs you see today (mostly Tales etc)
Another maybe Super Mario RPG: The Legend of the Seven Stars, obviously setting the foundation for Mario RPGs but also popularising the whole “Timed Attack Inputs” and also blend a formula of both RPG elements while staying true in its core being Mario. (Could also be one of those being a lowkey intro to JRPGs)
Yeah very true!! Secret Of Mana just never stuck for me for some reason. I need to give it another go.
Pokemon owes it's existence to SMT tho...
Unfortunately, the rest of the world doesn't know that until the 3rd game on PS2.
Shin Megami Tensei?
@@fredericmateus5078 Yes
Great video and perfect game list. Could not have curated a better one. DQ, CT, FF6 and FF7 were hugely influential and they all stand the test of time. Yes, even DQ! ha
Fantastic video!!! All great choices too! I was hoping you’d include Pokémon so super happy about that! I think it solidified the love for JRPGs for a lot of us!
That's a tough selection to argue with, though some Shining Force or Phantasy Star should have been in there to represent SEGA 😉
True!!
Final Fantasy 4 was more important than Final Fantasy 7.
Not necessarily better, but probably the most important game its in own series and the second most important JRPG ever made next to Dragon Quest (though you can make cases for Dragon Quest 3, Phantasy Star, and Final Fantasy being on the same level as FF4).
Fantastic list, Erek! The OG Pokemon was unprecedented, and the ripple effect it caused during the 90s is something I'll never forget, such a nostalgic and beautiful game.
Awesome video, Erek. That list is spot on!!
If you would want to extend this list I'd say Phantasy Star Online may be pretty important, as it was the first JRPG on consoles with online multiplayer. But it sure wasn't as groundbreaking as the games you mentioned. 🐻
Yeah very true!!! I remember the huuuuuge keyboard controller for the GameCube 😂 Was a super popular game but I never got into it.
chrono trigger always holds a special place in my heart, its so amazing the talent that came together to make it, it really shows
Pokémon Red back in 1998 is what got me into not only JRPGs but video games in general, my 5 year old self was HOOKED
I'm very biased, but I think the timed hits system in Super Mario RPG deserves a shout out. It showed that turn based mechanics could be more than just spamming A to win. I don't know if SMRPG was the very first to do it, but it certainly made it popular for future titles.
Youre missing out on one of the greatest RPGs of all time which is the YS series! You go back to YS 1 & 2 it definitely brought alot to the RPG genre as a whole.
Its a shame that the series doesnt get more recognition. These two games alone are some of the best action JRPGs ever made, combat is really well balanced with top notch level & dungeon design as well as the story telling.
They are also well paced which obviously helps when wanting to go back to play the game. Its a series i really feel i need to advocate for these days as they often get missed over the other greats.
Either way great video and definitely plenty of food for thought here!
I still need to get into YS!!!
@@ErekLadd you do. I hope that you'll jump into it an be blown away by it! The beauty is you can start on any of them in the series because they're all self contained stories except for Ys 1&2.. YS 1&2 are connected
I'm surprised you didn't mention EarthBound. It was the first funny & weird JRPG to reach a mainstream audience, larely thanks to its odd marketing materials and modern-day setting. It since has gone on to inspire countless indie games, most notably Undertale.
That final fight against Giygas is a wholly unique existential nightmare of an experience that no game, to my knowledge, has been able to replicate.
I do agree with Earthbound having a huge impact for sure. Maybe not quite as immediate as the ones mentioned in the video. I did want to include it but I figured I better keep the video brief and only discuss five. Easily in my top two games of all time though. I love Earthbound!
Dragon Quest 9 is the game I credit for getting me into JRPGs. I grew up playing Pokemon, but DQ9 was the game that got me to expand my choices.
I received a PS1 for Christmas of 97 and FF7 was one of the games I got. I’ve been hooked on JRPGs since then . I went back and played several I missed from earlier consoles. FFVII and FFIX are my favorites. Hoping for an FFIX remake one day. Nice video!!
We had the same Christmas Day in 1998. I got a Gameboy Pocket and Pokemon Red
Same birthday & same Christmas day 98? Are we twins?
@@ErekLadd we just might be 😂
Legend of Legaia for PS1 is such an underrated game… Totally obscured by FFVII
Good list. Sephiroth is argueably the most iconic JRPG villain, and one of the most iconic in gaming as a whole, with only a few such as Bowser and Ganon above him. (Unless you count Mewtwo as a villain, which I don't. He is anime villain, not gaming)
Totally agree with you!
I'm going to get shit for this (potentially) I believe that the Rance series must be included in this, while not widely known outside of Japan you truthfully can't understand the development of Japanese media in the modern era without it similar to how you can't understand the development of JRPGs without Dragon Quest.
Rance is a Japanese eroge, which essentially means it is a gameplay focused hentai game. Rance however introduced tons of features that would become common both in Japanese media and the JRPG genre. The first game I can find which instituted an "auto-battle" system in order to allow quicker grinding is Rance 3: The Fall of Leazas which came out in 1991 at the very least it was the most well-known in Japan to have this mechanic at that time. On top of this the Rance series pioneered world-building and literary tropes still used today.
For instance leveling up is done via calling upon a level God to increase your level once you have reached the required amount of experience (in most Rance games), this is a in-universe piece of lore and also allows the player to control what level they are at in case one fears being too strong for a fight (though the gameplay of the early games makes that hard to justify). This means that basically any game, light novel, or anime that has leveling-up as a piece of world-building likely owes it too Rance. On top of this a far more common trope in hentai is that the Demon King is a cute girl, this also once again comes from the Rance series.
Rance himself also is the most popular eroge protagonist, it is a matter of public record that the reason eroge news outlets divide popularity polls by sex, is because Rance dominated all popularity polls. In a game series with tons of women, competing in an industry full of people who solely care about hentai, Rance's sheer charisma as a character made him the most popular in all of eroge.
There's also the massive legacy Rance leaves behind as a franchise, it ended in 2018 and started in 1898 which makes it one of the longest running JRPG franchises of all time.
Rance also ventured into SRPGs with 2 of the most prolific SRPGs of all time, Kichikuou Rance and Rance 7 (Sengoku Rance). Both of these allowed the player to change how numerous storylines played out via their choices such as who to ally with or what date a specific territory was taken. Very few SRPGs actually allow your choice of missions to matter, both of these games allow talking to someone on a specific date to be an important decision or the construction of new facilities to result in entirely new plotlines for characters. Kichikuou Rance was good enough it became the highest-selling eroge upon release and stayed that way until it was overtaken by Fate an eroge that in order to achieve mainstream success removed ALL of the hentai (which Fate btw wouldn't exist without Rance).
Rance also manages to re-invent itself nearly every game, which makes it amongst the most creative game franchises ever made potentially the most creative. You can't compare 1 to 3, 3 to 4.1, 4.1 to Kichikuou, Kichikuou to 5, 5 to 6, ect... Most of the games are completely different than the ones that came before it. With Rance X (the final and not 10th entry in the franchise ironically enough) being the most different and also having the largest video game script ever made by a wide margin. Which is terrifying because Rance X is a JRPG not a visual novel, and alone it is bigger than most VN franchises in sheer word count, a writer for IGN Japan went on record saying that Rance X is the 2018 GOtY according to him (his statement causing a funny misconception that IGN Japan's GOTY was Rance X).
I can go on much longer, but this post is already massive enough. My point is in sheer importance Rance as a franchise (or an individual game likely Rance 3) deserves to be on this list. Likely I would replace FF6, FF6 I genuinely think is the best FF game, but in terms of importance it really isn't that important for the genre.
EDIT: Because other people are talking about representation, I would argue Rance should be included to represent the PC market. The PC market is inseparable from the eroge market, and Rance is the king of Eroge.
Dragon Quest,Megami Tensei, Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Phantasy Star and Tales of.
Very informative video, I agree with your whole list, haha.
Hey thanks!!
I mean Earthbound should get a mention… ?!
For sure! Probably in my top two favorite games ever!!
Persona, Tales of, and Trails/Kiseki are also trailblazers in my opinion
Part 2 or a video for JRPGS after the 5th generation?
Here's some of my picks: FF10, Kingdom Hearts, Tales of Symphonia, Shin Megami Tensei III, Persona 3, Fire Emblem Awakening, Bravely Default, Xenoblade, Demon's Souls, etc. Just to name a few.
Shin Megami Tensei & Persona, though I have yet to play any yet, but we wouldn't have Pokémon if not for that! But Dark Souls, more than Demon's Souls, was pretty impactful, spawning the whole "Soulslike" sub-genre! And I would be remiss, growing up with Sega, to NOT mention Phantasy Star or Shining Force! Can we say Nier...? I can confidently say Star Ocean, though, at least! And, last, but certainly not least, the Digimon World & Story games, I would DEFINITELY be remiss I didn't mention those!
Make a video about best system of player and party development. Materia vs Sphere Grid vs skills from weapons (FF9)...etc.c
The most important games in jrpgs that kind of a hard question to answer however in my opinion ff7 original I don’t like it however I can’t deny how much ff7 did to the genre.
Ff10 another ff title ff10 was probably one the most iconic ps2 game to this day the lvl up tree is being used in probably every rpg not just for jrpg.
Tales of symphony I know it’s overrated however the tales series have been using the action rpg combat since literally there first tales game however symphony is what made the franchise popular and now almost every jrpg is an action based game however the tales series are the Original of action combat in jrpg.
Xenoblade chronicles the Wii game I remember this game when it was just a Japan exclusive the internet went crazy for that and they did a campaign to bring to the west and they succeeded.
Persona 4 golden it’s my first persona game and it was perfect I have become a fan to the persona game after literally playing just 10 minutes from p4g it’s an iconic game and it built the hype for p5
Just tapping in before watching, but if FFV isn’t on here, then the list has to be rendered invalid.
Er um Xenogears.
🌿🚿
Add FF4
Pokemon ahead of Xenogears girl stop
Earthbound CANT be on this list. It’s very simple. It’s not important. No one was checking for earthbound back in 95-96. It’s status as “good” can ONLY be conveyed through nostalgia glasses which is reinforced with herd mentality from the internet. Thus status as “cult classic”.
I agree with you. And this is the reason why I left it off. I considered games that had immediate impact whereas Earthbound did not do well right away and still is considered that cult classic. I love it lots! And it has such great impact now - but back then not so much.
Earthbound deserves to be in list like such. So many indie titles are directly inspired from the Mother series such as Undertale, Omori, Eastward, Mother 3, Deltarune, Yume Nikki, Lisa and so on
Chrono Trigger is overrated.
😂😂😂
Ooofffff… don’t think so. Perfect pacing , great characters, wonderful art, multiple endings for great re play… it’s masterclass
I agree. Don't get me wrong, it's a great game but no means greatest ever, far from it. Remember though, having this opinion apparently means you have the wrong opinion, so many fans get upset if you don't agree
Its not my fav but i totally understands that it could be an other person fav
People will say that about your favourite game one day. It's easy to say that without the context of the time the game released