0:29 Baten Kaitos 1:31 Suikoden 2:39 Lost Odyssey 3:33 Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga 4:10 Half Minute Hero 4:53 Golden Sun 5:51 Xenoblade Chronicles 6:47 Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance 7:51 Terranigma 8:36 Radiant Historia
You shouldn't avoid choosing a game merely because other people dislike it. On the contrary, that should be an opportunity to sway other people's opinions.
Fire Emblem Awakening isn't a game that you can really "sway people's opinions" on, it's a very love it or hate it scenario. Fire Emblem fans hate it because of all of the new elements that don't fit the series (like pair-ups, marrying all of your units, having children, etc) as well as the abysmal writing and map design, while its fans love it mostly for the romance mechanics and being able to minmax the hell out of your units (which is another mechanic that doesn't really fit Fire Emblem).
Radiant Historia was definitely my favorite RPG on the DS back in the day. It's got one of the best battle systems of any JRPG; simple and easy to get into, but just complicated enough to be fun to experiment with.
VShalak Just need to ask! Is it the original Radiant Historia or the newly released one that is shown in the video. It hooked me so I really want to give it a try!
Kwenbi get the 3ds version. It has everything plus widescreen a smoother framerate. If you want the portraits and stuff from the original game its available as dlc on top of the other 5+ story/fan service dlcs they have on the eshop.
Legend of Dragoon for ps1 was an awesome game that was highly underrated, its timed attack battle system did a great job of making fights feel more involved.
@@OkurkaBinLadin I loved LoD!! But it did get kind of poor reviews when it came out: "Even if you enjoy RPGs, it's probably better to give your favorite game another run-through than waste time on this derivative, shallow swill. No amount of FMV could really justify slogging through an unbalanced, tedious battle system to get to the trite, hackneyed bits of plot acted out by bland and uninspired characters. If you've 60 hours of your life that you're just desperate to fill, the GIA suggests you use the time to do odd jobs until enough money is earned to buy a copy of a worthwhile game."
Indeed, same here (excluding pokemon though :P) GOlden Sun was tons of fun, amazing music, an awesome battle system that didn't make it feel a numbers game and an interesting story...it was awesome. And Alex.
0:29 10. Baten Kaitos 1:32 9. Suikoden 2:39 8. Lost Odyssey 3:34 7. Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga 4:14 6. Half Minute Hero 4:54 5. Golden Sun 5:52 4. Xenoblade Chronicles 6:48 3. Fire Emlbem: Path of Radiance 7:52 2. Terranigma 8:38 1. Radiant Historia
You definitely should try: Dragon Quest (especially VII, VIII and XI) Persona series (at least 3,4 and 5) Breath of Fire (especially III) Grandia 1+2 Xenosaga Xenoblade Chronicles 2 plus its amazing DLC Ys VIII Octopath Traveler Earthbound Undertale Nier and Nier Automata Legend of Dragoon Tales of (I recoomend Symphonia, Vesperia, Abyss and Berseria) Legend of Heroes Lufia 1+2 Lunar 1+2 Star Ocean 1-3 Secret of Evermore Alundra Legend of Legaia Dark Cloud 1+2 Shadow Hearts (at least 1+2) Suikoden 5 The Last Story Eternal Sonata Ni no Kuni Skies of Arcadia
everybody leaves out tales of destiny 2 despite it being one favorite games. also Eternal sonata sums up what i don't like about most action rpgs in general
The Gunman This. THISTHISTHIS. Legend of Dragoon is amazing. And luckily you can get it on the PS Store. (The only annoying part is how the characters keep saying their attacks over and over again, and they only have one attack animation at a time, and you can only change it hetween battles)
Chrissel L that would be cool but worst case scenario we've always got the awesome original game, I always have fun when I dust the old PS off and rip that game out, it's probably my favourite PS1 game.
He has streamed legend of dragoon before. I’m not sure if It would be meet my top 10 personally. I really liked it, but it was also one of my earlier JRPGs. That, FF VII, and Grandia all have some nostalgia for me. I’m kind of afraid to go back and play LODragoon/Grandia if I might ruin my opinion of them. FF VII stood the test of time for me. The movement around the environments would make me rage, but I remember LODragoon having that issue too. Might have to go back and play those again.
Great video Mike. If you haven't tried them I would highly recommend The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 1, 2 and 3 and The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 1, 2 and 3 by Falcom. Other great non-Square JRPGs I would recommend are: Skies of Arcadia, Legend of the Dragoon, Lunar, Wild Arms, Grandia, Resonance of Fate and the YS series.
You really need to dive into the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. Its not just Persona...Digital Devil Saga, Shin Megami Trensei IV, Nocturne, Devil Survivor, many of these titles would be worthy of making this list. On the PS3 PSN you can get the entire PS2 catalog of SMT. EDIT: I also want to acknowledge all the ppl bringing up Legend Of Heroes, it is one of the best on going JRPG franchises ATM.
Lost Oddessy is such a great game, at the time of its release I remember hearing very little about it but having play through most of it (Never actually finished the game) it's definitely one of my favorites, especially in regards to the progression systems.
What a great list. Radiant Historia is such a perfect pick for your number one spot. I feel like it’s one of those RPG’s that few people got to play yet it was one of the best out at the time. I love this channel so much. There are a ton of gaming channels out there but I love how you can hear how much you love these games just by the way you talk about them. Your videos are always so well put together. I would love to see a DVD set with your Final Fantasy series particularly.
My list before I even watch: 1) Persona 5 2) Earthbound 3) Persona 4 Golden 4) Shadow Hearts: Covenant 5) Suikoden V 6) Skies of Arcadia 7) Valkyrie Profile 2 8) Breath of Fire 3 9) Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (not enough people played this gem!) 10) Fire Emblem: Awakening Disqualifying SE drops a lot of classics from my list to make this, like Chrono Trigger, FFT, FFXII and Vagrant Story. It's definitely a genre with a ton of great games.
Definitely check out Shadow Hearts at some point, it and it's sequel are awesome but lesser known. The third game has its faults, but is still a great time.
This is going to prett long list because there is alot of awesome Jrpgs that Square did not develop. In no particular order. Phantasy Star IV Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals Terranigma Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenosaga games Radiant Historia SMT: Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker Alundra Breath of Fire 4 Grandia 1 and 2 The Legend of Dragoon Lunar 1 and 2 Suikoden 2 and 5 Valkyrie Profile 1 and 2' Castlevania: Curse of Darkness Shadow Hearts 1 and 2 Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2 Persona 3-5(specially 5) Tales of the Abyss, Vesperia and Beseria Ys 7,8 and felghana Both Nier games Trails of cold steel 1 and 2 Ni No Kuni, Dark Cloud 2 and Dragon Quest 8 Valkyria Chronicles Lost Odyssey I think I stop here lol.
This channel definitely needs some Shadow Hearts. It is probably the most unique concepts for mashing Horror, Dark fantasy, Alternate History and JRPG together in one game. And Koudelka isn't bad either.
Terranigma! Been my #1 favorite game since I beat it 15 years ago. Some things have come close, but nothing has quite stuck in my heart like Terranigma. Everything it does is masterful. There's so many elements, big and small, that have stuck with me despite having not played it in many, many years. I adore seeing it even mentioned at any point possible, and whenever a subject comes up that's even tangentially related to it, I recommend it. One day, I will get an original copy (which is worth hundreds of dollars), but it's the only game I've bothered to get a reproduction cart for. And it sits, proudly, in the top center of one of my display shelves. I love Terranigma and everything about it, and it *NEEDS* to be played by everyone. You have my everlasting respect for including it on this list and I hope even a single person experiences it thanks to seeing it in this video.
@Rudy Straight If you play on the PS and have a save game of the completed Suikoden 1, you can play with Tir McDohl (the main Character) in Suikoden 2. However, he will appear almost at the ending of the game.
Lost Odyssey was incredible. The short stories you unlocked were endearing, exciting, thrilling, tragically sad, or appreciatively deep. They were worth the entire game alone, and the rest that surrounded it was fun. A real surprise since Xbox was not at all about RPGs
I just found your channel about a week ago. I have loved all you videos u have done. I love how you thorough you are, especially with the FF reviews. I really enjoyed them. You put up high quality videos that deserves more views and subs. Keep up all the hard work you are doing and they will come. Much love brotha.
Some really great picks here fella. I only played Xenoblade and Radiant Historia quite recently myself, and they are definitely my top 2 games of the last decade or so. I utterly adored both of them, and am now really looking forward to diving into Xenoblade Chronicles X and 2. Terranigma is one of those games that's near and dear to me. I have fond childhood memories of staying up later than I was supposed to - playing it deep into the night. I'm currently replaying it at the moment for the first time in years. It still holds up, and should be spoken about with the same kind of reverence afforded to other classics of its time ( like FF6, Chrono Trigger, etc).
Trust me guys its a game you definitely want to play. Lost odyssey made me cry from how emotional it gets. It’s a quality jrpg... wish they could make a spiritual successor or a prequel to it. They definitely should put it on PC
Valkyria Chronicles 1 became a fast favorite of mine when I beat it this month. Extensive knowledge on what exactly your units can do and its take on Turn Based Strategy combat were what kept me on my toes and made things admittedly more difficult. The story too is just amazing as well, harkening back to an era of War-based anime when it was more mature and dealt with themes of war more seriously yet not so melodramatic
Here are my top 10 JRPGs (I'm including western games that mimic the gameplay style of JRPGs and not including eastern games that mimic the gameplay style of western games, e.g. Dark Souls, Dragon's Dogma) not by Square-Enix and also not on your list. I also only included one game per series. Like you, I was primarily a Nintendo kid, but I have actually played a lot of Sony console JRPGs and I'm of the opinion that aside from Squaresoft games, the consoles are a bit overhyped as far as RPGs go. So edgy, I know. 1. Mother 2 (Mother 3 would have been on the list too) 2. Undertale 3. South Park: The Stick of Truth 4. Fire Emblem 7 (Several other FEs would have made it) 5. Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together (Super Famicom version, developed by Quest) 6. Illusion of Gaia (Soul Blazer would have made the list) 7. Persona 5 (P4 also would have made it) 8. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (Strange Journey would have made it too) 9. Pokemon Black/White (insert whatever Pokemon you like here) 10. Paper Mario 2
Hey guys, if you didn't know, Murayama-san and his team are developing a spiritual successor of Suikoden II, go check Eiyuden Chronicles on Kickstarter ! ;) www.kickstarter.com/projects/rabbitandbearstudios/eiyuden-chronicle-hundred-heroes/description
Love hearing your tastes on RPGs, especially after seeing you almost exclusively cover Final Fantasy for a long time. This was a neat list, and you had some of my own favorites there as well, like Golden Sun and Baten Kaitos! I think it's a shame you avoid talking about FE Awakening due to the fandom, but I can understand it. Currently playing through Awakening for a third time after a long break from it, and I'm really enjoying it once again :) Some of my favorite non-Square RPGs are: Valkyria Chronicles: Does this count? Anyway, one of my favorite games period of all time, I think the combat system is so remarkably and delightfully unique and I haven't seen anything much like it in other games (except in instances where it was very poorly executed), and I fell in love with the characters and the world. Skies of Arcadia Legends: I've only ever played the Gamecube remake/enhanced port, but I love this game to pieces. Was excited to see you use some footage from it in the video. I hope you give this game a look soon, it's marvelous and wonderful on every single level, and it's a game I'll never forget! Most of the Fire Emblem series: this series has captured my heart since the first English release on the GBA. I love that game, as well as Path of Radiance, Awakening, and Shadows of Valentia, and I've even gone back and started playing some of the Japan-only titles thanks to fan translations. It's a wonderful series and I'm surprised most strategy RPGs follow the FF Tactics approach to gameplay, as I've found Fire Emblem to be exactly my style when it comes to this niche genre. Tales of Symphonia: I'm a baby when it comes to the Tales series, but I love Symphonia (the only game in the series I've beaten) to pieces. It's a little overlong, and has some late-game pacing issues, but it's a ton of fun, and I love the combat system, the characters, and the world. I have pretty much the entire series on my "to-play" list. Fantasy Life: This charming little game stole my heart from the moment I started playing it. It seemed to fly under the radar during its release year (I don't think I saw any end-of-year game lists include it), but me and my sister both love it to pieces. It's got a great multiplayer feature, allowing you to play it almost like a small-scale MMO with a couple of friends, and it has tons of customization options and a world that somehow manages to keep even the earliest areas relevant late into the game. The combat is super simple, and the often hilarious script also gets very wordy at times, but it's very charming and a great portable RPG. It also managed to make normally dull activities like fishing and mining ridiculously fun - it's the only game to this day that I actually both fishing in, as each fish is basically a combat encounter mixed with a mini-game, and there are even Boss fish that are super hard to reel in, all the while never relying on luck. Those are some of my favorites that I hope you'll give a look at some point in the future. I know you have a million games on your plate, and I'm glad you take your time and really go in-depth with them and make fantastic analytical reviews, so take your time going through them, and I hope that your task of playing so many games never grows too overwhelming. Keep up the great work you do, your videos mean a lot to me and I'm always excited to see a new discussion or review or list from you!
@@Jordan3DS I have! I quite enjoyed it, but it wasn't my favorite in the series (Blazing Sword takes that for me). It has some of the most ambitious and interesting ideas in the series that I would LOVE to see return, I love the giant maps where a lot of the story plays out through the battle, not between battles, that's some good stuff. There's no other FE like it, that's for sure, and I look forward to playing through it again in the future.
Happy to see that you included Terranigma on your list. Because of my covid infection I finally had some time to fire up my old snes and play through this absolute gem of a jrpg after so, so many years. Storytelling, visuals and soundtrack are indeed phenomenal and it deserves every praise it got.
People already said it, and I will say it again: The legend of heroes series. The games really set a new standard for JRPG story telling and world building for me, and Im talking about a 14 year old series that is still going on today with 8 games and the 9th coming out this year. And I don't think any game developer will ever do what this series dose, because it financially probably makes no sense (9 games closely connected with maximum of a year passing in between each ark? ). It really shows that Toshihiro Kondo at Falcom wants to tell this story over making money, and such passion is rarely felt. Of course there are other great Falcom games such as Xanadu Next, Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection and of course the Ys series (Ys 8 will come out on switch too). But as to not sound like a total Falcom shill, here are some of my favorite JRPGs: Radiant Historia, Xenoblade (Everything you said) Tales of Berseria (There is actual hope in the series after the mess that was Zestiria ) Disgaea (Really charming SRPGs) Valkyria Chronicles 1 (A fantastic battle system, all be it easily broke, and an emotional plot) Grandia 1 and Lunar (Childhood speaking but still a great game) Suikoden 2 (Finish it Mike... just finish it)
I wanted to like Tales of Berseria I really did , but it bored me to death I just finished trails in the sky trilogy , man what a fantastic series , no joke estelle and olivier are ranking really high in my fav video games characters now
Omg I know.. I was really hyped when Zestiria was on steam then came Berseria but it was so boring. Then, I discovered Trails series... and I never looked back.
@@4567samsung joshua best waifu Olivier x Muller I ship (Jk I ship Olivier + Schera) You should start the crossbell duology (Download eng patch on nicoblog)
From this list I discovered Terranigma. The music for it, from the little bit chosen here, was enough to prompt me to look up the OST. Now I'm finding ways to get it. Haha. Thank you for that.
I've played through it so many times! However, my first "playthrough" I screwed up because I spent so much time in the dungeon and when I came out (after maybe a couple weeks of on off playing) I had forgotten the whole story line and what my characters had that it destroyed it for me. Took another 15+ years before I actually played it through to the end!
I'm so glad someone finally mentioned Radiant Historia! The remake on the 3DS was amazing and I'm only a few hours in but props for recognizing it when it flew under a lot of people's radar lately.
Great choice of JRPGs, I've literally just started radiant historia for the first time on the DS this week and last night restarted "for no apparent reason" Xenoblade Chronicles for a second playthrough "miss the atmosphere and music", Quality just shines through no matter how much quantity there is out there. Golden sun sound's interesting too! It might be worth checking out after. Thanks for all the suggestions.
You seriously need to give Persona 3/4/5 a try. I would recommend P3 Portable and P4 Golden instead of the originals, since they greatly improve their gameplay.
There are a lot of extra content i Persona 4 Golden compared to the original, but I honestly don't think all of it's for the better. I wasn't too fond of the new character and some of the new stuff wasn't really that necessary. But the most annoying thing for me was that they made the game much easier than the original. Pretty much all of the challenges are gone because of easier bosses and A LOT of buffs, extra EXP and stuff However, it's still a fantastic game and whether you prefer Golden or the original it's easily the best Persona game.
P3P is amazing I played it on the Vita last year and I loved it, it has a pretty dark storyline for JRPG and the soundtrack is so good with the title music and the ending theme being my favorites, it's such a great game :) I kinda wish I picked this up first instead of P4G being my first introduction to the franchise.
Any Atlus game in general I'm surprised not a single Atlus game was in this list (radiant historia as I remember was only published and semi developed by Atlus)
I think that when a console has "died" it might actually be the best time to purchase it as you have an entire library of amazing games to choose from and you can pick them up super cheap. P4G regularly goes on sale for between £/€ 3-5 which is a bargain for an amazing 70 hour RPG. The Vita has massive library spanning PS1, PSP and PS Vita games with huge amount of quality rpgs
Great list. I hope to experience Terranigma sometime in the future. It looks really great. I'd personally love to see you cover the Mother (Earthbound) series!
Great list. Here's some more from me. Valkyrie Profile (my favorite game of all time) Wild ARMs 1 and 2 Legend of Legaia 1 and 2 Dark Cloud 1 and 2 Rogue Galaxy Anything in the Shin Megami Tensei series, including SMT Nocturne, Persona, Digital Devil Saga, Devil Summoner, etc etc. I could go on but those are the ones that immediately came to mind.
Great games all of them. Valkyrie Profile is my 3rd favorite game of all time ( after Xenogears and FF Tactics), but it is Squaresoft so it wouldn't count in this list.
No, it's developed by Tri-Ace and published by Enix. I would recommend Valkyrie Profile 2 as well, but THAT is Square-Enix. Although I guess the question is, does this list not count games developed by SquareEnix or just have their name on them in general.
True VP on PS1 is developed by Tri-Ace and published by Enix. VP Leneth on PSP is published by SquareEnix, but his title says not by Square-Enix. It being Enix probably disqualifies it from the list, like the Dragon Quest games.
Con Pan. Well most Dragon Quest games aren't developed by Square Enix but Artoon,Chunsoft or Level 5 so that's where publisher and developer gets hazy.
Yeah I know the difference. All I was saying is that since in the title Mike says no Square-Enix games, that in my book excludes all games published by those 2. Edit: I guess he changed the title to no Squaresoft.
My top 10 JRPGs of all time since I don't have a Square game there in the first place: 1. Shining Force III 2. Panzer Dragoon Saga 3. Shadow Hearts: Covenant 4. Sakura Wars 3 5. Skies of Arcadia 6. Shadow Hearts 7. Trails to Azure 8. Lunar II: Eternal Blue 9. Dragon Force 10. Trails in the Sky: SC
Some of my favorites are: Trails in the sky series, Ogre battle series, Lunar 1 and 2, Valkyrie Profile 1 and 2, Valkyria Chronicles games, and Tales of the Abyss.
While I wouldn't choose some of these games to be in my top 10 (maybe top 20 or 30) I have to say that this list is really good. I hope you really enjoyed your time while playing these games, because you're doing great in your choices.
Hey guys, if you didn't know, Murayama-san and his team are developing a spiritual successor of Suikoden II, go check Eiyuden Chronicles on Kickstarter ! ;) www.kickstarter.com/projects/rabbitandbearstudios/eiyuden-chronicle-hundred-heroes/description
Omg..i was really happy that you showed Terranigma. Its one of the greatest games ever made. Its really sad that the US didnt have this Masterpeace, otherwise it would be a great hit and a classic like Chrono Trigger. I hope some people will play it when you show it
You absolutely need to play The Legend of Dragoon. It was made by Sony Computer Entertainment and is one of my favorite JRPGs of all time. The voice acting is atrocious but it rarely pops up, so it's not a big deal. It has a unique battle system, a great cast of characters, an ever evolving set of events and has some truly emotional gut punches. I highly recommend it. (Also, thank you for putting Golden Sun in the top 5. My favorite handheld game since it came out)
Lol. What's sad to me about Dragoon is how SO many people can't look past how it's aged. Since it was 3d at the time, graphically it didn't age well. All JRPG Dubs from that time were absolute garbage, and you can go into options and turn voices down since it's subbed anyways. You still get music/sfx but without the voices. Beyond that, it's easily in my top 5 jrpgs of all time.
Golden Sun 1 & 2 are two of the greatest games of all time. The world, battle system, soundtrack, story, puzzles, dungeons, djinn system, graphics. Everything about it is just fucking incredible. I still can't believe that Camelot haven't been given the go ahead to produce another in this style for the switch. It would blow UP.
@Rudy Straight In my opinion, the second one is better, but the first one definitely makes the game (and series as a whole) more enjoyable. The gameplay and menus are a bit rough around the edges, but the story of the first one is great and takes place 3 years prior. A lot of references to the original are made in Suikoden 2, and you definitely need to have placed both of them to fully appreciate it.
Hey guys, if you didn't know, Murayama-san and his team are developing a spiritual successor of Suikoden II, go check Eiyuden Chronicles on Kickstarter ! ;) www.kickstarter.com/projects/rabbitandbearstudios/eiyuden-chronicle-hundred-heroes/description
Gonna echo all the comments recommending Trails in the Sky. Also, great to see some games I've not considered playing before on this list. Will add them to my list!
The only problem I had with Terranigga was if you left the game and came back to it, I couldn't find out what to do next and I'm not as young as I used to be, I don't have the time these days. When I was a kid I had all the time to play games and being dyslexic reading dialogue always took a while and to sink in before I moved on lol
A very good list overall. I'm glad you added a non-traditional RPG like Mario & Luigi, and surprised that Pokemon didn't get a mention. Here are some other good ones you can check out though: Legend of Dragoon (PSX) - Enough people have recommended this one Xenosaga I, II, III (PS2) - The first 2 games are of varying gameplay quality, but the story is among the best ever told in video games. In the 3rd game, the storyline and gameplay are finally matched in quality. Lunar - The Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar - Eternal Blue Complete (PSX) - great characters, great story, good battle system, and tons of charm. There are remakes galore, but the PSX versions are the ones to go for.
Not the best gameplay-wise, but goddamn, the first Shadow Hearts really stands out from the sea of fantasy/sci-fi JRPG's featuring kids/teens with its unique horror setting and an all adult party (except one). One of the coolest main characters in a JRPG, too!
Tales of Symphonia is one near and dear to my heart. When my daughter watched me play it years ago, she liked the character, Colette and said that if she ever had a daughter that she'd name her "Colette." This video was posted on my granddaughter, Colette's 4th birthday.
Exactly what I was thinking. The Sky series is definitely better than the Cold Steel series. The Ys series is also good, less story, but nice fun, difficult Hack n Slash
I never heard of Radiant Historia until the recent remake, and I’m so glad I picked it up. Pretty stellar VA, great story, interesting combat, and some amazing moments. Some of the bad endings are really tragic, but some had me in stitches. The Lost Pioneer ending is amazing; don’t press random buttons kids if you don’t know what they’ll do :D
He's tried it before on First Look and enjoyed what he's played -- a few of us on Discord or RUclips have encouraged him to try it before. I'm sure eventually he might try it -- he's running out of ps1/SNES/ps2 classics, after all!
I might be alone in thinking that Wild Arms 3 is one of the best Jrpgs of all time. It’s one of the only games that i think is truly “underrated” in the sense that most people/ reviewers see it as fairly traditional. I actually find it to have the perfect blend of mechanics. The soundtrack is amazing. I love the cell shaded graphics. It has interactive dungeons with random battles that can be cancelled (no annoying enemies to dodge on the screen, or interruptions when you’re puzzle solving). And it gives you reason to go back and find/uncover secrets in previous dungeons (as if it’s taking inspiration from zelda or other adventure games) It has a tight cast of well-developed characters in a unique sci-fi/Wild West genre blend that’s never been recreated quite as well. Perfect pacing. Turn based battles, but with actual strategy required (which changes with each boss). Tons of side content. Upgrading characters/weapons/summons is very customizable, and each system affects the other in such a way that every player can have a different experience. It truly changes the difficulty based on your ingenuity, and how clever you are at weaving those mechanics together to compliment each character’s strengths....and it does all of this in an unconventional way- You don’t just grind levels or purchase your way to victory like in sooooo many other games of the genre. I could go on and on about that game. The whole presentation is just really charming to me. Whenever i make a top 10 Jrpg list, wild arms 3 must be included.
Surprised to not see any SMT/Persona on here. That said, I've played all of these except for Radiant Historia... so... I guess I should play Radiant Historia, huh!
Honestly, I would love to see Mike play Alundra - due to him growing up on Nintendo consoles I would enjoy his view on a not so well known PlayStation game that takes heavy inspiration from Zelda. Also considering he has stated that he doesn't find the original 2D Zelda's to be engaging, I wonder if it could address some complaints he had about how those styles of games handle
Christian Lopez Have you played any of the Persona games or Shin Megami? I'm looking for another great RPG after finishing Radiant Historia. I know it's going to be hard to live up to Dragon Quest and RH, but there still has to be something good out there.
Joshua Overlien My biggest recomendation right now is nier automata its a hack and slash open world game but its awesome, i have played persona 5 and although i dont really care for the story and characters it is a great game with awesome turn base gameplay. With final fantasy u have ff7, ff9, ff10, ff12 and ff15 royal edition that comes with all dlc and season pass content, although they do plan to make more its still a good deal, theres also world of final fantasy but u are better off getting accustomed with the series before playing that. There is also the .hack collection, tales of berseria, which i am liking the story, star ocean till the end of time, valkyria chronicles with the 4th entry on the way all of these are on the ps4 and all genuinely good games.
Good list. There’s definitely quite a few of these that I haven’t played. One series I would love for you to get into is the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series. Specially Persona. I would start with Persona 3 FES, then do Persona 4 Golden, and finish with Persona 5. You will love them! Some of the absolute best JRPG’s ever made!
- Dark Cloud 2 - Rogue Galaxy - Ni No Kuni - Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne - Wizardry 6 - Breath Of Fire III - Shadow Hearts - Legend Of Dragoon - Dragon Valor - Ys VIII - Legend Of Heroes: Trails In The Sky
The Shin Megami Tensei series might be up your alley. The combat system, press-turn system, legitimately rivals that of most FF games. Most of the entries in the series also tend to lack the relatively slow introduction and anime tropes of its more popular spin-off series, Persona. I'd recommend SMT IV for 3DS or SMT: Nocturne for PS2 as the best starting points.
Lost Odyssey - hands down the best by far. Distinctly varies characters, a whole set of different scenarios that almost made you feel what the character was feeling (Cooke fighting her way through the ice and snow immediately springs to mind). The writing and performance of the characters, particularly during battles really felt that they felt what they were doing with a passion. The way battles could be so difficult but still achievable in some situations but then the next you'd wipe the floor with the next bunch because of good preparation for that enemy type - it made you think about the various needs and abilities you needed to spread across the party whilst making sure you didn't come up weak against an enemy type. Little things like making sure you were prepared for one particular enemy that you had one strike against before it fled...just so much in there had me playing over and over again - I'm even tempted to go find it right now...
To be honest, everyone says all the usual "great rpgs", but Disgaea is one of the more unique ones out there, great music, each entry has a completely different storyline while using the same battle system but making it more interesting every time, I've played them all, but 2>5>4 were my favourite ones, you should give it a try, you'll be able to tell if you like it within 10 minutes
You HAVE to play Suikoden 2!! If you liked the first one enough to put it in your top 10 then you absolutely need to play 2, because it takes everything 1 did and does it 10x better. Such an incredible game, definitely in my top 10 if not top 5 (including FF titles).
Fun Fact: If you are a fan of the Dark Cloud/Chronicle series from PS2, then def try out the Terranigma trilogy of games on the SNES that was mentioned in this video. Terranigma is considered the "spiritual predecessor/inspiration" for Dark Cloud and has similar elements like the sim style world building.
THERES A XENOGEARS PLAYTHROUGH COMING UP?!!? duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude i need to start paying better attention holy shit i have been searching for a good LP of the game like crazy
good picks. "super robot taisen og saga endless frontier" is also an absolute gem imo. it's more light hearted and on the self referencial humerous side, but boy is the combat system spectacular and fun ^^
Great to see the Terranigma mention, probably my favourite game of all time and has great replay value. The world-building was just something else and it contained many philosophical aspects you don't see in modern games. That whole Trilogy (Terranigma, Illusion of Time, Soul Blazer) was a huge part of my childhood and is severely underrated, would love to see a Steam release or remakes.
You should try Sega JRPGs. They are severely overlooked by many. - Phantasy Star IV - Landstalker - Shining Force - Panzer Dragoon Saga - Skies of Arcadia - Valkyria Chronicles - Sakura Wars
I love the original Wild Arms. It's one of those games that I think you'll love the settings, character, and music. Can't say the same about Wild Arms 2 though cause that game is terrible imo.
I don't know, I found the story to be less emotional and less immersive. I didn't like most of the characters, they feel less fleshed out compared to the original. The 3D world is more annoying rather than an improvement. The puzzles are also a bit easier to figure out compared to the original but I still like kinda like it. The music is good though, I'll give it that but to me, the original had more memorable soundtrack.
I saw a few people mention this and i agree you need to get into The Legend of Heroes franchise. Out of majority of all JRPGs it's probably the only one that has an overarching, compelling, connected and continuing story/narrative that's span 12 years in making and 9 connected games a massive investment but one you wouldn't regret one bit. You must get on this game it behooves you as a fan of the genre, go watch Mother's Basement video that should be enough to inspire you to play it like you said that guy did for you with Radiant Historia. ruclips.net/video/TaN2G-AEd9Q/видео.html
@@nimitytei4715 LIBERL ARC 1. LEGEND OF HEROES TRAILS IN THE SKY FC 2. LEGEND OF HEROES TRAILS IN THE SKY SC 3. LEGEND OF HEROES TRAILS IN THE SKY 3RD CROSSBELL ARC 4. LEGEND OF HEROES TRAILS FROM ZERO (ZERO NO KISEKI) 5. LEGEND OF HEROES TRAILS TO AZURE (AO NO KISEKI) EREBONIAN EMPIRE ARC 6. LEGEND OF HEROES TRAILS OF COLD STEEL 7. LEGEND OF HEROES TRAILS OF COLD STEEL 2 8. LEGEND OF HEROES TRAILS OF COLD STEEL 3
YES! Someone else appreciating radiant historia! I originally came across it through an Action Replay cartridge actually (this was before the remake and I wouldn't have been able to get a physical copy those are really expensive). I feel that it's as masterful as even Chrono Trigger, not even better. Like CT, not once did I come across the arduous JRPG trope of grinding. Every fight was satisfying to do, and the story usually continued at a very clean pace. It's an absolute tragedy that this game didn't get enough fame or credit since it came out late in the DS's lifespan and by a less famous publisher.
You play Xenobloade Chronicles 2 yet Mike? Definitely my game of the year last year. I've put about 200 hours in, 170 on my first save and am just about to start New game plus.
He did stream the beginning of the game that you can find on his channel. I didn't watch the whole thing but he didn't seem to have a positive reaction to it.
Great list. I am huge into Fire Emblem and just cracking into Xenoblade Chronicles so its good to see those on the list. One day I will give the Suikoden series a real shot. I tried out Suikoden 2 and was getting really into it and stopped playing for no reason at all...the first one looks just as good so its good to know I can start there no problem.
Dark Pixel Gaming Ah ok, that's fair enough, thanks for replying! Breath of Fire III is my personal favourite JRPG of all time mainly cuz it was the first RPG I ever played back when I was 6 if I remember right. Hopefully you get round to playing them, I'm sure a few of us would like to know what you think :-)
For pre PS2 games, I would say Shining Force 2, Suikoden 1 & 2, Breath of Fire 3, Wild Arms 1, Legend of Legaia, Tales of Destiny, Alundra, Granstream Saga, Thousand Arms, Lunar SSSC, Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean 2, Vandal Hearts.
Creating this list without having played through the Suikoden series would be like making a list of best rock bands without having listened to Led Zeppelin. Probably should have held off.
Great list! Not enough room in a top 10 to get all of the great RPGs. Try the Tales of games, Dragon Quests, Lunars, Shining Forces, Phantasy Stars, Ys, Lufias, Energy Breaker, and the other 2 games with Terranigma. Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia.
0:29 Baten Kaitos
1:31 Suikoden
2:39 Lost Odyssey
3:33 Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga
4:10 Half Minute Hero
4:53 Golden Sun
5:51 Xenoblade Chronicles
6:47 Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
7:51 Terranigma
8:36 Radiant Historia
You shouldn't avoid choosing a game merely because other people dislike it. On the contrary, that should be an opportunity to sway other people's opinions.
Fire Emblem Awakening isn't a game that you can really "sway people's opinions" on, it's a very love it or hate it scenario. Fire Emblem fans hate it because of all of the new elements that don't fit the series (like pair-ups, marrying all of your units, having children, etc) as well as the abysmal writing and map design, while its fans love it mostly for the romance mechanics and being able to minmax the hell out of your units (which is another mechanic that doesn't really fit Fire Emblem).
For real, it irked me when he said that
Yeah. So is the rest of the list his favourites? Or merely the ones he thinks are “objectively” the best?
Radiant Historia was definitely my favorite RPG on the DS back in the day. It's got one of the best battle systems of any JRPG; simple and easy to get into, but just complicated enough to be fun to experiment with.
VShalak Just need to ask! Is it the original Radiant Historia or the newly released one that is shown in the video. It hooked me so I really want to give it a try!
That's the remake. I haven't played it, but uh... I'm not really interested in that version.
Oh? How come? I am able to get one of the versions but I don't know which is the better one. Help me Senpai!
radiant historia is grossly underrated , such a amazing game
Kwenbi get the 3ds version. It has everything plus widescreen a smoother framerate. If you want the portraits and stuff from the original game its available as dlc on top of the other 5+ story/fan service dlcs they have on the eshop.
Legend of Dragoon for ps1 was an awesome game that was highly underrated, its timed attack battle system did a great job of making fights feel more involved.
How is the LoD underrated?
@@OkurkaBinLadin I loved LoD!! But it did get kind of poor reviews when it came out:
"Even if you enjoy RPGs, it's probably better to give your favorite game another run-through than waste time on this derivative, shallow swill. No amount of FMV could really justify slogging through an unbalanced, tedious battle system to get to the trite, hackneyed bits of plot acted out by bland and uninspired characters. If you've 60 hours of your life that you're just desperate to fill, the GIA suggests you use the time to do odd jobs until enough money is earned to buy a copy of a worthwhile game."
ahhhh golden sun , my first jrpg , man I am glad i started with a great one
Samy Fayz same here.
Same
Indeed, same here (excluding pokemon though :P) GOlden Sun was tons of fun, amazing music, an awesome battle system that didn't make it feel a numbers game and an interesting story...it was awesome. And Alex.
Game changed my life, and JRPG really isnt/wasnt my favorite genre or anything. I still listen to the OST.
I think FF10 was my first but Golden Sun was the one that made me fall in love. I still play through 1 and 2 every couple years.
GOLDEN SUN HYPE - SUNRISE! We need a remake/new game
0:29 10. Baten Kaitos
1:32 9. Suikoden
2:39 8. Lost Odyssey
3:34 7. Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga
4:14 6. Half Minute Hero
4:54 5. Golden Sun
5:52 4. Xenoblade Chronicles
6:48 3. Fire Emlbem: Path of Radiance
7:52 2. Terranigma
8:38 1. Radiant Historia
I dare you get into the Shin Megami Tensei series. I double dare you. (It's legit amazing, I specially love the PS2 games)
truefaiterman the battle systems in them put Final Fantasy to shame.
I loved digital devil saga 1/2 ! One of my personal favorites
If they brought the PS2 games to PS4, I’d most likely never touch another series for months
@@PickleRick91x
Troll? Or do you just think all SMT is Persona?
@@PickleRick91x megaten games dont take place in high schools aside from persona
I'm glad you hold Terranigma so highly! Really thrilled to hear you ending thoughts about it!
Skies of arcadia
Yea, I don't get how he does Baten Kaito but not Skies of Arcadia Legends. Quite possibly my favorite JRPG of all time.
@@Runeblade484 Definitely mine.
@@Runeblade484 Grandia.
You definitely should try:
Dragon Quest (especially VII, VIII and XI)
Persona series (at least 3,4 and 5)
Breath of Fire (especially III)
Grandia 1+2
Xenosaga
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 plus its amazing DLC
Ys VIII
Octopath Traveler
Earthbound
Undertale
Nier and Nier Automata
Legend of Dragoon
Tales of (I recoomend Symphonia, Vesperia, Abyss and Berseria)
Legend of Heroes
Lufia 1+2
Lunar 1+2
Star Ocean 1-3
Secret of Evermore
Alundra
Legend of Legaia
Dark Cloud 1+2
Shadow Hearts (at least 1+2)
Suikoden 5
The Last Story
Eternal Sonata
Ni no Kuni
Skies of Arcadia
you missed out Rogue Galaxy
@Bromar O I'd calculate around 7653 hours on that list which would be about 10 months
Dark chronicles?
everybody leaves out tales of destiny 2 despite it being one favorite games. also Eternal sonata sums up what i don't like about most action rpgs in general
grandia 1 and 2
Every now and then I come back to this video and am made very happy by the inclusion of Golden Sun which is one of my favorite games of all time
I liked Baten Kaitos back in the day. Another great one is The Legend of Dragoon for PS1.
The Gunman
This. THISTHISTHIS.
Legend of Dragoon is amazing. And luckily you can get it on the PS Store.
(The only annoying part is how the characters keep saying their attacks over and over again, and they only have one attack animation at a time, and you can only change it hetween battles)
The Gunman I want a legend of dragoon remake, prequel , sequel anything !
Chrissel L aww yeaah
Chrissel L that would be cool but worst case scenario we've always got the awesome original game, I always have fun when I dust the old PS off and rip that game out, it's probably my favourite PS1 game.
He has streamed legend of dragoon before. I’m not sure if It would be meet my top 10 personally. I really liked it, but it was also one of my earlier JRPGs. That, FF VII, and Grandia all have some nostalgia for me. I’m kind of afraid to go back and play LODragoon/Grandia if I might ruin my opinion of them. FF VII stood the test of time for me. The movement around the environments would make me rage, but I remember LODragoon having that issue too. Might have to go back and play those again.
Great video Mike. If you haven't tried them I would highly recommend The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 1, 2 and 3 and The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 1, 2 and 3 by Falcom. Other great non-Square JRPGs I would recommend are: Skies of Arcadia, Legend of the Dragoon, Lunar, Wild Arms, Grandia, Resonance of Fate and the YS series.
You really need to dive into the Shin Megami Tensei franchise. Its not just Persona...Digital Devil Saga, Shin Megami Trensei IV, Nocturne, Devil Survivor, many of these titles would be worthy of making this list. On the PS3 PSN you can get the entire PS2 catalog of SMT.
EDIT: I also want to acknowledge all the ppl bringing up Legend Of Heroes, it is one of the best on going JRPG franchises ATM.
Lost Oddessy is such a great game, at the time of its release I remember hearing very little about it but having play through most of it (Never actually finished the game) it's definitely one of my favorites, especially in regards to the progression systems.
Mother 3, Langrisser 2, Lunar 2, Suikoden, PS4, Shining Force II, maybe Dragon Quest 3 or Panzer Dragoon Saga
SF2 BEST GAME EVAR
Definitely Dragon Quest 3. The remake on the SNES. Also Dragon Quest 5 on the SNES. Both fan translated but still counts.
What a great list. Radiant Historia is such a perfect pick for your number one spot. I feel like it’s one of those RPG’s that few people got to play yet it was one of the best out at the time. I love this channel so much. There are a ton of gaming channels out there but I love how you can hear how much you love these games just by the way you talk about them. Your videos are always so well put together. I would love to see a DVD set with your Final Fantasy series particularly.
My list before I even watch:
1) Persona 5
2) Earthbound
3) Persona 4 Golden
4) Shadow Hearts: Covenant
5) Suikoden V
6) Skies of Arcadia
7) Valkyrie Profile 2
8) Breath of Fire 3
9) Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals (not enough people played this gem!)
10) Fire Emblem: Awakening
Disqualifying SE drops a lot of classics from my list to make this, like Chrono Trigger, FFT, FFXII and Vagrant Story. It's definitely a genre with a ton of great games.
Trails
older fe games are better
Lucia 2 was an amazing game
Definitely check out Shadow Hearts at some point, it and it's sequel are awesome but lesser known. The third game has its faults, but is still a great time.
Zero Zalazor 1 and 2 were great. But 3 really dropped the ball. Too bad the company that made it went under.
This is going to prett long list because there is alot of awesome Jrpgs that Square did not develop. In no particular order.
Phantasy Star IV
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals
Terranigma
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenosaga games
Radiant Historia
SMT: Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker
Alundra
Breath of Fire 4
Grandia 1 and 2
The Legend of Dragoon
Lunar 1 and 2
Suikoden 2 and 5
Valkyrie Profile 1 and 2'
Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
Shadow Hearts 1 and 2
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2
Persona 3-5(specially 5)
Tales of the Abyss, Vesperia and Beseria
Ys 7,8 and felghana
Both Nier games
Trails of cold steel 1 and 2
Ni No Kuni, Dark Cloud 2 and Dragon Quest 8
Valkyria Chronicles
Lost Odyssey
I think I stop here lol.
MrRPGcrazy
Bro u mentioned Cold Steel but did not mention Trails in the Sky.....Seriously?
I could have gone on but I did decide that the list was long enough. But I would also recommend Trails in the Sky ofc.
Yeah kay
Good to finally see some love for Shadow Hearts.
This channel definitely needs some Shadow Hearts. It is probably the most unique concepts for mashing Horror, Dark fantasy, Alternate History and JRPG together in one game. And Koudelka isn't bad either.
Terranigma! Been my #1 favorite game since I beat it 15 years ago. Some things have come close, but nothing has quite stuck in my heart like Terranigma. Everything it does is masterful. There's so many elements, big and small, that have stuck with me despite having not played it in many, many years. I adore seeing it even mentioned at any point possible, and whenever a subject comes up that's even tangentially related to it, I recommend it. One day, I will get an original copy (which is worth hundreds of dollars), but it's the only game I've bothered to get a reproduction cart for. And it sits, proudly, in the top center of one of my display shelves. I love Terranigma and everything about it, and it *NEEDS* to be played by everyone.
You have my everlasting respect for including it on this list and I hope even a single person experiences it thanks to seeing it in this video.
Suikoden 2, Golden Sun 1 & 2, and basically most of Atlus jrpg is awesome.
Trails
@Rudy Straight Suikoden 1 and 2 are basically the same game. There is really no need to play the first. Two does everything better.
@Rudy Straight If you play on the PS and have a save game of the completed Suikoden 1, you can play with Tir McDohl (the main Character) in Suikoden 2. However, he will appear almost at the ending of the game.
@Rudy Straight Did you already start playing?
@Rudy Straight I believe you can buy it in the PS3 store. If you have a PS3 of course.
Lost Odyssey was incredible. The short stories you unlocked were endearing, exciting, thrilling, tragically sad, or appreciatively deep. They were worth the entire game alone, and the rest that surrounded it was fun. A real surprise since Xbox was not at all about RPGs
I just found your channel about a week ago. I have loved all you videos u have done. I love how you thorough you are, especially with the FF reviews. I really enjoyed them. You put up high quality videos that deserves more views and subs. Keep up all the hard work you are doing and they will come. Much love brotha.
Some really great picks here fella. I only played Xenoblade and Radiant Historia quite recently myself, and they are definitely my top 2 games of the last decade or so. I utterly adored both of them, and am now really looking forward to diving into Xenoblade Chronicles X and 2.
Terranigma is one of those games that's near and dear to me. I have fond childhood memories of staying up later than I was supposed to - playing it deep into the night. I'm currently replaying it at the moment for the first time in years. It still holds up, and should be spoken about with the same kind of reverence afforded to other classics of its time ( like FF6, Chrono Trigger, etc).
PLEASE BRING LOST ODYSSEY TO STEAM!!! I've always been a PS guy, so never played it and I've always wanted to try it!!!
same here. console exclusives are the worst thing.
Trust me guys its a game you definitely want to play. Lost odyssey made me cry from how emotional it gets. It’s a quality jrpg... wish they could make a spiritual successor or a prequel to it. They definitely should put it on PC
+Leponce37 having played the game how do you think it compares to the Final fantasy games? could it BE a FF game?
Lost odyssey is amazing. I wasnt expecting much cuz console rpgs died and went to handhelds but lost odyssey is the exception...
It's one of the best JRPGs I have ever played. An absolute masterpiece.
Valkyria Chronicles 1 became a fast favorite of mine when I beat it this month. Extensive knowledge on what exactly your units can do and its take on Turn Based Strategy combat were what kept me on my toes and made things admittedly more difficult. The story too is just amazing as well, harkening back to an era of War-based anime when it was more mature and dealt with themes of war more seriously yet not so melodramatic
Here are my top 10 JRPGs (I'm including western games that mimic the gameplay style of JRPGs and not including eastern games that mimic the gameplay style of western games, e.g. Dark Souls, Dragon's Dogma) not by Square-Enix and also not on your list. I also only included one game per series. Like you, I was primarily a Nintendo kid, but I have actually played a lot of Sony console JRPGs and I'm of the opinion that aside from Squaresoft games, the consoles are a bit overhyped as far as RPGs go. So edgy, I know.
1. Mother 2 (Mother 3 would have been on the list too)
2. Undertale
3. South Park: The Stick of Truth
4. Fire Emblem 7 (Several other FEs would have made it)
5. Tactics Ogre: Let us Cling Together (Super Famicom version, developed by Quest)
6. Illusion of Gaia (Soul Blazer would have made the list)
7. Persona 5 (P4 also would have made it)
8. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (Strange Journey would have made it too)
9. Pokemon Black/White (insert whatever Pokemon you like here)
10. Paper Mario 2
No trails title?
Shame.
Getting to Suikoden will be my reason to jump to the $10 patron tier.
Hey guys, if you didn't know, Murayama-san and his team are developing a spiritual successor of Suikoden II, go check Eiyuden Chronicles on Kickstarter ! ;)
www.kickstarter.com/projects/rabbitandbearstudios/eiyuden-chronicle-hundred-heroes/description
Love hearing your tastes on RPGs, especially after seeing you almost exclusively cover Final Fantasy for a long time. This was a neat list, and you had some of my own favorites there as well, like Golden Sun and Baten Kaitos! I think it's a shame you avoid talking about FE Awakening due to the fandom, but I can understand it. Currently playing through Awakening for a third time after a long break from it, and I'm really enjoying it once again :)
Some of my favorite non-Square RPGs are:
Valkyria Chronicles: Does this count? Anyway, one of my favorite games period of all time, I think the combat system is so remarkably and delightfully unique and I haven't seen anything much like it in other games (except in instances where it was very poorly executed), and I fell in love with the characters and the world.
Skies of Arcadia Legends: I've only ever played the Gamecube remake/enhanced port, but I love this game to pieces. Was excited to see you use some footage from it in the video. I hope you give this game a look soon, it's marvelous and wonderful on every single level, and it's a game I'll never forget!
Most of the Fire Emblem series: this series has captured my heart since the first English release on the GBA. I love that game, as well as Path of Radiance, Awakening, and Shadows of Valentia, and I've even gone back and started playing some of the Japan-only titles thanks to fan translations. It's a wonderful series and I'm surprised most strategy RPGs follow the FF Tactics approach to gameplay, as I've found Fire Emblem to be exactly my style when it comes to this niche genre.
Tales of Symphonia: I'm a baby when it comes to the Tales series, but I love Symphonia (the only game in the series I've beaten) to pieces. It's a little overlong, and has some late-game pacing issues, but it's a ton of fun, and I love the combat system, the characters, and the world. I have pretty much the entire series on my "to-play" list.
Fantasy Life: This charming little game stole my heart from the moment I started playing it. It seemed to fly under the radar during its release year (I don't think I saw any end-of-year game lists include it), but me and my sister both love it to pieces. It's got a great multiplayer feature, allowing you to play it almost like a small-scale MMO with a couple of friends, and it has tons of customization options and a world that somehow manages to keep even the earliest areas relevant late into the game. The combat is super simple, and the often hilarious script also gets very wordy at times, but it's very charming and a great portable RPG. It also managed to make normally dull activities like fishing and mining ridiculously fun - it's the only game to this day that I actually both fishing in, as each fish is basically a combat encounter mixed with a mini-game, and there are even Boss fish that are super hard to reel in, all the while never relying on luck.
Those are some of my favorites that I hope you'll give a look at some point in the future. I know you have a million games on your plate, and I'm glad you take your time and really go in-depth with them and make fantastic analytical reviews, so take your time going through them, and I hope that your task of playing so many games never grows too overwhelming. Keep up the great work you do, your videos mean a lot to me and I'm always excited to see a new discussion or review or list from you!
Have you played Genealogy of the Holy War yet? If not, I highly recommend it, it's the best in the series!
@@Jordan3DS I have! I quite enjoyed it, but it wasn't my favorite in the series (Blazing Sword takes that for me). It has some of the most ambitious and interesting ideas in the series that I would LOVE to see return, I love the giant maps where a lot of the story plays out through the battle, not between battles, that's some good stuff. There's no other FE like it, that's for sure, and I look forward to playing through it again in the future.
Happy to see that you included Terranigma on your list. Because of my covid infection I finally had some time to fire up my old snes and play through this absolute gem of a jrpg after so, so many years. Storytelling, visuals and soundtrack are indeed phenomenal and it deserves every praise it got.
People already said it, and I will say it again: The legend of heroes series.
The games really set a new standard for JRPG story telling and world building for me, and Im talking about a 14 year old series that is still going on today with 8 games and the 9th coming out this year. And I don't think any game developer will ever do what this series dose, because it financially probably makes no sense (9 games closely connected with maximum of a year passing in between each ark? ). It really shows that Toshihiro Kondo at Falcom wants to tell this story over making money, and such passion is rarely felt.
Of course there are other great Falcom games such as Xanadu Next, Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection and of course the Ys series (Ys 8 will come out on switch too).
But as to not sound like a total Falcom shill, here are some of my favorite JRPGs:
Radiant Historia, Xenoblade (Everything you said)
Tales of Berseria (There is actual hope in the series after the mess that was Zestiria )
Disgaea (Really charming SRPGs)
Valkyria Chronicles 1 (A fantastic battle system, all be it easily broke, and an emotional plot)
Grandia 1 and Lunar (Childhood speaking but still a great game)
Suikoden 2 (Finish it Mike... just finish it)
Gabriel New Yeah u are absolutely correct.....and btw nice Laura pfp but my waifu is Alisa damnit!
I wanted to like Tales of Berseria I really did , but it bored me to death
I just finished trails in the sky trilogy , man what a fantastic series , no joke estelle and olivier are ranking really high in my fav video games characters now
Omg I know.. I was really hyped when Zestiria was on steam then came Berseria but it was so boring. Then, I discovered Trails series... and I never looked back.
Rean Swarchzer pshh......
Waifu of the series is definitely Kloe
@@4567samsung joshua best waifu
Olivier x Muller I ship (Jk I ship Olivier + Schera)
You should start the crossbell duology (Download eng patch on nicoblog)
From this list I discovered Terranigma.
The music for it, from the little bit chosen here, was enough to prompt me to look up the OST.
Now I'm finding ways to get it. Haha.
Thank you for that.
I’d like to recommend Lufia 2 on the SNES.
I love the ending
Lufia 3 is an awesome game. It was only in japanese language but then someone created an English patch for it :-)
I've played through it so many times! However, my first "playthrough" I screwed up because I spent so much time in the dungeon and when I came out (after maybe a couple weeks of on off playing) I had forgotten the whole story line and what my characters had that it destroyed it for me. Took another 15+ years before I actually played it through to the end!
Do i have to play the first one?
I'm so glad someone finally mentioned Radiant Historia! The remake on the 3DS was amazing and I'm only a few hours in but props for recognizing it when it flew under a lot of people's radar lately.
Whoa whoa, its good but it can't touch Chrono Triggers art, combat, and charm, at least for me.
Thank you for putting Lost Odyssey in there. Very underrated game.
I just wish they hadn’t made it a console exclusive. Would have sold more most likely.
Great choice of JRPGs, I've literally just started radiant historia for the first time on the DS this week and last night restarted "for no apparent reason" Xenoblade Chronicles for a second playthrough "miss the atmosphere and music", Quality just shines through no matter how much quantity there is out there. Golden sun sound's interesting too! It might be worth checking out after. Thanks for all the suggestions.
You seriously need to give Persona 3/4/5 a try. I would recommend P3 Portable and P4 Golden instead of the originals, since they greatly improve their gameplay.
There are a lot of extra content i Persona 4 Golden compared to the original, but I honestly don't think all of it's for the better. I wasn't too fond of the new character and some of the new stuff wasn't really that necessary. But the most annoying thing for me was that they made the game much easier than the original. Pretty much all of the challenges are gone because of easier bosses and A LOT of buffs, extra EXP and stuff However, it's still a fantastic game and whether you prefer Golden or the original it's easily the best Persona game.
I thought Mike has tried most of those at least 4 or 5 and thought they were okay.
P3P is amazing I played it on the Vita last year and I loved it, it has a pretty dark storyline for JRPG and the soundtrack is so good with the title music and the ending theme being my favorites, it's such a great game :) I kinda wish I picked this up first instead of P4G being my first introduction to the franchise.
Any Atlus game in general I'm surprised not a single Atlus game was in this list (radiant historia as I remember was only published and semi developed by Atlus)
I think that when a console has "died" it might actually be the best time to purchase it as you have an entire library of amazing games to choose from and you can pick them up super cheap. P4G regularly goes on sale for between £/€ 3-5 which is a bargain for an amazing 70 hour RPG. The Vita has massive library spanning PS1, PSP and PS Vita games with huge amount of quality rpgs
Great list. I hope to experience Terranigma sometime in the future. It looks really great. I'd personally love to see you cover the Mother (Earthbound) series!
Great list. Here's some more from me.
Valkyrie Profile (my favorite game of all time)
Wild ARMs 1 and 2
Legend of Legaia 1 and 2
Dark Cloud 1 and 2
Rogue Galaxy
Anything in the Shin Megami Tensei series, including SMT Nocturne, Persona, Digital Devil Saga, Devil Summoner, etc etc.
I could go on but those are the ones that immediately came to mind.
Great games all of them. Valkyrie Profile is my 3rd favorite game of all time ( after Xenogears and FF Tactics), but it is Squaresoft so it wouldn't count in this list.
No, it's developed by Tri-Ace and published by Enix. I would recommend Valkyrie Profile 2 as well, but THAT is Square-Enix.
Although I guess the question is, does this list not count games developed by SquareEnix or just have their name on them in general.
True VP on PS1 is developed by Tri-Ace and published by Enix. VP Leneth on PSP is published by SquareEnix, but his title says not by Square-Enix. It being Enix probably disqualifies it from the list, like the Dragon Quest games.
Con Pan. Well most Dragon Quest games aren't developed by Square Enix but Artoon,Chunsoft or Level 5 so that's where publisher and developer gets hazy.
Yeah I know the difference. All I was saying is that since in the title Mike says no Square-Enix games, that in my book excludes all games published by those 2.
Edit: I guess he changed the title to no Squaresoft.
I really want to play a game that does exploration like Golden Sun. I love the idea of using the magic you use in battle to also explore the world.
oh boy, I wonder if you ever seen "the legend of heroes: trails in the sky" it became one of the my game series since its translation.
Dazooe J yup that's a series he needs to get into.
one could say that it could bump up to one of top 10 on this list if he does it again.
Dazooe J ikr.
Dazooe J KISEKI!.. I got into the series last gen and wasn't expecting much.. oh boy was I wrong lol
same, I only clicked it on steam because of its name was similar to an anime that I really likedx
My top 10 JRPGs of all time since I don't have a Square game there in the first place:
1. Shining Force III
2. Panzer Dragoon Saga
3. Shadow Hearts: Covenant
4. Sakura Wars 3
5. Skies of Arcadia
6. Shadow Hearts
7. Trails to Azure
8. Lunar II: Eternal Blue
9. Dragon Force
10. Trails in the Sky: SC
Some of my favorites are:
Trails in the sky series, Ogre battle series, Lunar 1 and 2, Valkyrie Profile 1 and 2, Valkyria Chronicles games, and Tales of the Abyss.
I love the Ogre Battle series! Tactics Ogre: the Knight of Lodis was my first Ogre game, loved the story!
While I wouldn't choose some of these games to be in my top 10 (maybe top 20 or 30) I have to say that this list is really good. I hope you really enjoyed your time while playing these games, because you're doing great in your choices.
Suikoden 2 is my number 1
Talking non Square Enix, I concur!
Hey guys, if you didn't know, Murayama-san and his team are developing a spiritual successor of Suikoden II, go check Eiyuden Chronicles on Kickstarter ! ;)
www.kickstarter.com/projects/rabbitandbearstudios/eiyuden-chronicle-hundred-heroes/description
Really nice list. I am enjoying the fact it was varied and you explained what about each title made you fall in love with it.
Radiant historia is just amazing.. I play ds version and bought the remake for 3ds as well
Omg..i was really happy that you showed Terranigma. Its one of the greatest games ever made. Its really sad that the US didnt have this Masterpeace, otherwise it would be a great hit and a classic like Chrono Trigger. I hope some people will play it when you show it
You absolutely need to play The Legend of Dragoon. It was made by Sony Computer Entertainment and is one of my favorite JRPGs of all time.
The voice acting is atrocious but it rarely pops up, so it's not a big deal. It has a unique battle system, a great cast of characters, an ever evolving set of events and has some truly emotional gut punches.
I highly recommend it. (Also, thank you for putting Golden Sun in the top 5. My favorite handheld game since it came out)
Core Ideas "the voice acting rarely pops up"
"Several times in each battle" doesn't qualify as "rarely"
GranCenturio Those have a cheesy quality to them, though. I'm talking about the genuinely horrid attempts at emotional performances in the cutscenes.
Lol. What's sad to me about Dragoon is how SO many people can't look past how it's aged. Since it was 3d at the time, graphically it didn't age well. All JRPG Dubs from that time were absolute garbage, and you can go into options and turn voices down since it's subbed anyways. You still get music/sfx but without the voices. Beyond that, it's easily in my top 5 jrpgs of all time.
One of the few that deserves a true remake.
here here. i second that. it also has one of the most beautiful Soundtracks i have ever heard in JRPG
Golden Sun 1 & 2 are two of the greatest games of all time. The world, battle system, soundtrack, story, puzzles, dungeons, djinn system, graphics. Everything about it is just fucking incredible. I still can't believe that Camelot haven't been given the go ahead to produce another in this style for the switch. It would blow UP.
I love Suikoden II. That to me is my best JRPG of all time.
I wish konami continued the suikoden series. There's still so much stories to cover.
To me, it is the best game of all time, period. Games like Golden Sun are garbage in comparison.
Agree. My fav and one I still play from time to time.
@Rudy Straight In my opinion, the second one is better, but the first one definitely makes the game (and series as a whole) more enjoyable. The gameplay and menus are a bit rough around the edges, but the story of the first one is great and takes place 3 years prior. A lot of references to the original are made in Suikoden 2, and you definitely need to have placed both of them to fully appreciate it.
Hey guys, if you didn't know, Murayama-san and his team are developing a spiritual successor of Suikoden II, go check Eiyuden Chronicles on Kickstarter ! ;)
www.kickstarter.com/projects/rabbitandbearstudios/eiyuden-chronicle-hundred-heroes/description
"Jupiter Dijinni takes 46 damage! Jupiter Dijinni casts Flash Bolt!" was a classic.
Gonna echo all the comments recommending Trails in the Sky. Also, great to see some games I've not considered playing before on this list. Will add them to my list!
I thought trails is one of those overrated games untill i picked it up like 3 days ago , now i get it
Thanks for mentioning Terranigma, i feel it's a gem that is talked about way too little.
I'd like to see your thoughts on skies of Arcadia and Grandia 2. They're my personal favorites.
Dreamcast had a pretty strong RPG selection! Skies reminds me a lot of Suikoden, my favorite RPG series.
I loved Skies of Arcadia. The ship to ship combat was so fun at that time.
@@thepenskyfile Try the legend of heroes trails series
The only problem I had with Terranigga was if you left the game and came back to it, I couldn't find out what to do next and I'm not as young as I used to be, I don't have the time these days. When I was a kid I had all the time to play games and being dyslexic reading dialogue always took a while and to sink in before I moved on lol
Legend of Legaia is great and legend of dragoon. Both on the ps1
A very good list overall. I'm glad you added a non-traditional RPG like Mario & Luigi, and surprised that Pokemon didn't get a mention. Here are some other good ones you can check out though:
Legend of Dragoon (PSX) - Enough people have recommended this one
Xenosaga I, II, III (PS2) - The first 2 games are of varying gameplay quality, but the story is among the best ever told in video games. In the 3rd game, the storyline and gameplay are finally matched in quality.
Lunar - The Silver Star Story Complete and Lunar - Eternal Blue Complete (PSX) - great characters, great story, good battle system, and tons of charm. There are remakes galore, but the PSX versions are the ones to go for.
Not the best gameplay-wise, but goddamn, the first Shadow Hearts really stands out from the sea of fantasy/sci-fi JRPG's featuring kids/teens with its unique horror setting and an all adult party (except one). One of the coolest main characters in a JRPG, too!
Great pick, and I think it's a great battle system. It's sequel, Covenant, is one of my all time favorites.
Tales of Symphonia is one near and dear to my heart. When my daughter watched me play it years ago, she liked the character, Colette and said that if she ever had a daughter that she'd name her "Colette." This video was posted on my granddaughter, Colette's 4th birthday.
Try legend of heroes trails in the sky
Exactly what I was thinking. The Sky series is definitely better than the Cold Steel series.
The Ys series is also good, less story, but nice fun, difficult Hack n Slash
I would say the Trails/Kiseki Series in general.
all of its series are great. the trails,kiseki and cold steel, now waiting for cs3 and cs4.
P for Potato_GAMING
The second chapter leaves me with even more chills.
@P for Potato_GAMING Have you ever played Ao No Kiseki?
I never heard of Radiant Historia until the recent remake, and I’m so glad I picked it up. Pretty stellar VA, great story, interesting combat, and some amazing moments. Some of the bad endings are really tragic, but some had me in stitches. The Lost Pioneer ending is amazing; don’t press random buttons kids if you don’t know what they’ll do :D
Mike, give this a shot: “ legend of dragoon”.
I played that games for 6 years jn a row with multiple repeats. You will love the battle system.
Abu Sufian Ahmad finally someone else mentions this game. One of my favorite games of all time. I'm still mad they haven't continued it.
He's tried it before on First Look and enjoyed what he's played -- a few of us on Discord or RUclips have encouraged him to try it before. I'm sure eventually he might try it -- he's running out of ps1/SNES/ps2 classics, after all!
IKR. that eargasmic gust of wind dance will be remembered for as long as i live!
im voting on the next pool if the legend of dragoon is in. bring along all of our dragoons comrades!!!!1
BURNING RUSH!!!
Thank you for mentioning Golden Sun! This was my childhood, and it still has a place in my heart today
Uhh shin megami tensei?
I might be alone in thinking that Wild Arms 3 is one of the best Jrpgs of all time. It’s one of the only games that i think is truly “underrated” in the sense that most people/ reviewers see it as fairly traditional. I actually find it to have the perfect blend of mechanics. The soundtrack is amazing. I love the cell shaded graphics. It has interactive dungeons with random battles that can be cancelled (no annoying enemies to dodge on the screen, or interruptions when you’re puzzle solving). And it gives you reason to go back and find/uncover secrets in previous dungeons (as if it’s taking inspiration from zelda or other adventure games)
It has a tight cast of well-developed characters in a unique sci-fi/Wild West genre blend that’s never been recreated quite as well. Perfect pacing. Turn based battles, but with actual strategy required (which changes with each boss). Tons of side content. Upgrading characters/weapons/summons is very customizable, and each system affects the other in such a way that every player can have a different experience. It truly changes the difficulty based on your ingenuity, and how clever you are at weaving those mechanics together to compliment each character’s strengths....and it does all of this in an unconventional way- You don’t just grind levels or purchase your way to victory like in sooooo many other games of the genre. I could go on and on about that game. The whole presentation is just really charming to me.
Whenever i make a top 10 Jrpg list, wild arms 3 must be included.
Surprised to not see any SMT/Persona on here. That said, I've played all of these except for Radiant Historia... so... I guess I should play Radiant Historia, huh!
you should..this is one of the rpg you will invest in its story
Honestly, I would love to see Mike play Alundra - due to him growing up on Nintendo consoles I would enjoy his view on a not so well known PlayStation game that takes heavy inspiration from Zelda. Also considering he has stated that he doesn't find the original 2D Zelda's to be engaging, I wonder if it could address some complaints he had about how those styles of games handle
I really think u should cover the Dragon Quest series sense it shares a strong history with the ff series that most people tend to ignore.
Christian Lopez The 2 I played on the 3DS were awesome. I look forward to the release of DQ XI.
Joshua Overlien Same it looks awesome.
Christian Lopez Have you played any of the Persona games or Shin Megami? I'm looking for another great RPG after finishing Radiant Historia. I know it's going to be hard to live up to Dragon Quest and RH, but there still has to be something good out there.
Joshua Overlien My biggest recomendation right now is nier automata its a hack and slash open world game but its awesome, i have played persona 5 and although i dont really care for the story and characters it is a great game with awesome turn base gameplay. With final fantasy u have ff7, ff9, ff10, ff12 and ff15 royal edition that comes with all dlc and season pass content, although they do plan to make more its still a good deal, theres also world of final fantasy but u are better off getting accustomed with the series before playing that. There is also the .hack collection, tales of berseria, which i am liking the story, star ocean till the end of time, valkyria chronicles with the 4th entry on the way all of these are on the ps4 and all genuinely good games.
Good list. There’s definitely quite a few of these that I haven’t played. One series I would love for you to get into is the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series. Specially Persona. I would start with Persona 3 FES, then do Persona 4 Golden, and finish with Persona 5. You will love them! Some of the absolute best JRPG’s ever made!
Oh yes i couldnt sleep and then this video drops so atleast i have something to do nkw
- Dark Cloud 2
- Rogue Galaxy
- Ni No Kuni
- Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
- Wizardry 6
- Breath Of Fire III
- Shadow Hearts
- Legend Of Dragoon
- Dragon Valor
- Ys VIII
- Legend Of Heroes: Trails In The Sky
The Shin Megami Tensei series might be up your alley. The combat system, press-turn system, legitimately rivals that of most FF games. Most of the entries in the series also tend to lack the relatively slow introduction and anime tropes of its more popular spin-off series, Persona.
I'd recommend SMT IV for 3DS or SMT: Nocturne for PS2 as the best starting points.
Lost Odyssey - hands down the best by far. Distinctly varies characters, a whole set of different scenarios that almost made you feel what the character was feeling (Cooke fighting her way through the ice and snow immediately springs to mind). The writing and performance of the characters, particularly during battles really felt that they felt what they were doing with a passion.
The way battles could be so difficult but still achievable in some situations but then the next you'd wipe the floor with the next bunch because of good preparation for that enemy type - it made you think about the various needs and abilities you needed to spread across the party whilst making sure you didn't come up weak against an enemy type. Little things like making sure you were prepared for one particular enemy that you had one strike against before it fled...just so much in there had me playing over and over again - I'm even tempted to go find it right now...
To be honest, everyone says all the usual "great rpgs", but Disgaea is one of the more unique ones out there, great music, each entry has a completely different storyline while using the same battle system but making it more interesting every time, I've played them all, but 2>5>4 were my favourite ones, you should give it a try, you'll be able to tell if you like it within 10 minutes
You HAVE to play Suikoden 2!! If you liked the first one enough to put it in your top 10 then you absolutely need to play 2, because it takes everything 1 did and does it 10x better. Such an incredible game, definitely in my top 10 if not top 5 (including FF titles).
Radiant Historia? Hmm, I see you're a man of good taste in his JRPGs as well.
Fun Fact: If you are a fan of the Dark Cloud/Chronicle series from PS2, then def try out the Terranigma trilogy of games on the SNES that was mentioned in this video. Terranigma is considered the "spiritual predecessor/inspiration" for Dark Cloud and has similar elements like the sim style world building.
Shout out to HCBailey
HCBailly is the best!
I'm looking forward to his upcoming Xenogears LP.
Dark Pixel Gaming I must concur. His let's play series makes my classics feel more fun and some I avoided enjoyable as well.
THERES A XENOGEARS PLAYTHROUGH COMING UP?!!? duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude i need to start paying better attention holy shit i have been searching for a good LP of the game like crazy
really?he is doing xenogears???
good picks. "super robot taisen og saga endless frontier" is also an absolute gem imo. it's more light hearted and on the self referencial humerous side, but boy is the combat system spectacular and fun ^^
Persona 5 is way up there and it came out recently. Skies of Arcadia is also very good.
That is some great taste in JRPGs my man. Golden Sun, Terranigma, PoR, Radiant Historia and Baten Kaitos. That's quality.
What, no Quest 64?!!!
I mean, the game isn't really good.
Great to see the Terranigma mention, probably my favourite game of all time and has great replay value. The world-building was just something else and it contained many philosophical aspects you don't see in modern games.
That whole Trilogy (Terranigma, Illusion of Time, Soul Blazer) was a huge part of my childhood and is severely underrated, would love to see a Steam release or remakes.
Nice list, but did you try Lunar:Silver Star Story?...One of the best jrpg ever,imho...
You should try Sega JRPGs. They are severely overlooked by many.
- Phantasy Star IV
- Landstalker
- Shining Force
- Panzer Dragoon Saga
- Skies of Arcadia
- Valkyria Chronicles
- Sakura Wars
I love the original Wild Arms. It's one of those games that I think you'll love the settings, character, and music. Can't say the same about Wild Arms 2 though cause that game is terrible imo.
EzioYuio I think WA2 is the better game, lol. More fleshed out world and characters, better music and combat options.
I don't know, I found the story to be less emotional and less immersive. I didn't like most of the characters, they feel less fleshed out compared to the original. The 3D world is more annoying rather than an improvement. The puzzles are also a bit easier to figure out compared to the original but I still like kinda like it. The music is good though, I'll give it that but to me, the original had more memorable soundtrack.
Well we disagree on literally everything, so I guess we'll just leave it at that.
Thanks for including Golden Sun, that game is a mindblower!
I saw a few people mention this and i agree you need to get into The Legend of Heroes franchise. Out of majority of all JRPGs it's probably the only one that has an overarching, compelling, connected and continuing story/narrative that's span 12 years in making and 9 connected games a massive investment but one you wouldn't regret one bit. You must get on this game it behooves you as a fan of the genre, go watch Mother's Basement video that should be enough to inspire you to play it like you said that guy did for you with Radiant Historia.
ruclips.net/video/TaN2G-AEd9Q/видео.html
what are these 9 games?
Nimity Tei
Trails in the Sky 1 to 3,
Trails to Zero and Azure
Trails of Cold Steel 1 to 4
oh yeah thats 9 i cant count
@@nimitytei4715
LIBERL ARC
1. LEGEND OF HEROES TRAILS IN THE SKY FC
2. LEGEND OF HEROES TRAILS IN THE SKY SC
3. LEGEND OF HEROES TRAILS IN THE SKY 3RD
CROSSBELL ARC
4. LEGEND OF HEROES TRAILS FROM ZERO
(ZERO NO KISEKI)
5. LEGEND OF HEROES TRAILS TO AZURE
(AO NO KISEKI)
EREBONIAN EMPIRE ARC
6. LEGEND OF HEROES TRAILS OF COLD STEEL
7. LEGEND OF HEROES TRAILS OF COLD STEEL 2
8. LEGEND OF HEROES TRAILS OF COLD STEEL 3
YES! Someone else appreciating radiant historia! I originally came across it through an Action Replay cartridge actually (this was before the remake and I wouldn't have been able to get a physical copy those are really expensive). I feel that it's as masterful as even Chrono Trigger, not even better. Like CT, not once did I come across the arduous JRPG trope of grinding. Every fight was satisfying to do, and the story usually continued at a very clean pace. It's an absolute tragedy that this game didn't get enough fame or credit since it came out late in the DS's lifespan and by a less famous publisher.
You play Xenobloade Chronicles 2 yet Mike? Definitely my game of the year last year. I've put about 200 hours in, 170 on my first save and am just about to start New game plus.
I thought he said he didn't like it in one of the podcasts
He did stream the beginning of the game that you can find on his channel. I didn't watch the whole thing but he didn't seem to have a positive reaction to it.
He said he straight up doesn't like the game
Benjamin Cook ever played ys8
Great list. I am huge into Fire Emblem and just cracking into Xenoblade Chronicles so its good to see those on the list. One day I will give the Suikoden series a real shot. I tried out Suikoden 2 and was getting really into it and stopped playing for no reason at all...the first one looks just as good so its good to know I can start there no problem.
Whaaat?? No Breath of Fire? :-(
Can't include a game I haven't beaten.
Tonbi well he would have to pick between 3 and 4
Dark Pixel Gaming Ah ok, that's fair enough, thanks for replying!
Breath of Fire III is my personal favourite JRPG of all time mainly cuz it was the first RPG I ever played back when I was 6 if I remember right.
Hopefully you get round to playing them, I'm sure a few of us would like to know what you think :-)
the first 4 are great. SKIP 5
Breath of Fire 3 was one of my first jrpgs after FFVII, the music and animation from the game still stick with me today
For pre PS2 games, I would say Shining Force 2, Suikoden 1 & 2, Breath of Fire 3, Wild Arms 1, Legend of Legaia, Tales of Destiny, Alundra, Granstream Saga, Thousand Arms, Lunar SSSC, Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean 2, Vandal Hearts.
Play suikoden series!!!
I want to!
Totally agree about Radiant Historia. Started it once and dropped it a few hours in. Started again a few years ago and LOVED it.
Creating this list without having played through the Suikoden series would be like making a list of best rock bands without having listened to Led Zeppelin. Probably should have held off.
Great list! Not enough room in a top 10 to get all of the great RPGs. Try the Tales of games, Dragon Quests, Lunars, Shining Forces, Phantasy Stars, Ys, Lufias, Energy Breaker, and the other 2 games with Terranigma. Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia.