7 Masterpiece JRPGs I've NEVER Played
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- I've played A LOT of JRPGs over the last 25 years, but you can't play them all. In fact, sometimes you miss all time great masterpieces. In this video I'll share 7 masterpiece JRPGs in my backlog that I've NEVER played (and maybe never will).
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Earthbound is fantastic. One of the weirdest games ever. Such a quirky sense of humor
Radiant Historia was such a cool game. That is one you should definitely pick up and play.
Earthbound IS fun to play. There are some annoyances but you can probably get used to them. The game has a lot of QOL that is missing from other games of its time (and even missing from modern jrpgs), such as enemies running away from you if you sre too powerful, and instant killing enemies you are too strong for. Theres a teleport spell and lots of stuff. Also those ATMs are at every shop and inn so you dont really need to go out of your way. You might want to try it one day!
Dark Chronicle is definitely worth a play! It can get a bit tedious so might need to take it fairly slowly but the story and gameplay still hold up very well!
You absolutely HAVE to play Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology. It's an amazing game!
1:31 I feel like is a general problem for mistwalker games in general for me. They all seem really cool, they're all not readily available on platforms that most people that play JRPGs actually have readily available.
Oh, also, as for radiant historia, it's like my most favorite game in general. Would love to see that one ported to more platforms as well.
Mistwalker made a lot of bizarre business decisions with their games. I feel like they should be bigger than they are.
@@TheGamingShelf I was actually wondering this a few days ago.
The answer I came to was that, Mistwalker just isn't as big of a company as Square Enix, but Hironobu Sakaguchi's team are by no means any less ambitious.
So they probably have to agree with strange exclusivity deals, or at least focus on very specific platforms to make their games see light of day.
Much like how Platinum Games has to rely on other companies like Nintendo or Square Enix, or Crowdsource their games to make ends meet.
Lost Odyssey is one of my top JRPGs // everything about the game is fantastic; story could use a bit of tightening, character progression is amazing, slightly brings back Legend of Dragoon combat (could of even went harder on it) - great list; played em all
I highly recommend Earthbound. If you play it, using the guide (pdf online) toward the end could be a good idea. I just found out to have a lot of charm and it was a nice escape. I liked the humor. I liked the 90s setting (other settings too). It has its quirks for sure. I was glad I experienced it, though.
Good to know! I have the Switch online thing so if I ever decide to give it a go I’ll be sure to use a walkthrough.
@@TheGamingShelf cool. That's actually how I played it. Hey, it may not be for you. I just found it worth experiencing despite the definite quirks.
I still dont known why or how earthbound is considered a masterpiece... Im glad people like it but its soo... Bad
Haha that’s been my thought! Whenever I hear about it I’m like…this sounds like the worth thing 😂
Path of Radiance has such a good story. Especially when you compare it to modern Fire Emblem games. Echoes has a good story too.
Radiant Historia is really good too.
I don't think Secret of Mana is that good. It's super grindy and all of the NPCs just weren't translated properly or something because every single one of them just spouts some snarky comment at you. It's really weird. Top tier music though.
I've had Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology since its release, but just now got around to playing it.
I can't believe I let it sit for so long until now. It's an amazing game so far.
I bought an Xbox 360 specifically for Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon. Then it snowballed from there. One of my other favorite games from the console is Spectral Force 3, it's a tactical RPG published by Atlus, developed by Idea Factory.
The Sacred Stones is my first and favorite Fire Emblem. Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn are really good too and I would kill for HD remasters.
My original message was too long, but then instead of cutting it, I accidentally deleted it. Basically, I started with the first Grandia and played all the games in the series that got localized since, and at first I didn't think I'd like it. It was this obscure game my mom bought for xmas to me.
Dark cloud 2 was awesome. The golf mini game, fishing stuff...gathering stuff...making/ upgrade weapons. So much fun. Not going to lie the plot kind of fall apart at the end. Still enjoyable game.
If it can comfort you, i didnt play any of these games either 😅 + never played any of the Trails of games, Yakuza games or Ys games. Guess my jrpg gamer card should revoked 🤓
Don't want to like... be over the top but...
Radiant Historia (both the original and the remaster) are my fav games on their respective system. Perfect chronology is the better of the two versions (though I actually prefer the art of the original) It's just... it does time travel the best of any game I have ever seen... and has some of the best 'Bad Endings' of any game I have played.
ok end fangirl mode but like... if you can play you should give it a try.
as for others on your list, I have tried to play earthbound... can't get into it... I know it's good it's just not for me.
Guess I must be rich cause I have both path of radiance and radiant dawn (ok I bought then when they first came out so i guess that doesn't count) I do hope they remake/remaster it one day cause it has so many things that are good (but it's so hard, the second one more so but seriously why did they make it so hard?)
last of all I also haven't played much of secret of mana but I couldn't really get into what I did play. it's clearly a good game but yeah that cooldown mechanic doesn't work with my more button mashing style of play lol.
but yeah great video! even if you never play any of them it's fun to look back on things you know you may be missing out on.
I own secret of Mana and dark cloud 2, but haven't finished either. I plan to, they just haven't been priority games yet
Hearing you talk bad about earthbound and secret of mana hurts my soul... But that's ok I won't cry 😢. I'm just messing around I get it that what was great back in the day may not be now. With that said I didn't understand why people hated the remake of som I thought it was good
I absolutely love Earthbound, but nostalgia glasses off and even I can say that it is not the best rpg that came out. I love this game but I think it's eccentricity is what makes it so popular. Other than that it is kinda mid story wise.
You should def play Lost Odyssey. It needs a remake/remaster.
I never played any of those!! Should I be worried? 😂😅
Yes you should.
They’re mostly older games so I think you’re good ;)
Same
Loved Radiant Historia (but the split time paths confused me). Game is long too.
Since you were disappointed by FF16, Lost Odyssey aka the real final fantasy 13 won't disappoint. Overall its nowhere near as dark as FF16. The battle system is basically a fusion of FF9/FF10. There's actually a world map that lets your explore with your ship and go underwater and find treasures. Great Story and Characters.
Lost odyssey was lighthearted!?!?
@@daddyodoyle compared to ff16 yes
Plz, play Dark Cloud 2 right now!!!
How dare you not play these JRPGs that are well known? And you call yourself a JPRG gamer? ;) Jokes aside, videos like this show much how you don’t have anything to prove. You seem content with yourself. And while I don’t always agree nevertheless this stuff hasn’t changed me from using your channel as a way to get to playing more JPRGs. So thank you for that.
Haha thank you! Yeah we all have our backlog of shame and this is mine. It’s okay to not play everything.
Lost odyessy really needs to be ported playststion and switch
For some reason I’ve never played Suikoden 2.
I’ll definitely get into when the remasters are dropped.
Don't sleep on the full franchise
Dark cloud 2 is one of my favorite games! I’m tempted to see if it has stood the test of time.
i have also never played these games, and i really need to stop stalling and get to the ones i can. yes it is a shame path of radiance is stuck on the gamecube i want to play that so bad without emulation. thanks for the video as always taylor.
I actually envy you. Being able to pickup Grandia 2 and play it for the first time :-)
There’s nothing quite like playing an all time classic for the first time 🤩
I'm getting PS Vita burnout, so I've Radiant Historia on my 3DS. Going to start playing it once I finish Sword Art Online: Lost Song. I am school teacher, so during the school year gaming is limited to bedtime. My backlog is atrocious.
I've never played Earthbound. I'm 40, been playing JRPGs since NES, and it's my fav genre. But at the time of playing Secret of Mana, FF VI, Mario RPG, etc., Earthbound seemed sooooo different (I actually thought it was made by a US subsidiary, lmao, how stupid of me, lol). Its the only JRPG from 1995 to 2005 that I regret not playing at Launch (will play it eventually lol).
Except from Dark Chronicle and Radiant Historia my list is very similar but it gets worse as while I’ve never played Lost Odyssey I have owned it since it’s release in the UK in 08 😅
And now every time I think about playing it I look inside the case see the 4 discs and my pure laziness goes “eh, I can’t be bothered to switch discs” as my Xbox is further away from me than my PS5 or Switch. Saying that I did just look, out of curiosity, and on the Microsoft store it is on sale for less than £7, maybe I should just buy it digitally then that’s one less excuse I’d have 😂
Also you said you wouldn’t buy an Xbox for just a couple of games, I brought a 360 for Blue Dragon. Heck I ended up getting Blue Dragon before the 360, due to ordering them on the same day but Blue Dragon ended up being delivered the day before.
Brings a smile to my face to finally see Dark Cloud 2 in this list. Such a great game and well worth the time. Fantastic list of games, I've yet to play about 4 of them as well and that should be fixed one day. Lost Odyssey is a really special game, with incredible short stories to tie the lore together.
It's ok. I wasn't impressed with Earthbound. Rudra No Hihou is way better.
And emulation is best = save $ = save space, best for minimalist.
I think we in the same boat with it comes to these games except 1 Radiant Historia tht was a good game & doh I HATE Time Travel games/shows/movies (No satisfying ending) this game is awesome so take it in.
Good thing with xbox is that most xbox360 games including Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon u can play with newer consoles also. Series S/X and xbox One are backward compatible. My huge game collections are in good use and not only collect dust In booksheld...no need to own retro consoles if u still wanna play your xbox original or 360 games. Gamepass is also great, I have figured out many games including JRPGs through it which I never would have bought or played othervice.
I had Path of Radiance physically in my collection once. What an idiot I was to sell it for only $80...
I can see why you haven't played some of these, but Secret of Mana. One of my all time favourite games, and I still listen to the OG soundtrack. Earthbound was unique, but still fun. I started Dark Cloud 2 but never finished it. May have to find what box I put it in.
I don't know, man, I know people with JRPG's have Arrested Development and everything. But you don't need to play a 30 year old Fucking game. Just play the games you have today. That was a different era, and it's time to move on. Or you could just wait for a remake
I played Earthbound in 2018 but I agree with your points. It's certainly dated in gameplay and not the most exciting to play. Also I agree with Secret of Mana, I think it's way too overrated. SD3/Trials of Mana is miles better.
YOU ARE INSANE NOT TO PLAY SECRET OF MANA DOOOOOO IT - don't talk yourself out of playing games cuz of what you hear
I've only ever had fun playing Secret of Mana co-op, I couldn't stand it at all single player. But Final Fantasy Adventure (Mana 1) was far superior for me as a single player action adventure rpg
It may seem really disconnected, but if you just watch on RUclips "1000 Years of Dreams" playlist, the music-novellas from Lost Odyssey, you will do yourself a massive favor as they are in my opinion by far the best & most touching thing about that game and honestly you don't really need to play the base game. To this day I think they're some of the most gut-wrenching stories I've ever read probly largely helped because of Nobuo Uematsu music in the background, and they have universal human themes. The game itself is fairly meh/average, the novellas are god-tier literature
I lucked out with Lost Odyssey. My dad surprised me with an Xbox 360 without me asking for it, which okay not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth, but I missed a lot of jrpgs... well not that there were that many that gen. I remember going to a gamestop and telling the employee I liked Final Fantasy but had a 360. He handed me Lost Odyssey and told me it's what FFXII should have been and was made by Sakaguchi. I'm so thankful for that employee, literally helped me get a game that changed my life
I recently got around to playing the Earthbound series and... I didn't like it. I played 1 (on the SNES mini) and Mother 3 and they just didn't connect with me. The art, enemies and humour are way too goofy for me. I don't know, other series like DQ do that kind of silliness way better, I think.
After thoroughly enjoying Grandia i was disappointed with Grandia II. Both had great gameplay, but to me the most important quality in an RPG is the characters and the story and this is where Grandia II, in my opinion, falls flat.
Grandia had likable characters, a wonderous childlike feel, an endearing heartfelt love story, and overall a great sense of self-discovery, growth, and adventure (and an excellent musical score). Grandia II in comparison felt like it tried to appeal to teens by being dark, edgy, and with sexual tension. I found few (if any) of the cast members likeable and the protagonist downright annoying with his negativity and edgy comments (I get it is established to allow for character development, but that still doesn't make it any less grating). The story at its core is VERY similar to Tales of Symphonia, and that game told it way better.
It may just be due to my nature, but as an adult I long for and aspire toward the positive childhood qualities portrayed in Grandia and the game perfectly evoked those feelings. In contrast the teenage qualities present in Grandia II rub me the wrong way and are not something I long for nor aspire toward.
Grandia simply felt like a child's loving embrace, whereas Grandia II felt like being shoved by a teenager that did not want you getting too close-no wonder I formed more of a bond with one and not the other.
Ah you are like me .. WOW sucked me in hardcore and I stopped doing much else. That's why I stopped playing back in battle for azeroth and refuse to play MMOs anymore
I haven't played many on this list either. Radiant Historia is amazing.
Don't play secret of mana. Everyone that says it's great is saying so with nostalgia glasses on. I played it when it first came out and loved it. Tried playing it again on the collection of mana and it is ROUGH. the weapon and magic leveling systems are ridiculous and the hit boxes are frustrating as can be. The original trials of mana is still great though and recommend playing it on the collection of mana.
I thought you'd put SMT here lol A masterpiece missed in this channel.
You also skipped the other MOTHER games.
Oh my you never played Baten Kaitos and Skies of Arcadia Legends on GC?! Man you missed out on a couple of really great games there. Those two are in my personal Top 5.
Radiant Historia is the best game on this list I played it recently on an emulator and it's the best game on the system IMO though I haven't played that many. Also, Dark CLoud 2 is WAY better than the first and its probably one of the top 5 hidden gems games for me.
Secret of Mana is a classic... but has not aged well, imo. Now I still played it recently with my brother and had some fun but that's because we have nostalgia for it and we were playing it together. A new player playing it solo? I think it would be boring.
Gave my friend path of radiance, a wii, controller, and memory card for xmas. -$350 but totally badass.
Lost Odyssey was not only the best JRPG on the X360, but of the whole 7th generation overall.
I find the very idea of this video questionable. Why tell us games you never played? That's not something you can really boast about as you already have no actual experience playing them and can't give genuine feedback on how they are.
I really enjoy lost odyssey, secret of mana and grandia 2 but I wouldnt call them "masterpieces" they have some big issues, no doubt about it.
I personally don't get FF16 being so big. It's a great movie but it is not a rpg, it is an action game. I honestly don't want the devil may cry combat creator helping a final fantasy again.
Earthbound games are hard to enjoy after you played any of modern Persona games (3,4,5)
Sorry you missed out on Path of Radiance. This was the game that MADE me buy a GameCube!
Shadow Hearts 1 & 2 are some of the best games in the genre that people generally forget about, truly a must play if you like RPGs.
Love this video, my shameful jrpg I’ve not played is chrono trigger
I never owned an SNES. I went from Nintendo to Sega, so I missed earthbound as well. Is it worth it getting it on the switch and playing it this many years later? Does it stand up to time?
I wasn’t into RPGs either when earthbound came out as well. It was Super Mario RPG that got me into it, but then I never went to Earthbound either to this day.
Path of Radiance is my personal favorite FE game, emulate it if you must, if you're an FE fan you really need to play it.
Earthbound is interesting with a good soundtrack but, not a lot of fun mechanically.
I think its worthed to own xbox just for play some great jrpg exclusives in there
Hey, don't worry, I haven't played ANY of these either.😅
I think earthbound was the biggest example of chaotic humor before it took off with gen Z
Earthbound is great. I played it for the first time recently and it became one of my favorite games
To help assuage your guilt, I'll go ahead and drop my own "shameful seven". Mine are probably more embarrassing, considering I never really had a phase where I wasn't into RPGs xD
• The Suikoden series.
• Xenosaga trilogy. Even more embarrassing as Xenogears and Xenoblade are my among my all-time favorites
• Grandia II. Again, Grandia 1 is an all-time fave. Even sadder as I own this on three platforms
• Any Trails for more than an hour. I plan to remedy this soon.
• Skies of Arcadia. The price is the biggest thing keeping me away
• Shadow Hearts: Another price-gated one. I own the third game, though, and want to play it soon
• Bravely series: I don't even have an excuse for this one xD
And they won’t be preserved as 87% of video games aren’t preserved at all
Lost Odyssey is Backward compatible on series x/s
Finished the first Dark Cloud but never started the second.
you can play secret of mana in the mana collection with the sequel we never got.
Love Radiant Historia. Beautiful game
I can relate for your reasons to not playing some of these games. I myself only played some of them
Time for you to start Earthbound.
Haha yes, I'm also long overdue for Grandia II.
Hot take: Secret of Mana is clunky and just an okay game.
I so appreciate you outing yourself like this 😂 I'm with you on Earthbound: I appreciate what it did, but it's not my thing whatsoever. I've told myself I'd play Radiant Historia for literal years now. Something else distracts me every time. Grandia's always grabbed my attention, but I've yet to buy it. I can HIGHLY recommend Dark Cloud 2 - def different from the original (which is one of my all-time faves), but it has soooo much charm, two great protagonists and a cool cast of other "recruitable" NPCs to boot, and plays with the town-building mechanic in a super unique way.
I never played Dark cloud 2 nor Dark Cloud until last weekend where I played a few hours of Dark cloud and now I'm like wow this game is tedious. I'm gonna try Dark cloud 2 instead
Yeah the combat is a little clunky lol
@TheGamingShelf and you have no choice but to constantly go in and out of dungeons like at least 20+ times
I have many of these games on my never played list as well with the exception of Grandia 2 and Dark Cloud 2. The Grandia games are favorites of mine, and that series really needs a revival. I sunk many hours into Dark Cloud 2. I've seen eBay bins on Dark Cloud 2 in the $19-$25 range which is cheap compared to some of the other games on this list. So no more excuses for that one! 🙂
I want do play the wild arms remaster collection
Feel similarly about Lost Odyssey.
I’ve heard some good about the game Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE. Would you recommend it?
No it was a wasted potential and it’s a grind fest. The story sucked and such false advertising to be hyped for a failed crossover between Megaten and FE but it was literally elementary persona.
@@therealjaystone2344 Do you have any game like Persona to recommend?
I gasped when Dark Cloud 2 came up, then gasped again that you loved the first. I think it's better overall than the first game by a long shot. I also think you're right about Secret of Mana. It really doesn't hold up today and Trials is so much better.
Oh man the trials of mana remake is one of the best JRPGs of this generation. It’s so so good.
@TheGamingShelf I've only played the SNES version in the Collection, but after 10 minutes of playing I couldn't believe how much better it felt than Secret.
Radiant Historia is readily available?
Path of Radiance is amazing. It's the game that really got me into Fire Emblem. I had recently played Sacred Stones on the GBA and thought it was cool so when I saw a GameCube one coming, I bought it right when it came out. Still have my copy in near flawless condition. Crazy that it's worth so much now, apparently the combination of it being a niche series with the fact that it released at the very end of the GameCube's life cycle led to not many copies being printed.
Radiant Dawn was also a sequel to it
@@therealjaystone2344 Yup, Radiant Dawn was a great game as well. It didn't quite reach the heights that Path of Radiance did though, at least not for me.
Haven´t played any of those either
my brothers grew up playing Secret of Mana on SNES and would say it's one of their favorite games from that time.
I was so excited to get the Mama collection for Switch but quickly became extremely disappointed with the game. I had such high expectations and I still haven't played it on SNES so I don't know if it feel different but I hate the hit detection, the overall feel/control of the game... there were other things I didn't like about it that I can't remember now but it felt like one thing after another. Some day I would like to try to get back into it again but it's been a couple of years and I still have no desire.
Secret of Mana remake was horrible, play it on SNES.
@@prefix331 well, it's not the remake I was playing. although I've heard that it is pretty bad. the one I'm playing was the port that came with the Gameboy final fantasy (I think that's what it is) and the trials of Mana port in one cart on the switch. do you think this is a bad port too? i don't have money to buy a SNES Mana. it's just too expensive.
Brave soul, TGS. Great video. I've never played the two MistWalker Games, and it always bugs me. I would be buying ports / HD remasters of those day one... on the correct console.
I never played any of these either.
I played Earthbound for the first time this year, having to go back to the ATM and getting stopped for pictures didn't really feel irritating or slow, the main thing I found clunky or slow was inventory management.
You really should try Lost Odyssey, to this day, it's in my top 3 picks, along with Eternal Sonata and the original FFVII.
🤦🏻♂️
Man, there's a lot of jrpg I haven't played, even before I was born into this world.
The Fire Emblem games NEED to be re-released!!!
And not on a online service only
You are right, Earthbound is very unfun to play. I tried it, and I could not get into it at all.
I’m glad my assumptions weren’t wrong!
For me personally I wouldn’t say its unfun its a little archaic tho. I mostly played for the goofy ass story. I had to drop for a bit tho because of difficulty spikes
You played all the Dragon Quest games?
I played 8 and 11. The rest I think are too archaic for me.
@@TheGamingShelf 5 is my personal favorite which had a remake on the DS. But yes, all the DQs do require some grinding especially early on. 7 was probably the worst offender.
euroland?
Europe. I was trying to be funny but clearly failed 😂
@@TheGamingShelf agree, You were not funny :)
“Games back then didn’t take place in modern times”
So true
It was super novel. Everything was either high fantasy or sci fi. The idea of a game taking place in modern day seemed so boring.
I’ve never play earthbound either.
My dude 🫡