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The top tier of JRPGs when it comes to story/combat?
- Thread starter april6e
- Start date
Shadowstar39
Member
Dragons Dogma (well wrpg made in japan 
), Dark souls (same).
For more traditional jrpgs. .. Dragon Quest 11 (amazing) , Triangle Strategy, valkyria chronicals 1/4, Tales of Arise and Bersaria, SMT 5, and Persona 5, Y's 8 and 9
Trials of mana (probably not mentioned, it was great)
Xenoblade chronicles 2 was very underwhelming. I bought the first one on switch, and I will play it eventually but if its anything like 2 , nah. That game was worse then ff13 in the boring for the first 5 hours department.
Too many systems. A blah main character voice, and crap plot. All it had going for it was a pair of "assets" in one delightful red head. Also it was very very low resolution, blurry.
I really hope the remake of the first one is good and not full of those issues. People like it as it got a sequel. People like that shit sword art online too though so I am not hopeful. I can't stand games where you just sit there and let the computer battle for you. FF12 at least had involvement, and killer setting/leveling system.
Jrpgs have been in decline since 360/ps3 era. Meanwhile wrpgs have seen such games as Witcher 3, Kingdom Come deliverance, Greedfall, and some euro jank (but awesome) like Technomancer, and elex. Its still been very barren compared to ps360 years (well i guess you can count crappy mass effect andromeda, I don't, lol).
PS1 gen was best gen for jrpgs, followed by ps2. Hell even the animie games looked cooler and then went moe and shit in the ps3 era. Grandia series , Lunar, Persona 1-4, legend of legia , legend of dragoon, vandal hearts , vagrant story, xenogears, mega man legends, Parasite eve, FF 5-12, and Suikoden 1-5.
), Dark souls (same).For more traditional jrpgs. .. Dragon Quest 11 (amazing) , Triangle Strategy, valkyria chronicals 1/4, Tales of Arise and Bersaria, SMT 5, and Persona 5, Y's 8 and 9
Trials of mana (probably not mentioned, it was great)
Xenoblade chronicles 2 was very underwhelming. I bought the first one on switch, and I will play it eventually but if its anything like 2 , nah. That game was worse then ff13 in the boring for the first 5 hours department.
Too many systems. A blah main character voice, and crap plot. All it had going for it was a pair of "assets" in one delightful red head. Also it was very very low resolution, blurry.
I really hope the remake of the first one is good and not full of those issues. People like it as it got a sequel. People like that shit sword art online too though so I am not hopeful. I can't stand games where you just sit there and let the computer battle for you. FF12 at least had involvement, and killer setting/leveling system.
Jrpgs have been in decline since 360/ps3 era. Meanwhile wrpgs have seen such games as Witcher 3, Kingdom Come deliverance, Greedfall, and some euro jank (but awesome) like Technomancer, and elex. Its still been very barren compared to ps360 years (well i guess you can count crappy mass effect andromeda, I don't, lol).
PS1 gen was best gen for jrpgs, followed by ps2. Hell even the animie games looked cooler and then went moe and shit in the ps3 era. Grandia series , Lunar, Persona 1-4, legend of legia , legend of dragoon, vandal hearts , vagrant story, xenogears, mega man legends, Parasite eve, FF 5-12, and Suikoden 1-5.
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Touch fuzZy. get BizZay
Member
I agree with people saying Yakuza Like a Dragon is a wonderful game, but I feel the combat is pretty standard and it's the story and characters that elevate it
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EverydayBeast
thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Ocarina of time is a rpg and adventure game at the same time.
SlimeGooGoo
Party Gooper
Northeastmonk
Gold Member
Alundra - Story is pretty good with lots of depressing stories told along the way.
Star Ocean First Departure and Second Story . First Departure you can get on most current consoles. Second Story (Second Evolution) you’d have to get either by eBay for PS1 or PSP.
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together - Excellent tactics gameplay with dark mature storytelling.
Xenogears - I’m shocked by people who enjoy JRPGs and haven’t played this yet.
Lunar: the production quality alone is why this game is so amazing and how fresh it feels even by today’s standards.
Front Mission 3: excellent gameplay, story, and there’s a second campaign. One of my personal favorites.
Parasite Eve - it has great characters, an excellent setting, a cool/scientific story, and fun combat. Read the Parasite Eve novel too.
Final Fantasy VI - one of the best Final Fantasy games to me. Very cool setting and characters.
I didn’t mention Suikoden II or Chrono Trigger. That’s a lot so far. All of those I feel very comfortable recommending for someone wanting to play classic JRPGs.
Star Ocean First Departure and Second Story . First Departure you can get on most current consoles. Second Story (Second Evolution) you’d have to get either by eBay for PS1 or PSP.
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together - Excellent tactics gameplay with dark mature storytelling.
Xenogears - I’m shocked by people who enjoy JRPGs and haven’t played this yet.
Lunar: the production quality alone is why this game is so amazing and how fresh it feels even by today’s standards.
Front Mission 3: excellent gameplay, story, and there’s a second campaign. One of my personal favorites.
Parasite Eve - it has great characters, an excellent setting, a cool/scientific story, and fun combat. Read the Parasite Eve novel too.
Final Fantasy VI - one of the best Final Fantasy games to me. Very cool setting and characters.
I didn’t mention Suikoden II or Chrono Trigger. That’s a lot so far. All of those I feel very comfortable recommending for someone wanting to play classic JRPGs.
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greenpower22
Member
Nier Replicant
xellos2099alpha
Member
Xenosaga 3
iHaunter
Member
If you turn off audio maybe. Dialogue and VA made me want to vomit.
Easily my favorite game on the Switch and the best Xeno game since Xenogears.
Rambone
Member
Persona 5 Royal gets my vote. I'm going to go against the grain here and recommend some old school, try Suikoden. Suikoden has an amazing story, characters, music and combat is basically what you would expect from a Dragon Warrior or older Final Fantasy title.
Suikoden 1 Trailer:
Suikoden II is a banger as well
Suikoden 1 Trailer:
Suikoden II is a banger as well
PhaseJump
Gold Member
Play Shining the Holy Ark, if you haven't yet.
I just threw the game on Steam Deck to compare the emulation to real Saturn. No problems emulating it.
Sega is where Golden Sun came from.
TheTony316
Member
Persona 5, FFVII-X + XIV and the Yakuza franchise are my all time favourites. Tried to get into Xenoblade Chronicles 2 but didn't like the combat, UI and Rex. Oh and i would love if Sony made a new Wild Arms or Legend of Dragoon.
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Wait a minute automata is a jrpg?
Fools idol
Member
jRPG and good story rarely go together imo. They tend to be far to cliche and tropey as fuck.
Best stories:
FF6
Xenogears
If story is what you are after above all else then these two are all I would bother with.
That said I love the genre.. I like them for the sense of adventure and journey with wacky characters. I also prefer the traditional turn based combat offerings as they keep everything at a steady pace.
With the exception of Xenoblade Chronicles being more real time based, you can't go wrong with these:
DQ8
DQ11
FF9
Xenoblade chronicles (2 sucks)
a short and sweet list, but take it from someone who has played thousands of jRPG's, there really are a lot of duds and time wastes. I would only recommend the Persona series if you don't mind all the bizarre social dating crap that is involved, along with even more extremely annoying characters.
Best stories:
FF6
Xenogears
If story is what you are after above all else then these two are all I would bother with.
That said I love the genre.. I like them for the sense of adventure and journey with wacky characters. I also prefer the traditional turn based combat offerings as they keep everything at a steady pace.
With the exception of Xenoblade Chronicles being more real time based, you can't go wrong with these:
DQ8
DQ11
FF9
Xenoblade chronicles (2 sucks)
a short and sweet list, but take it from someone who has played thousands of jRPG's, there really are a lot of duds and time wastes. I would only recommend the Persona series if you don't mind all the bizarre social dating crap that is involved, along with even more extremely annoying characters.
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FeldMonster
Member
Best Combat: BattleChasers: Nightwar
Beat Story: Don't care about story
Beat Story: Don't care about story
Shadowstar39
Member
No other jrpgs, imo, beat the scope and awesomeness that was Suikoden 1 and 2. Even its's sequels didn't come close. Sad, since its locked in Konami jail with Metal gear, Silent Hill, Castlevania, and Contra, we will never see it again
Imru’ al-Qays
Member
The best JRPG of all time is Chrono Trigger, which still holds up well to this day.
There have frankly not been many good JRPGs since the PS2 era, and there are even fewer JRPGs with both good combat and a good story. Nier Automata and Replicant are great, but you've already played those. Persona/SMT have excellent combat but the stories are frankly poorly told these days. Persona 3 has a good story though. I hear Yakuza: Like a Dragon is good but I haven't played it yet.
Yasumi Matsuno's games have some of the best stories in the medium, though the combat can be a matter of taste. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (PSP), Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP, smartphones), Vagrant Story (PS1), and the often-overlooked Crimson Shroud (3DS). Final Fantasy XII is sort of a Matsuno game, but Square kicked him off the team halfway through development and the story suffered majorly for it - still a great game overall though.
Final Fantasy VI, VII, and IX are the best in the series (VII Remake is an atrocity that completely undermines everything about the original). Dragon Quest V has the best story in the series, Dragon Quest VIII and XI are also good.
But yeah for modern JRPGs frankly it's a wasteland. The devs all doubled down on appealing to adolescents and otaku freaks.
There have frankly not been many good JRPGs since the PS2 era, and there are even fewer JRPGs with both good combat and a good story. Nier Automata and Replicant are great, but you've already played those. Persona/SMT have excellent combat but the stories are frankly poorly told these days. Persona 3 has a good story though. I hear Yakuza: Like a Dragon is good but I haven't played it yet.
Yasumi Matsuno's games have some of the best stories in the medium, though the combat can be a matter of taste. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (PSP), Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (PSP, smartphones), Vagrant Story (PS1), and the often-overlooked Crimson Shroud (3DS). Final Fantasy XII is sort of a Matsuno game, but Square kicked him off the team halfway through development and the story suffered majorly for it - still a great game overall though.
Final Fantasy VI, VII, and IX are the best in the series (VII Remake is an atrocity that completely undermines everything about the original). Dragon Quest V has the best story in the series, Dragon Quest VIII and XI are also good.
But yeah for modern JRPGs frankly it's a wasteland. The devs all doubled down on appealing to adolescents and otaku freaks.
ARK1391
Member
THEY WERE THAT LONG AGO!?? WHAAAAT??
Karmic Raze
Member
I know I might get flak for saying this, but it’s probably my favorite JRPG ever… Scarlet Nexus. Beat in on GamePass recently and I am going to purchase the Ultimate Edition and run through it a second time and fix all of the mistakes I made the first time around. I didn’t beat the game the way I wanted to the first time either, resorting to dropping the difficulty for the final boss fight and using the plugin that keeps your health from reaching zero for about 5-6 regular enemies in Phase 12. Second play through will be soooo worth it, though. I love this game!
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Rambone
Member
No other jrpgs, imo, beat the scope and awesomeness that was Suikoden 1 and 2. Even its's sequels didn't come close. Sad, since its locked in Konami jail with Metal gear, Silent Hill, Castlevania, and Contra, we will never see it again
I agree! I enjoyed Suikoden 1+2 way more than I ever did any Final Fantasy games outside of maybe FF3 on SNES. The two games bring back a lot of strong memories. Flik and Viktor are my favorite characters in the series. I think any JRPG fan owes it to themselves to try these two titles, it would be a real tragedy to miss out on such an experience. I think the art style has really allowed Suikoden to age well, same goes for its combat system thanks to the free will option to keep combat flowing to a faster or more automated pace which helps when you run into situations where battle encounters are more frequent. I still think both games has some of the best and varied sound tracks of any game of that generation and perhaps beyond. I can't think of any game that has had so many music compilations made for it. In short, these games are masterpieces.
The situation with Konami these days is a sad one but for Suikoden fans the developers of those games are developing a spiritual successor which is called Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes (Not to be confused with Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising which is a 2D spinoff of sorts). I really really hope the characters are as memorable as they were in S1 and S2 along with having a top tier sound track. Eiyuden Chronicle Rising can be played now and Hundred Heroes will be coming out next year and is available to wish list on Steam.
Sub_Level
wants to fuck an Asian grill.
I'd say the original FFVII is overall the highest quality in terms of story. Not so much the script or the depth, but the pacing.
Everyone thinks the big twist of that game is the infamous character death. But for me it was the later revelation that its a story with an unreliable narrator. The way the game slowly reveals tidbits about the antagonist is similarly brilliant, culminating in a truly spectacular flashback.
Its not perfect, of course. Cait Sith was and will always be one of the worst most pointless party members. But he barely has any lines and isn't voiced unlike, say, Teddie who never shuts the fuck up.
Everyone thinks the big twist of that game is the infamous character death. But for me it was the later revelation that its a story with an unreliable narrator. The way the game slowly reveals tidbits about the antagonist is similarly brilliant, culminating in a truly spectacular flashback.
Its not perfect, of course. Cait Sith was and will always be one of the worst most pointless party members. But he barely has any lines and isn't voiced unlike, say, Teddie who never shuts the fuck up.
German Hops
Gold Member
Best Combat - Chrono Cross/Vagrant Story
Best Story - Xenogears and..
Best Story - Xenogears and..
