The Only 26 JRPGs You Absolutely Have to Play

[BoneSnapDeez]

I don't think Top ___________ Lists are inherently bad. But I prefer those written by a single individual or a small group. These lists put out by the big game journalism outfits are always filled with "obligatory" crap. You can tell they were thinking "okay we need some kind of modern game here!" when they chose to include Final Fantasy Type-O HD (seriously, what the hell, you could make a list of every JRPG in existence, throw a dart at it and probably end up with a better choice).

All sorts of other oddities on here as well. For starters, a list this short that's dedicated to a specific genre should never have more than one entry per series. Five Final Fantasy games is just insane - scrap 'em all but entry VI.

Terranigma murders Illusion of Gaia, but I think they were aiming for US releases.

Kick Lunar off - replace with Grandia. Same developer, one thousand times more fun.

TitS was a weird choice, should be an Ys game instead.

Some of the "modern" game picks are just terrible.

Tales of Vesperia is meh. All those games are starting to feel interchangeable. Phantasia or Symphonia would have worked better.

The lack of Phantasy Star is downright criminal. I would have also included Skies of Arcadia, Exile, and Panzer Dragoon Saga.

[Jmustang1968]

I disagree that it shouldn't have more than one title from the same series. Especially an iconic series such as FF which has games with varying gameplay. I still agree Type O shouldnt be on there.

[Exhuminator]

I put 20 hours into FF Type-0 trying to force myself to enjoy it, but it was terrible and I gave up on it.

[BoneSnapDeez]

I disagree that it shouldn't have more than one title from the same series. Especially an iconic series such as FF which has games with varying gameplay.

If this was a HG101 style top 200 list then I'd agree. But a list this short doesn't need 19.23076923% of its games to be from the same series. I suppose I could forgive the inclusion of FFVI and FFT given the genre differentials. But multiple traditional FF's is overkill. Pick one (VI, duh) and diversify the rest of that shiz.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Tales of Vesperia is meh. All those games are starting to feel interchangeable. Phantasia or Symphonia would have worked better.

Aestetically, I can see a point here. The Tales games (or at least the handful of modern ones I've played, those being Graces and Vesperia) pull the Castlevania trick a lot, where the world, characters, and story are different but monster models are almost completely the same. The story and combat systems tend to stand enough apart though that it's never been a problem for me. I'm interested to see if the handheld-born games (Hearts, Innocence, Tempest) pull the same trick.

I'd also say that Symphonia would be a good choice on the grounds that it's the one that most Westerners who've tried the series have played, not so much on the grounds that its the best one.

[pierrot]

You're ranking FFIII over FFVI? Your opinion is bad and you should feel bad.

Also, ranking Chrono Cross over Chrono Trigger. Do you even RPG bro?

FFVI is a train-wreck, like VII--is it any coincidence that both feature train wrecks in their stories? I would surely hate to be a person who is unable to acknowledge how much better Cross is than Trigger.

Do you even like RPGs?

Yes, but this is supposedly a list of 'absolutely must play' RPGs--the creme de la creme, if you will--of which I would estimate that there are very few.

[Jmustang1968]

Different tastes I suppose. FFIII I utterly bored me, and I stopped playing halfway through, despite it being the reason I initially bought a DS.

And if by train wreck you mean a train car burst open with awesomeness, then I agree with you.

[Xeogred]

You're ranking FFIII over FFVI? Your opinion is bad and you should feel bad.

Also, ranking Chrono Cross over Chrono Trigger. Do you even RPG bro?

FFVI is a train-wreck, like VII--is it any coincidence that both feature train wrecks in their stories? I would surely hate to be a person who is unable to acknowledge how much better Cross is than Trigger.

I'm not challenging you here, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on Cross. I was a big fan of it growing up, but once the internet hit that never seemed to be anyone else experience and years later it's still the same case.

Definitely not better than Trigger in my book, as I'm a sucker for the sci-fi stages and the floating island bits of Trigger, though I know Cross got weirdly awesome at some points. I beat it several times, but can't remember much of the ending. I will admit I tried replaying Cross again just last year or the year before, but lost the drive after awhile because the combat system isn't that fun and I was never a fan of the element system. I can't seem to get through FF8 again thesedays either, but I will never deny that back in the day I had a blast with that one and Chrono Cross. Just best left in the past.

Anyways, I'm the crazy guy that might take Secret of Mana over Trigger and FFVI.

[Violent By Design]

I'm not really sure how you're defining "absolutely have to play". I mean do you really absolutely have to play a game like Radiant Historia? Maybe it's good, but does it bring anything to the table that other RPGs do not? Probably not.



I haven't played every RPG I am going to list, but some of them are ones that at least seem either interesting or like they'd be good experiences. Gonna stick with turnbased (frankly, putting Action and especially Tactical RPG's on the same list just seems odd to me, all three of those genres are really different).


8 bit era, you could probably skip most of them, though I've only played FF1 and DW1. I've also played Phantasy Star 2, which I think feels like an RPG from that era even though it is a Genesis title. EarthBound Zero and Phantasy Star have potential to impress me, but it's a long shot that any of those games are must plays.

16 bit era, Chrono Trigger, FFV (FF6 is boring imo), Phantasy Star IV, EarthBound - think these are pretty much the cream of the crop of this era. The others, you're pretty much just playing the same shit but with more generic plot.

32/64 bit era - Panzer Dragoon Saga (surprised they didn't list this, considering this game is always the "hidden gem" on these type of mainstream lists), FF7 (out of all the convoluted messy RPG plots from this era, this one probably has the most interesting lure, though the battle system is boring).

Never played Final Fantasy 9, but it has a very good reputation, so it might be a good one.

Played Vagrant Story a long time ago and remember it was unique, but not sure how it would hold up.

The others...meh, they all got the same type of grandoise, psuedo-adult themed narrative going on, Final Fantasy 7 kinda covers that stuff.


128 bit era and beyond -

Persona 4 Golden, Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne (or perhaps handheld ones like Strangest Journey or 4, though I've never touched those), Half-Minute Hero, Mother 3 (never played, but heard it's written wonderfully and the previous Mother was good last I played it)

Maybe Valkyrie Profile remake - it's always intrigued me, main reason why I got a PSP actually, but never got around to testing it out.


I'm typing this at 3:30 AM and only skimmed the thread, but I'm sure my list would look something pretty close to this. I'd say these games would get my arbitrary 10/10 or maybe 9/10 rating, or maybe they're just really good games that are definitive or unique as well.

Last category might be the most incomplete (if I were to forget a game, it would be from the last one as that covers 3 generations of RPGs), but to be honest, the turn based genre hasn't had much room for improvement gameplay wise in a long time, narrative is really the biggest way to take the genre forward and a lot of these JRPGs still haven't gotten to more well written stories yet, mostly stuck in the Shounen phase.



Might share my crappy opinion on Tactical RPGs as well, but probably not Action as I've barely explored any action RPGs.

[Betagam7]

While I agree that Illusion of Gaia barely qualifies as an RPG, I will defend it's presence on any Must Play list of 16 bit games.

Unlike some of the people claiming it should be ditched for a game they've only heard about (Terranigma), I've played all 3 of the Blazer trilogy to completion and, while Illusion of Time (as I knew it) was by the far the most linear it also had the richest, most imaginative and genuinely moving storyline of any game I played in the 16 bit era. It also still managed to produce plenty of shocking and thought provoking moments, regardless of Nintendo of America's self imposed censorship

The Pig Sacrifice, the poison game and subsequent conversation with the man's wife, the tragedy of the Incan people who died waiting for their king

.

It's probably still my favourite of the Quintet titles and it's the most accessible. As I've grown up and gone on to explore the real world locations depicted in this game it still haunts me. I also loved that it gave you a secret quest in the jewel finding aspect that gave you a true reason to play through the whole thing again after completion, which I rarely want to do with RPG's.