JRPG Masterpieces

[Elel]

I'm sure there are many topics like this, but none on this board yet

And it'll be useful to me personally. I'm rather new to JRPGs (started playing them about 2 years ago), so I'm looking for "must play" games, preferably the classics, as time-confirmed masterpieces. Right now Lunar, Grandia, Xenogears, and old Final Fantasy games are on my list.

Post away which games you consider classics and why they're "must plays" (if you post reasons, it will be more interesting for others to read your list). And if you can, please mention if they have any of these done exceptionally well: story\plot, characters, writing (this is for me, as I'd prefer games which shine in these areas).

 

[Aubrielle]

Excellent thread.

-Chrono Trigger (SNES, Nintendo DS) - Possibly the best RPG ever made. Chrono Trigger shook up the entire genre and changed the way games were made forever. 10/10 on story, characters, writing, music, and art. It succeeds everywhere.
-Persona 4 Golden (PS Vita - original on PS2) - A JRPG that's amazing all around. Whether it's a dungeon crawler you're looking for, or fun combat, or distinctive characters brimming with personality…even a dating sim. P4G has it all.
(I know you're familiar with this one, but I wanted to list it anyway)
-Fire Emblem: Awakening (Nintendo 3DS) - The familiar tactical wargame setup of Fire Emblem comes back, but this time with an even richer story, better art, and better score. The choices you make - and your character interactions - will shape the future.
-Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1, PSP) - My personal favorite Final Fantasy game. This game pioneered the job system that Final Fantasy would be known for. An excellent score, a somber story, and challenging party management and combat.
-Valkyria Chronicles (PC, PS3) - It's been argued that this isn't an RPG at all, and that it's a tactical wargame. I think it's got strong enough RPG elements to fall into our category. This game follows Squad 7, commanded by Lt. Welkin Gunther and Sgt. Alicia Melchiott, through the war to defend Gallia against the invading Imperial army. The party management and character interaction, to me, define it as an RPG.
-Ys: The Oath in Felghana (PC) - If you're looking for a heart-pounding, eye-twitching hack-and-slash action RPG, look no further. Ys does it better and faster than Diablo, though maybe without a lot of Diablo's depth.
-Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky (PC, PSP) - You already know all about this one. A Steampunk fantasy tale with a long playtime, plenty of depth, excellent story, and a world you'll enjoy living in.
-Secret of Mana (SNES) - Another immortal classic from the SNES. It's an action RPG, and it doesn't move with the speed of Ys, but you could argue that it's got a far richer story, way more character development, and loads and loads of heart.

(I'll edit my post as more titles come to mind)

 

[greywolf00]

I would plug the Suikoden series (2 is generally considered the best), Final Fantasy Tactics, SHining Force (1&2) and Chrono Trigger.

Breath of Fire is another popular series, as it SMT/Persona.

If you like FFT, check out Tactics Ogre & the Disgaea series.

 

[Couchpotato]

My all time favorites are the following.

Spoiler: PsOne JRPG's

Arc the Lad Collection
Brigandine: Legend of Forsena
Shadow Madness
Breath of Fire III
Breath of Fire IV
Chrono Cross
Dragon Warrior VII
The Legend of Dragoon
Legend of Legaia
SaGa Frontier
SaGa Frontier 2
Tales of Destiny
Tales of Destiny II
Thousand Arms
Wild Arms
Wild Arms 2
The Granstream Saga
Threads of Fate
Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth -
Kartia: The Word of Fate
Ogre Battle
Vandal Hearts
Vandal Hearts II
Parasite Eve
Vanguard Bandits
Azure Dreams
Koudelka
Vagrant Story
Tactics Ogre
Suikoden
Suikoden II
Star Ocean: The Second Story

Spoiler: PS2 JRPG's

Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia
Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica
Arc The Lad: End Of Darkness
Arc The Lad: Twilight Of The Spirits
Baroque
Dark Cloud
Dark Cloud 2
Drakengard
Drakengard 2
Grandia II
Grandia III
Grandia Xtreme
Growlanser: Generations
Growlanser: Heritage of War
Legaia 2: Duel Saga
Magna Carta
Metal Saga
MS Saga: A New Dawn
Odin Sphere
Phantasy Star Universe
Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus
Radiata Stories
Rogue Galaxy
Shadow Hearts
Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Shadow Hearts: From the New World
Star Ocean: Till the End of Time
Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity
Suikoden III
Suikoden IV
Suikoden V
Tales of Legendia
Tales of the Abyss
Valkyrie Profile 2
Wild Arms 3
Wild Arms 4
Wild Arms 5
Wild Arms Alter Code: F
Xenosaga Episode I-III

Spoiler: PS3 JRPG's

Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel
Drakengard 3
Enchanted Arms
Eternal Sonata
NIER
Resonance of Fate
Star Ocean: The Last Hope International
Tales of Graces F
Tales of Zestiria
Tales of Xillia
Tales of Xillia 2
Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll
White Knight Chronicles
White Knight Chronicles II
Valkyria Chronicles
Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord

Spoiler: Xbox 360 JRPG's

Blue Dragon
Eternal Sonata
Infinite Undiscovery
Lost Odyssey
Magna Carta 2
The Last Remnant
Tales of Vesperia

Spoiler: Nintendo Wii JRPGs

Arc Rise Fantasia
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
The Last Story
Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Valhalla Knights: Eldar Saga
Xenoblade Chronicles

I own them all & others I didn't add due to all the typing & copy pasting.

Edit: Sorry Elel I don't have time to write a description about every game.

 

[Falksi]

Top thread.

FFX - Cheesy? Yeah. Linear? Yep, that too. But it's also supremely atmospheric, wonderfully emotional, has a great story with a few nice twists and interesting + fun gameplay.

Phantasy Star 4 - Still holds up today as a superbly paced and enjoyable JRPG. The comic style cut-scenes between very likeable and interesting characters add loads to the game, and there always seems to be a surprise in store along the way.

FF7 - Need I say anything?

FF5 - An often overlooked game, 5 is superb IMO. The job system adds loads to it, and the dungeons, story, world and characters are all top notch.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant - Rarely featured on these lists, SH:C is an astoundingly immersive and atmospheric game, which finds this unbelievably amazing balance between a dark & serious story, and really silly cheeky-daft humour. The combat is quality with a very fun ring system, and the characters are all excellent and memorable. What also really makes this game stand out is it's connection with our actual world. You travel the globe, and encounter aspects of history and characters from real life. It just really adds to the game.

It does lose it slightly towards the end, and it does become a tad easy, but it's still a very underrated, overlooked game which in my eyes is a masterpiece.

 

[GothicGothicness]

Ogre Tactics: Let us cling together - One of my absolute favourite games, or at least close to it. Complicated branching storylines with multiple endings… some of the bad ones are more interesting than the good ones. A lot of really fun tactical battles, and it is also one of the first games where your characters could turn on you and go over to the other side based on your decisions!

Valkyrie Profile - Very interesting and unique story, and some of the most beautiful moments in gaming. Unfortunately combat gets a bit repetitive towards the end.

Phantasy Star Series - Not sure if it should be a masterpiece or not, but very enjoyable anyhow.

EDIT how could I forget:

Star Ocean - The original, is the best out of the ones I tried.. brilliant game.

Tales of Phantasia - The original and probably best tales game.

Might add some more later as I think of them.

 

[wolfing]

My personal favorites:
- Suikoden 3: Great story told from 3 different perspectives.
- Gladius: My favorite tactical RPG of all time.
- Final Fantasy X.
- Persona 3 & 4.
- The whole Atelier/Mana Khemia series (I love crafting, and no other games have such a rich and deep crafting system).
- Shadow Hearts 2 (1 & 3 are also good, but 2 was the crown piece).
- Star Ocean 3.

 

[rune_74]

Phantasie star should very much be a master piece, especially if you are talking about the originals. They had so much character.

FFX is defiantly as well, playing the HD version now.

I also really enjoy the Star Ocean games, Persona owned me on a psx sim last year....many hours spent on that...good game.

 

[Carnifex]

For me the must plays are Chrono Trigger, Ogre Tactics, and Final Fantasy Tactics. None of these choices will let you down, and each one will take many hours to fully complete. The Persona and Suikoden series would get honorable mentions from me, as would some more recent games like Valkyria Chronicles and Trails in the Sky. Time will tell if some of the new ones become all-time classics.

 

[wolfsrain]

Phantasy Star 4 on the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive. Vastly ignored by many.

 

[Zloth]

Final Fantasy 7 for sure. There's a reason why it's getting such a huge HD remake.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant. It's got great characters (especially the wrestling guy), good humor, and a really fun battle system. It would be great if this game got an HD release on PC but I think the IP is in the grip of some company that's more into gambling machines than JRPGs now.

Lost Odyssey: Good combat, very good story, and the characters are OK. There's also a bunch of text-only short stories that are surprisingly good.

Last Remnant: Decent story, a few good characters, but the battle system is REALLY fun! Also, it makes folks that try to pull the old "grind for two days in the first battles of the game so all your characters vastly out-level every enemy" trick cry.

 

[Hexprone]

The tip-top, mostly so old as to require emulators as I rarely play JRPGs anymore:

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together is great as others have said, but I have more love for the earlier games in the series, Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (SNES), and Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber (N64).

Fire Emblem IV: Seisen no Kofu and Fire Emblem V: Thracia 776 (both SNES). Set in the same world, Thracia 776 actually takes place between the first and second halves of Seisen no Kofu. These games are the origin of my old username RedSocialKnight -- since "SocialKnight" was what the Cavalier was called in a fan-translated ROM for FE IV. The maps are much larger than in the later Fire Emblem games, giving a looser feel to the battles.

And -- can I really be the first one in the thread to include Earthbound in my list?

Also

My all time favorites are the following.

[lists 100 games]

So, all of them, is what I'm hearing.

 

[Couchpotato]

So, all of them, is what I'm hearing.

Every freakin one of them. Sorry I love them all and wont play favoritism.

 

[Falksi]

Final Fantasy 7 for sure. There's a reason why it's getting such a huge HD remake.





Shadow Hearts: Covenant. It's got great characters (especially the wrestling guy), good humor, and a really fun battle system. It would be great if this game got an HD release on PC but I think the IP is in the grip of some company that's more into gambling machines than JRPGs now.





Lost Odyssey: Good combat, very good story, and the characters are OK. There's also a bunch of text-only short stories that are surprisingly good.





Last Remnant: Decent story, a few good characters, but the battle system is REALLY fun! Also, it makes folks that try to pull the old "grind for two days in the first battles of the game so all your characters vastly out-level every enemy" trick cry.

Glad to hear some praise for Last Remnants battle system. It took me quite a while to get to grips with, but it was very refreshing when I eventually did. The fact you are influencing combat like a senior officer, as opposed to directly taking control of each individual, adds a nice and fresh feel to it.

 

[Elel]

Every freakin one of them. Sorry I love them all and wont play favoritism.

In that case, which of them happen to have the strongest plot & best characters\writing? For example, I don't think that Arc the Lad is one of those...

 

[Couchpotato]

In that case, which of them happen to have the strongest plot & best characters\writing? For example, I don't think that Arc the Lad is one of those…

Alright then here are a few from my long list that have both.

The Legend of Dragoon
Rebel Galaxy
Suikoden
Suikoden II
Suikoden III
Suikoden IV
Suikoden V
Xenosaga Episode I-III
Shadow Hearts
Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Shadow Hearts: From the New World
Resonance of Fate
White Knight Chronicles
White Knight Chronicles II
Lost Odyssey

Sorry to say I don't only play JRPG masterpieces and prefer variety.

 

[fadedc]

I don't think I've seen anyone mention Dragon Quest. I was a big fan of DQ 8, but many of the other titles were quite good as well.

 

[txa1265]

There are some amazing games here - and with the mention of Dragon Quest I don't have anything to add! Just commenting to agree and keep tracking the thread ...

 

[wolfing]

I don't think I've seen anyone mention Dragon Quest. I was a big fan of DQ 8, but many of the other titles were quite good as well.

Dragon Quest 8 is the only one I've played, and liked it a lot. I hate that it's the only one made for consoles, the rest are for handhelds and I just can't play on those tiny screens.

 

[Deleted User]

Dragon Quest 8 is the only one I've played, and liked it a lot. I hate that it's the only one made for consoles, the rest are for handhelds and I just can't play on those tiny screens.

Playing emulators on a bigger tablet helps that significantly. I am using an 8" tablet for DS emulation and it works great. Started up Dragon Quest IV recently and think it's great.