Favorite JRPG's?

[The Killer of Heroes]

Hey y'all, what are some of your favorite JRPG's?

Here are some of mine:

Chrono Trigger

The time travel aspect is pretty cleverly inserted into the gameplay, and the music is really catchy.

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

The first JRPG I really played as a kid. Not much else for me to say about it, as its been a few years since my last playthrough.

Final Fantasy VII

Probably the first JRPG I seriously played after SMRPG. Lot of nostalgia for this game here, and I love the Materia system a lot. Story is one of the better ones in a JRPG, and it makes me sad how the Compilation keeps trying to change it into something it wasn't.

Also Tifa is better than Aeris.

Final Fantasy IX

I love FF9 a lot. The battle system is slow as hell and the final boss comes out of nowhere, but damn do I get a kick out of everything else.

Final Fantasy X

Probably the last good game from Square before the merger. The voice acting isn't that great, but it personally doesn't bother me that much.

Final Fantasy X-2

Best version of the ATB system IMO. Also being super fanservicey certainly doesn't hurt my opinion of the game.

Fuck the true ending though, it ruins the first game. Almost.

Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix

Best game Square-Enix has made post-merger period. Sure the story still isn't great, but the gameplay is excellent, and the Level 1 Critical Mode challenge is some of the most fun I've ever had in a video game.

KH Birth By Sleep: Final Mix

Probably the best story in a KH game since the original (And kind of tragic as well). The gameplay is pretty good in this too, but its a shame Square-Enix took out the damage floor.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4

It's P3, but with an active plot. Much like FF9 the final boss (Well bosses in this case) is really stupid and comes out of nowhere kind of, but overall the game is very enjoyable to me.

Unfortunately I think its one of the games that really are the most fun the first time through, so it will probably be a few more years before I give this gem another spin.

Metal Gear Acid 2

Surprisingly fun card based SRPG. Also disproves the idiotic notion that only the Metal Gear "Solid" entries are about stealth, as this combines sneaking into its SRPG system pretty competently. Storywise the game isn't that great, though this and the first MGA have a couple of ballsy choices, such as

SPOILER: Show

Having Solid Snake go delusional, failing to destroy a Metal Gear, and actually getting killed off.

There will never be an MGA3, will there? :(

Tales of the Abyss

Probably one of the best stories that the guys in the Tales department at Namco came up with. The combat is a lot of fun, and I liked the characters and OST very much as well.

Tales of Vesperia

Again, fun characters and decent enough story. I like the combat a lot, and the Cameo battle against

SPOILER: Show

Kratos from Tales of Symphonia

was really cool.

I also took time to get all of the Achievements in this game, and that was quite an experience.

[riffraff11235]

Mine are Kingdom Hearts II and The World Ends With You. TWEWY is one of the few games that I've gone full-on completionist with.

EDIT: Reasoning:

Kingdom Hearts II - The fighting was wickedly fun and a joy to look at. Not to mention that the Gumi-Ship system was actually... good in this game. I really liked how the abilities of each Drive form were usable in Sora's base form; being able to glide around all the stages in the pre-final-boss grind was more fun than the griding itself! Getting to roam around the Disney worlds of my childhood was an obvious plus. Halloween Town was my favorite area by far.

The World Ends With You - Took me a while to actually get into this game, but once I did I could not put it down. The story was engaging, the fighting system was fresh, and collecting Pins was SO GODDAMN ADDICTIVE. I can't wait to see how Square Enix incorporated Neku & Co. into Dream Drop Distance.

[InstrumentalityOne]

Persona 3

[Blue Monday]

Tales of Phantasia.

[Catamari]

EarthBound. EarthBound is FUCKING AMAZING.

Seriously. Play it.

[The Killer of Heroes]

Tales of Phantasia.

Have you played Phantasian Production's patch of the PSX version by any chance?

It's pretty solid IMO. Well the localization-aspect they were going for is at least IMO.

[Reichu]

This is hard... I'll limit myself to three.


Final Fantasy VII: This just completely blew me away with its sense of atmosphere and immersion. It was a real experience. It got so much right.

Final Fantasy Tactics: This somehow managed to balance a complicated, mature, and usually interesting story with really fun tactics-based gameplay. My introduction to this sort of RPG, and one I revisited a few times and look back at quite fondly.

Secret of Mana: This action RPG was a little gem of my late childhood, and I seem to recall a fair amount of social bonding happening through SoM, likely through its unusual multiplayer feature. While the game is superficially derivative as all hell, it does have its own unique atmosphere (the Hiroki Kikuta soundtrack helps) and is quite a fun romp. The relatively humongous sprites probably helped attract me to this, versus the other RPG fair of the time.


Honorable Mention:

SaGa Frontier: This was released for the PSX during, I believe, Square's "Silver Age". They were extremely productive, and unusually charitable to gaijin as well. But this is one of those direly rushed titles, and the result is quite a mess. To me, it is a rather charming and intriguing mess -- endearing enough for me to forgive the game's innumerable flaws and make a place for it in my heart. The aesthetic and world concepts are quite interesting, and it's a pity this will never get a remake, since there is so much potential. Well... I think so, anyway, but then I have a big imagination.

[Justacrazyguy]

Persona 3- Combat is fun and the way you go trough every day makes you connect to the characters.

Valkyria Chronicles- Combat is awesome, I love the characters and the story.. I can´t even point out flaws in this game.

Valkyria Chronicles 2- Almost everything was improved since the first game, even if the scale of the fighting is smaller because it´s on a PSP.

A shame you had to hear the horrible english dub. Some of the characters were also boring or annoying.(I´m talking about you, Avan)

Damn you SEGA. I´ll never get to see the release of Valkyria Chronicles 3 in Europe, will I?

[Reichu]

Maybe we should go one more and say WHY these game are our favorites? Otherwise this is just a list thread, and fuck those.

[The Killer of Heroes]

Sure that's fine, I guess.

I'll edit some explanations for my choices into the op.

[TehDonutKing]

Not to mention that the Gumi-Ship system was actually... good

I found myself dreading II's Gummi Ship levels.

Anyway, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep has the perfect difficulty balance. I actually enjoyed level-grinding here.

Shin Megami Tensei II has the best final boss of any game ever, period.

SPOILER: Show

It's Yehowah, the Jeudeo-Christian-Islamic God.

Shin Megami Tensei: Megami Ibunroku: Devil Survivor: Overclocked has a stupidly long title, but is still a great game. Play it, or else suffer the wrath of Metatron. Also, Spike Spencer is in it. Doesn't that justify the purchase itself?

[moonwolf2024]

Final Fantasy VII - XI: These were just awesome for me. The story, characters...the GF's...just awesome.

Skies of Arcadia: Totally blew me away. Loved the concept, fighting sequences ( for the time). The critical moves were crazy.

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2: Another awesome concept. Loved the idea of consuming other monsters. One of the hardest games i've ever played.

Kindom Hearts I-II : Got pulled in by the Disney/Final Fantasy combo. Then i realized the entire game was pure awsomeness.

Xenosaga Episode I: Another great concept. I prefer the first one to the others. The leveling up was easier on this one.

Legend of Dragoon: This was one of my gaming highlights as a tween. Came out round the same time as FFVII. The gameplay was a little difficult, but i enjoyed it.

[riffraff11235]

I found myself dreading II's Gummi Ship levels.

Well, at any rate they were much more bearable than the Gummi Ship levels in KHI.

[The Killer of Heroes]

BBS balance

Can't say I agree about the balance, to a certain degree at least. The thing that gets me about it is that Level 1 runthroughs aren't well implemented into the game in the slightest bit, because it turns the game into spamming multi-hit attacks because everything only does like a single damage point.

Really makes me wish they had that damage floor in there, so I could have a challenging battle that also doesn't take like a half hour to finish. Sure I could grind, but that defeats the point of having the Zero EXP ability in the game.

Compare this to KH2FM. Level 1 battles are perfectly doable, but you just have to be fairly skilled at the game to get through, say, the MCP. Or Jafar. Or any of the Absent Silhouette or Data Organization XIII battles. Or especially freaking Terra. And you don't have to put any extra limitations on yourself either to make them doable, like only using the Kingdom Key or something.

To me KH games' gameplay are at their best when grinding is only an optional way to make a fight easier to get through, and not a way just to make a fight reasonable enough to finish, if that makes sense. BBS is by no means a bad game (Which is why I listed it above), but the balance seems lacking to me in how damage is calculated. They come too much about your stats and not enough about skill.

Its a similar problem vanilla KH2 had in a lot of ways, though BBS was not nearly hit as hard by it as KH2 was. There's a ton of depth to KH2's battle system (Even without KH2FM's additions), but because of how much damage Sora can take and deal, and how little the enemies can take and deal in return, the game is kind of a joke in the difficulty department even on Proud Mode.

[Agentomega]

Reckon my favorites are:

Tales of Symphonia
Golden Sun (and GS II)
Fire Emblem (I've only played 7, 8, and 13 extensively, but gods do I love them)
Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time
Megaman Battle Network Series (which could potentially be debated, but it is an RPG and it is Japanese, even if it isn't like the prototypical JRPG)
Fate/Extra (feels less like a visual novel and more like a traditional RPG to me)

EDIT: You know the whats, time to add the whys!

In no particular order:

Golden Sun was my first JRPG (er, at least, probably the first I can recall). Story was brilliant, I liked the aesthetics of the graphics, the characters were amusing, and I really like the Psynergy system/Djinn summons.

Tactics Advance was probably my next encounter. I'd not played a turn/grid-based strategy game before, and I quite liked the dual class combinations I could come up with. The battles were challenging and satisfying, working around the Laws system wasn't really painful.

Tales of Symphonia: A wonderful cross between an RPG and a fighter. Love the graphics, love the Tales series and their interesting takes on magic/magitechnology. Not to mention, it's nearly fully voiced over. I'd have also said Vesperia, but Symphonia was my first and takes supremacy there.

Battle Network: A little different from the traditional RPG in that you have a deck of chips to battle with. Yes, you can customize Megaman to a certain degree and that is wonderful. However, it comes down to reaction time and sweet chip combos. I like how the battle is very fast paced (in part because the level of reward depends upon it). Of the BN series, 4 and 6 are my favorite, though I can't say exactly why. Starforce is alright, but nowhere near as good as the original BN series IMO.

Crystal Chronicles Echoes of Time: Why did I say this instead of Crystal Chronicles? Perhaps it's because it feels more structured than Crystal Chronicles. Maybe it's because it felt more customizable than the original game. Or, perhaps it's because you get a party regardless of whether or not you are playing alone. It felt like the original Crystal Chronicles relied too much on being in a party with others - if you couldn't find friends to play with (or additional Gameboy Advances to use as controllers), you progressed at a far slower rate. Echoes of Time also seemed to have more puzzle solving aspects than Crystal Chronicles which I quite enjoyed.

Extra: It is somewhat more of a visual novel than an RPG, but it had sort of a refreshing combat system which boiled down battle into a rock paper scissors that you could anticipate by battling enemies and learning their patterns. Also, I quite liked the alternate take on the Grail War as being held within a computer.

[TehDonutKing]

Well, at any rate they were much more bearable than the Gummi Ship levels in KHI.

I liked KH1's Gummi SHip levels.

[The Killer of Heroes]

I liked KH1's Gummi SHip levels.

One thing I really liked about KH1's Gummi Ship (And especially before you get the warp drive thing) is that they really created a sense of vastness between the worlds, and in a lot of ways better than typical JRPG world maps.

Now the system itself needed a little work (I like KH2's a lot personally), but they were enjoyable enough.

[NemZ]

Traditional JRPGs

FF 4-6: each has it's triumphs and flaws, but somewhere between these 3 the series peaked. I've bought each of these at least twice each on different systems, not counting emulators.

Chrono Trigger: Quite possibly the perfect JRPG. I'm not sure there's a way to do better without just doing it again, but more of it. I have 3 different copies of this game (again, not emulators), and would probably buy it again without regret. The actual sequel... not so much.

Radiant Historia: In many ways this is what Crono Cross should have been. This game features both time travel AND branching alternate realities, no random encounters, and an interesting tactical combat system. Probably the best JRPG on the DS/3DS that isn't a remake (though I haven't played TWEWY yet).

Dragon Quest 8: It's mostly the same formula from one game in this series to the next, but the charecter growth options in this title, with some flexibility but not so much that everyone can do everything (a personal peeve of mine) makes this the standout. The DS versions of 4-6 are pretty good too, but DQ9 is bullshit.

Xenogears: It's as close as you're likely to get to a true eva JRPG. It's definately a flawed game in many ways, but absolutely worth at least one playthrough. I haven't tried the 'prequels' so I can't comment on them.

Valkyrie Profile: beautiful, engaging, inventive take on the JRPG formula by mixing in some platformer elements and a battle stystem that rewards fighter-ish juggle combos.

Tactical JRPGs

Tactics Ogre & FF Tactics: Just so much win. After playing these it gets hard to go back to non-tactical RPGs, and even the other tactical games are hard to compare to them.

Front Mission 1 & 4: I'm sure I'd love the others too, but sadly these are the only ones I've gotten my hands on. Think Final Fantasy Tactics with mechs.

Action JRPGs

Seiken Densetsu 3: Sadly not available in English without a patch/emulator, this sequel to Secret of Mana is an improvement over that already fantastic action-rpg in just about every way. 6 charecters to pick from (one lead and two helpers) leading to different endgames and a limited element of choice in charecter advancement gives it a fair amount of replay value as well, something rare for an rpg.

Illusion of Gaia: ...but probably only because I've never gotten around to playing Terranigma, which sounds rather badass. Still, a very fun game.

[Redtophat]

Valkyria Chronicles
Xenoblade
Fire Emblem: Awakening
Persona 3&4
SMT Nocturne
Digital Devil Saga 1&2
Devil Survivor 2

[TheFriskyIan]

Final Fantasy XII: IMO, it's the best Final Fantasy in the series. The License Board, the huge world, I could easily put in 200 hours and not see everything there is to see.

I'm starting to take a liking to Ni No Kuni, and not just because it was made by Ghibbli.