JRPGs with spiritual themes?

[Ashigara]

Looking for games that are unexpectedly spiritual, whether that means a Tolkienian quest against spiritual darkness, or a Star Wars type focus on a "life force"...

Something ideally with good exploration, like an open world, or a grid like Wizardry. I've played many FF games (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15) and many Persona ones, but didn't like Dragon Quest XI because it felt so "on rails", where you were limited.

 

[Falksi]

Shadowhearts: Covenant. Superb mix of reality & fantasy, who's plot includes literally looking inside someone's soul.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Not really an RPG per se, but Okami is the first thing I think of when I hear spiritual.

Xenogears goes very philosophical on your face, especially in its second half. It's Evangelion for the PS.

 

[CryptRat]

There's Tao but in my opinion it's painful to play, the slightly unusual combat system especially is as slow as uninteresting. HG101 reviewed the game in case you'd be looking for a longer description.

 

[ghostdog]

Shin Megami Tensei games (the main games, not the persona spin-offs) are all about the battle of Law (Angels) against Chaos (Demons) and whatever lies in-between (Neutrality). They all concern a sort of apocalypse which happens, or is about to happen, in current -or slightly future time. In all games your choices will lead you in one of those 3 paths.

It's not about Christianity vs Satan or something like that, most deities and spirits from religions and myths are included. It's also sort of a cyberpunk setting, which makes it unique. The world is fairly open with over-map roaming and dungeons. Turn based combat with a 6 person party which contains one or two main characters and the rest 4-5 are demons you recruit or fuse.

 

[Delterius]

all jrpgs are a spiritual quest against 'not passing the tokyo university exams' via perseverance grinding and thereby defeating evil

 

[Ashigara]

Thanks for the advice so far. I have played Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey and Shin Megami Tensei IV and loved them. Maybe I'll check out Apocalypse. Shadow Hearts Covenant and Okami sound like great suggestions.

I tried Xenogears but stopped about 30 hours in, it's a good suggestion bevause it's all existential and stuff. Is Xenoblade like that? It's got FF12 like exploration and monster hunting I hear.

Are there any other older ones for PS1 or SNES?

 

[Puukko]

Xenoblade is more of a traditional party based story driven JRPG, the "spiritual" aspects come in pretty late and don't play that big of a role overall. It is a FF12 style monster hunt, yes. Xenoblade X drops that stuff almost completely, can't speak for 2 but I assume that trend continues. Xenosaga meanwhile is very overt with its religious and spiritual influences, perhaps even a tad too much so when so many places and characters are named directly after concepts in Gnosticism.

Of the SMT games, Digital Devil Saga goes perhaps the furthest in formulating a consistent world and story with heavy religious and spiritual tones with Hinduism playing a major role. The other games feature more of a smorgasbord of mythologies in comparison.

I will also recommend the Persona 2 duology. It focuses more on psychology but spirituality certainly plays a part overall.

 

[abnaxus]

Illusion City

 

[Derringer]

The first two SMT games are really good for the 'spiritual journey' aspect. 1 is essentially a remake of Megami Tensei 2 which is like a blobber Wasteland mixed with a deity/devil party. 2 has you walking through Hell mid-game represented by the Sepirot. 3 is less grounded in that everyone's fucking dead and there's nobody to talk to besides gods and devils and your other mutated half-demon friends that want a floating head to make their own idealized world because they're stuck in purgatory because of cultist bullshit.

 

[Ialda]

whether that means a Tolkienian quest against spiritual darkness, or a Star Wars type focus on a "life force"...

Terranigma.

 

[Zednick]

It's been a long time since I've played it, but I remember Live a Live for the SNES having a lot of references to Buddhism, and there's a

Spoiler

reincarnating evil demon

that appears in different ages.

Dragon Quest IX for the DS is the most spiritual of the Dragon Quest games with the hero being a type of guardian angel from the world above.

 

[Hyperion]

Are there any other older ones for PS1 or SNES?

Take your pick of any Matsuno game, be it Ogre Battle, FF12, Vagrant Story, FFT, Tactics Ogre....you name it. Every single one of them is heavy with political intrigue but the ultimate evil ends up being something completely inhuman be it Chaos Gates, The Occuria, the Zodiac stones, etc.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I prefer when there are no spiritual themes, as when there are, it always promotes heretical religions or sin.

Only losers and liberals end up making games, nobody normal or well-adjusted. So of course they're all bitter atheists or agnostics who think the church and christianity are evil.

In Japan, as in Asia, their culture is very animistic. So in video games they promote this false idea that there is spirituality in everything, that false gods or spirits are real, etc.

 

[jac8awol]

Well, for spiritual themes the first thing that popped into my head was Grandia 2. I mean it's basically just a final fantasy clone and pretty cute and kiddy friendly, but in the back there's a fascinating religious war of good against evil and you find out some surprising twists in the lore along the way. Unfortunately it's pretty much totally on rails as far as I remember.

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

The Lost Child

 

[Ashigara]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

I will add for anyone reading this thread later, that I find Dark Souls to be a spiritually interesting game.

 

[oddech_wymarlych_swiatow]

The first two SMT games are really good for the 'spiritual journey' aspect. 1 is essentially a remake of Megami Tensei 2 which is like a blobber Wasteland mixed with a deity/devil party.

Original Megami Tensei 2 / Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei remake shares a lot with Fallout, just decade earlier.

I prefer when there are no spiritual themes, as when there are, it always promotes heretical religions or sin.

I hope that SMT5 will finally bring proper Christian ending.

 

[Derringer]

Original Megami Tensei 2 / Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei remake shares a lot with Fallout, just decade earlier.

Fallout's a 'spiritual' update to Wasteland but MT2 really is styled like a proto Fallout with the way the story is structured at the beginning, being forced to leave your fallout shelter to explore the wastelands.

 

[Harry Easter]

Ys VII and VIII have a bit of a spiritual angle to them, because there it's nature that sends monster out to kill you. But is it man made or really the will of the world? One has to play, to find out. And if you aren't intoo that, you still get some solid stories.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

The first two SMT games are really good for the 'spiritual journey' aspect. 1 is essentially a remake of Megami Tensei 2 which is like a blobber Wasteland mixed with a deity/devil party.

Original Megami Tensei 2 / Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei remake shares a lot with Fallout, just decade earlier.

I prefer when there are no spiritual themes, as when there are, it always promotes heretical religions or sin.

I hope that SMT5 will finally bring proper Christian ending.

Lordy that series...

and then the spin offs...

Shin Megami Tensei series
Group Description
Shin Megami Tensei is the main series of role-playing games within the Megami Tensei (Megaten) universe, The series started its existence with the seminal RPG of the same name, originally released for Super Famicom (SNES). Sequels and spin-offs soon followed.

Limitations: For the sake of clarity, sub-series of Megaten(such as Persona, Devil Summoner, etc.) should not be included in this group. Only stand-alone titles with the Shin Megami Tensei brand and strong similarities in gameplay, setting, and design, can be accepted as part of the group.

 

[Forest Dweller]

JRPGs?

Pretty much all of them.

 

[Smoker]

I fired up Tales of Symphonia I got from humble. Literally an angel 10 mins in

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Are there any other older ones for PS1 or SNES?

Terranigma, an aRPG but whatever. Good game with "spiritual" themes.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

The first two SMT games are really good for the 'spiritual journey' aspect. 1 is essentially a remake of Megami Tensei 2 which is like a blobber Wasteland mixed with a deity/devil party.

Original Megami Tensei 2 / Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei remake shares a lot with Fallout, just decade earlier.

I prefer when there are no spiritual themes, as when there are, it always promotes heretical religions or sin.

I hope that SMT5 will finally bring proper Christian ending.

Lordy that series...

and then the spin offs...

Shin Megami Tensei series
Group Description
Shin Megami Tensei is the main series of role-playing games within the Megami Tensei (Megaten) universe, The series started its existence with the seminal RPG of the same name, originally released for Super Famicom (SNES). Sequels and spin-offs soon followed.

Limitations: For the sake of clarity, sub-series of Megaten(such as Persona, Devil Summoner, etc.) should not be included in this group. Only stand-alone titles with the Shin Megami Tensei brand and strong similarities in gameplay, setting, and design, can be accepted as part of the group.

The Japanese don't understand anything about Christianity. SMT is just a mishmash of various folkloric and religious creatures in the world that are present only to give the game world some sort of edge but which otherwise have no particular meaning.