Is there a top 100 list for JRP’s in this sub forum?

[S.torch]

Sadly, there's a great degree of ignorance in the Codex respecting JRPGs. While some people go as far to take pride in the fact they don't play them, but then you ask what games they have played recently and they don't know how to answer, because it results that a lot of them don't even play games anymore (but like to bitch about what others do play).

Aside from the userbase, the staff is very lacking in that sense too. Most news on the front page in the Codex pertain to RPGs created in the West and only in the West, sometimes there are news of pure corporated trash that certainly don't need the advertising. While most JRPG releases or news get ignored, no matter if is from big or indie studios. The tendency is so bad, that sometimes releases that are actually made by western people are ignored because they have JRPG influences. But then you see that they post selectively about the Soul's Series, I guess because some people just judge by the looking and think is a "westernized" fantasy (when it has a very JRPG design philosophy).

However I understand that this is not completely the Codex's Staff fault, giving that most news are posted by what? 2 people? Maybe is too much asking from them that they cover every sub-genre only by themselves. However, that's doesn't excuse a more than suspicious lack of posting on even the bigger of releases on JRPGs or JRPG-likes.

And is a shame, because there are a lot of good games out there that are not very well-known or some obscure new releases that will benefit from some exposure and will make a very interesting list for playing.

 

[dacencora]

I mean, even for JRPG fans, are there actually enough good JRPGs to make a Top 100 list?

For sure. The Trails series on its own numbers at least 15 games, after all, and they all wipe the floor with any sad western abomination.

Add the 16 or so localized SMT games too, and you're already at 31 games, and that's just from 2 series of games. Final Fantasy has at least 15 entries and Dragon Quest has like 13/14, so we're approaching 60 from 4 series alone.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I saw the first few of trails as ok but the rest remind me of Idea Factory gfx. (Cold steel)

 

[Ysaye]

Well here is a "Top 100" list that I made up over an hour - it is probably not a very good list, I am not sure I totally agree with myself and I also concede that there are whole series of popular games that I haven't played, but I think it does show that there are definitely enough games (there are a heap of games that I have left off).

Spoiler

1. Dark Souls
2. Suikoden 2
3. Phantasy Star 4
4. Dark Spire
5. Elminage Gothic
6. Fire Emblem 5: Thracia 556
7. Legend of Heroes - Trail in the Sky: The 3rd
8. Ys Origin
9. Legend of Heroes - Trails of Cold Steel 3
10. Shining Force 2
11. Phantasy Star 1
12. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky Second Chapter
13. Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky First Chapter
14. Dragons Dogma
15. Shining the Holy Ark
16. Shining in the Darkness
17. Kings Field 4
18. Wizardry: Tales of the Forsaken Land
19. Dragon Quest 8
20. Ys 3: Oath of Felghana
21. Xenogears
22. Ys 6: Ark of Napishtim
23. Ys 8: Lacrimosa of Dana
24. Tales of Phantasia
25. Legend of Heroes - Trails of Zero
26. Chrono Trigger
27. Legend of Heroes - Trails of Azure
28. Tactics Ogre
29. Grandia
30. Ar Nosurge
31. Final Fantasy 6
32. Etrian Odyssey 1 / Etrian Odyssey Untold
33. Final Fantasy 5
34. Legend of Heroes - Trails of Cold Steel 1
35. Lunar: Eternal Blue Remix
36. Skies of Arcadia
37. Phantasy Star 2
38. Demon Souls
39. Dark Souls 2
40. Final Fantasy 3
41. Elminage Original
42. Lunar: The Silver Story Complete
43. Book of Ys / Ys 1 and 2
44. Dragon Quest 8
45. Legend of Heroes - Trail of Cold Steel 2
46. Legend of Heroes - Trails of Cold Steel 4
47. Der Langrisser / Langrisser 2
48. Breath of Fire 3
49. Shin Megami Tensei 2
50. Operation Abyss / Wizardry Xth
51. Dragon Quest 11
52. Tales of Destiny
53. Brandish
54. Etrian Odyssey 4
55. Star Ocean 2
56. Stranger of Sword City
57. Suikoden 3
58. Final Fantasy 7
59. Dinosaur Resurrection
60. Secret of Mana
61. Ys Seven (7)
62. Record of the Lodoss War (SNES)
63. Parasite Eve
64. Dark Souls 3
65. Ys: Memories of Celesta
66. Suikoden 3
67. Fire Emblem 1&2: Mystery of the Emblem
68. Wizardry: Labyrinth of Souls
69. Warsong / Langrisser 1
70. Golden Sun
71. Record of the Lodoss War (Sega Saturn)
72. Ogre Battle
73. Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War
74. Valkyrie Profile
75. Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes
76. Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection
77. Pokemon Red / Blue (the original Gameboy one)
78. Valkyria Chronicles
79. Legend of Dragoon
80. Ni No Kuni
81. Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals
82. Wizardry Gaiden 3
83. Tales of Symphonia
84. Shining Tears
85. Dragon Quest / Dragon Warrior
86. Dragon Slayer: Xanadu
87. Sorcerian
88. Final Fantasy 9
89. Bravely Default
90. Class of Heroes 2
91. Earthbound
92. Xanadu Next
93. Front Mission 3
94. Operation Babel
95. Infinite Space
96. Final Fantasy Tactics
97. Bahamut Lagoon
98. Treasure of Rodra
99. Shining Blade
100. Luminous Arc 2

Apologies to many Shin Megami and Persona games, Monster Hunter games, Pokemon games etc. that I haven't played - Also I have treated Zelda games as not RPGs.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

Strangely enough I asked the RPG subredd on their opinion regarding IGN's list and they told me to come here if I am serious about RPGs lol

The majority of Codexers frown upon any Japanese-developed RPGs, even ones not in the JRPG subgenre, although we do nonetheless have a fairly lively subforum which, despite its name, covers any RPGs that are Japanese-developed.

It would be a worthwhile effort to make a (second) attempt at a poll rating Japanese-developed RPGs, but I suspect it would be a foregone conclusion that the top of the list would be dominated by the Demon's/Dark Souls series plus Dragon's Dogma.

I love the site, but a lot of posters seeming total adverse to all things console and Japanese has been one of the more hilarious things for a long fucking time now. It seems to always go something like this:

Valkyria Chronicles? Japanese console shit. Will not look at. Fuck off with your weeb Jap shit. Valkyria Chronicles comes to PC 6 years after the original PS3 version. Oh, what is this? This is one of the best games of the year. Where has this game been? Why aren't there more games like this thing I ignored for a little over half a decade? Why has nobody told me about this thing?​

I could maybe get the attitude if PC RPGs was still in that late '90s and early 2000s era of quality, but it's not, it's been Dragon Ages, Betheada shit, crappy third person shooter Mass Effects, and other stuff the Codex seems to hate. This attitude however isn't as bad (or funny) as it was when I was just lurking on the site like ten years ago.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Not EVERYONE in the codex hates everything. I still load up Hydlide to try to understand it but I still hate my decision in the 80s that I bought it over Final Fantasy.

I am annoyed so many games never hit the USA back in the day or releases were censored or made different from the original. Thsnkfully, romhacks and such are slowly amending this.

 

[Ash]

Top five series in no particular order.

1. Castlevania: Symphony of the night + almost all the handheld igavanias. Exclude Bloodstained.
2. 90s era portion of the mainline Final Fantasy series + Tactics, exclude almost everything else before and after.
3. Parasite Eve series (excluding 3)
4. Dark Souls series (NOT excluding 3 even though it's the worst)
5. Golden Sun series (excluding 3)

21 games total only from my personal top 5 series. But, I haven't played 100 JRPGs. More like 70 or so. Almost all fall into one of two categories: total shit (because barebones gameplay or an art style that makes me want to commit seppuku) or some of my favorite games of all time. Few meet a middle ground. Examples that do would be Vagrant Story, Bloodstained or Koudelka.

 

[Rean]

I gain power every time Parasite Eve is mentioned!!!
I'll never forgive Resident Evil for overtaking this great series.

 

[Ash]

Meh. Resident Evil didn't exactly overtake PE as it came before it and was more popular off the bat. And there is no reality where both cannot exist and be successful. Square probably just didn't market it enough nor brand it properly (Parasite Eve? What a weird name. Throw a standard low detail animu girl on the cover to turn off young 90s male gamers like myself even more).

Myself as a kid back then I remember being weirded out about it. Thinking it was some lame anime waifu storyfag shit:

But little to nothing is anime about it at all except this cover art. Dumb. Set in New York. Highly detailed art style. Non-cringy writing from what I recall. Overall mature vibe. And pretty great gameplay to boot (of course, otherwise I'd hate it).

 

[jungl]

it a shame square enix doesn't experiment anymore. Best part part was police station and customizing guns you got in the game. Actually having a middle aged black guy in a game and not a anime boy band drop out.

We need more jap modern era games like parastive eve and operation winback https://youtu.be/E2B82vIkYEY?list=PLXDqsiZw-U28Ht1O4XXzyMNchjXpGTanN

 

[Bigg Boss]

Sadly, there's a great degree of ignorance in the Codex respecting JRPGs. While some people go as far to take pride in the fact they don't play them, but then you ask what games they have played recently and they don't know how to answer, because it results that a lot of them don't even play games anymore (but like to bitch about what others do play).

Aside from the userbase, the staff is very lacking in that sense too. Most news on the front page in the Codex pertain to RPGs created in the West and only in the West, sometimes there are news of pure corporated trash that certainly don't need the advertising. While most JRPG releases or news get ignored, no matter if is from big or indie studios. The tendency is so bad, that sometimes releases that are actually made by western people are ignored because they have JRPG influences. But then you see that they post selectively about the Soul's Series, I guess because some people just judge by the looking and think is a "westernized" fantasy (when it has a very JRPG design philosophy).

However I understand that this is not completely the Codex's Staff fault, giving that most news are posted by what? 2 people? Maybe is too much asking from them that they cover every sub-genre only by themselves. However, that's doesn't excuse a more than suspicious lack of posting on even the bigger of releases on JRPGs or JRPG-likes.

And is a shame, because there are a lot of good games out there that are not very well-known or some obscure new releases that will benefit from some exposure and will make a very interesting list for playing.

Petition to force this person to do all JRPG news from now on.

 

[Ash]

it a shame square enix doesn't experiment anymore. Best part part was police station and customizing guns you got in the game. Actually having a middle aged black guy in a game and not a anime boy band drop out.

We need more jap modern era games like parastive eve and operation winback https://youtu.be/E2B82vIkYEY?list=PLXDqsiZw-U28Ht1O4XXzyMNchjXpGTanN

Yes, back in the 90s when the Japanese were heavily invested in "westaboo" games; notably European or American-inspired.

e.g

Castlevania
Metal Gear Solid
Final Fantasy
Resident Evil
Parasite Eve
Devil May Cry
Silent Hill
Koudelka

Now nearly everything is shameless cringe including the latest iterations of these series and I just don't care for it.
But the west too has become shameless cringe, just a different type.

 

[Bigg Boss]

Oh yeah nothing to cringe about with Doom Eternal. Faggot.

 

[Ash]

Eat shit you butthurt bitch. Doom: Eternal is a decent game.

 

[Carpincho Pampeano]

The problem with a jrpg or any kind of list is that some great games are not avaible to play because they can't be emulated or they are not translated so it always ends up being a popularity poll regardless of their quality. I have played a shit ton of jap blobbers and even more western ones and i can say with confidence that Dungeon Travelers 2-2 is in the top 5 blobbers of all time, not only jap ones but there's two problems.
A) It's for vita, a console no one bought except the most extreme rpg fans or sony fanboys
B) Remains untranslated to this day
I do think this lists are great for knowing which games you will be able to get a discussion going but nothing more. I'm drunk so i hope i managed to get my point across.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Yes, back in the 90s when the Japanese were heavily invested in "westaboo" games; notably European or American-inspired.

If only Japan had as many Kenichi Smiths as in the good old days!

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

She has an itch that needs to be scratched.

 

[Ash]

Yes, back in the 90s when the Japanese were heavily invested in "westaboo" games; notably European or American-inspired.

If only Japan had as many Kenichi Smiths as in the good old days!

Less Kenichi Smiths, more Koji Igarashis, Team Silents, Shinji Mikamis, Hironobu Sakaguchis, and hell even Hideo Kojimas.

People that merely had a healthy interest and good taste in western media, culture, mythology and history as opposed to drawing sexualised children, obtaining maximized profits at all costs as has become the norm, or whatever the fuck this guy above is.

But it's all just a product of the time. The west WAS cool back then (to some degree), no wonder they were inspired. Now the whole world is a joke.

 

[Rean]

Parasite Eve definitely suffered from shit marketing.

The original Resi 1 PC release also had an anime Jill on the back-cover, although that's not the most distributed version and thus not the one most people remember.

Director's Cut was a VERY different deal, with Capcom going all out on the shock factor. The DC release had that scary ass zombie on the package, most kids were terrified of touching it.

Also, Director's Cut had never seen before ads like this one.

Of course, when you got to play the actual GAME, you experienced comedy voiceacting, shit controls, running back and forth the same areas for 6 hours and eating Jill sandwiches. Sad that Aya lost to that!!!

 

[Arthandas]

Lol at suggesting there are 100 good jrpgs

 

[Black Angel]

I mean, even for JRPG fans, are there actually enough good JRPGs to make a Top 100 list?

Well, categorizing RPGs, or even games in general, based on where they're being made in the first place is quite silly. Hobo Elf put it quite eloquently

Wrong. Calling anything a JRPG or WRPG in the first place is dumb and doesn't really give you an accurate idea of what you can expect from the game's mechanics. Let's just stick with the established genre names that actually make sense, like ARPG, Sim / Tactical RPG, dungeon crawler, etc..

Yeah, something like ATOM RPG and Encased might have been seen as "Russian/Eastern European RPGs", and some has even been called Euro-jank, but they don't go all out categorizing them like they did JRPGs. Hell, some of the games in this subforum aren't even RPGs at all, and they're here for the sole fact that they're made by the Japs (Sekiro is not an RPG), or that they look and play like a JRPG (both Undertale and LISA: The Painful are not made by the Japs at all).

 

[Mortmal]

No list cause this subforum is the elitist part of the codex, we play everything and are less retarded than the average poster. A top list is always kinda retarded, what will be on top? PS2 era games or chrono triggers for nostalgia sake, some dragon quest maybe. Even the name JRPG doesnt make any sense as said above, putting sekiro and dark souls in the same bags as very different sub genre of rpgs. Just make a thread by game name and discuss it, ranking them is stupid.

 

[flyingjohn]

If you are gonna make a jrpg list:
-Break into multiple genres
Souls and fire emblem do share waifu focus,but that don't make them the same genre.
-Break into multiple categories.
Trigger and the nostalgia crowd get the story focused stuff while the game play chads get legend of heroes/smt.
-Break into jap only category.
The reason is that jap only games have a very low selection of people who actually played them,so it is a problem of too few users who have specific tastes.
-Break into non rpg category
Castlevania is a Japanese game with rpg elements,but has nothing to do with the rpg genre.

So,good luck making such a list.

 

[lightbane]

But little to nothing is anime about it at all except this cover art. Dumb. Set in New York. Highly detailed art style. Non-cringy writing from what I recall. Overall mature vibe. And pretty great gameplay to boot (of course, otherwise I'd hate it).

Shame the PSP game killed the franchise forever. Although this is a survival horror game with some RPG mechanics IIRC, not exactly a "proper" JRPG.
Would the Front Mission series also count as JRPGs?

 

[Ysaye]

If you are gonna make a jrpg list:
-Break into multiple genres
Souls and fire emblem do share waifu focus,but that don't make them the same genre.
-Break into multiple categories.
Trigger and the nostalgia crowd get the story focused stuff while the game play chads get legend of heroes/smt.
-Break into jap only category.
The reason is that jap only games have a very low selection of people who actually played them,so it is a problem of too few users who have specific tastes.
-Break into non rpg category
Castlevania is a Japanese game with rpg elements,but has nothing to do with the rpg genre.

So,good luck making such a list.

Why break it into multiple sub-genres though? That is like suggesting we should break CRPG Top 100 lists into Blobbers, Isometric Action RPGs, D&D/Pathfinder games, Walking and Dating Simulators. etc. - but in the end we claim we are able to relate, compare and order games so diverse such as Underail, Might and Magic 4, Baldurs Gate, Dragon Age Origins, Ultima 5, Elex, Disco Whatever, etc. Except when you get down to it, we can't and that also ends up being a game of people of championing certain genres over others.

I agree that making lists are a pointless exercise; that's why I made a bad one so that people could be disgusted and move on.