Incline Codex Top 55 JRPG List - Results

[Jaedar]

The full data:

Google Sheets

.ODS

Do the "min x" columns refer to total votes cast for it, or something else? There's 2 other rance games that could have been top 5, but too few people voted for them. Probably because very few people have played Rance X since it isn't in english yet.
Probably for the best anyway, it's more fun with a diverse top 5

 

[Gastrick]

Do the "min x" columns refer to total votes cast for it, or something else?

Min x means that it's the average, but only counting games played by x people. So, they refer to the total votes cast.

 

[Paper]

? Rance 6 is a blobber, which is a very western rpg genre.

i dont view jrpg as a genre the way some do but there is a clear blobber tendency among japanese rpgs. even in the majority of pre-modern jrpgs that don't use a first person perspective the party still acts as a blob and combat is more or less lifted from wizardry.

i think if you wanna argue that jrpg is a genre, it works for earlier dq games (with clones) to say they need to have some kind of ultima-style open world thing going too, but pretty quickly (snes) they all become very linear. by that definition there aren't any more jrpgs. so basically i think the definition of jrpg, should it be a genre, is that its a blobber with anime.

 

[TwoEdge]

#2 is Terranigma

I've never even heard of this. What is it?

Like really, the fuck is this game?

Third game in the underappreciated Quintet trilogy (Soul Blazer>Illusion of Gaia>Terranigma). It's tangentially related to Actraiser, but you play as the servant, not the deity. The game itself is more of an action RPG with world-rebuilding elements.

 

[Viata]

i think the definition of jrpg, should it be a genre, is that its a blobber with shitty Japanese pornographic cartoons

That is why some of us say JRPG are all clone of Wizardry.

 

[Duraframe300]

#2 is Terranigma

I've never even heard of this. What is it?

Like really, the fuck is this game?

Third game in the underappreciated Quintet trilogy (Soul Blazer>Illusion of Gaia>Terranigma). It's tangentially related to Actraiser, but you play as the servant, not the deity. The game itself is more of an action RPG with world-rebuilding elements.

Technically it's a quadrilogy as Granstream Saga on the PS1 was a spiritual successor to them.

(Yes, I know people argue about it as the developers are named different, but A: Shade was just a development team within Quintet, they weren't actually a different company B: It was named as such by the developers themselves.)

 

[TwoEdge]

@Gastrick can you share how all of the FFs ranked? I am of the opinion that the FFs are good despite being popular, so I am interested in what scores they got.

FFV and FFVI were quite close.

X is low is product of unfortunate contrarianism posting, but I am very pleased by A2 at ~3,6.
It is a really good game, one of the best srpgs gameplay wise.

I don't know, man. On one hand, it probably has the best combat in the mainline series and also a fun progression system, but Square doubled up on the trend of overdesigning the story and characters (Seymour, really?), blitzball is a drag, and the requirements for some feats are a real slog (the lightning dodging comes to mind). I feel like it deserves the score. A2 on the other hand I couldn't agree more, an excellent game overall.

 

[TwoEdge]

#2 is Terranigma

I've never even heard of this. What is it?

Like really, the fuck is this game?

Third game in the underappreciated Quintet trilogy (Soul Blazer>Illusion of Gaia>Terranigma). It's tangentially related to Actraiser, but you play as the servant, not the deity. The game itself is more of an action RPG with world-rebuilding elements.

Technically it's a quadrilogy as Granstream Saga on the PS1 was a spiritual successor to them.

(Yes, I know people argue about it as the developers are named different, but A: Shade was just a development team within Quintet, they weren't actually a different company B: It was named as such by the developers themselves.)

Never knew that, but now that you mention it I can see the similarities. Oh man, It's been so long I now have to hunt it down and replay it to check. Here, take all my brofists.

 

[EtcEtcEtc]

People who voted Terrangima to #2 JRPG of all time are retarded.

Like full stop.

 

[Jasede]

In my head, action-adventures aren't RPGs. Action-adventure is what German gaming magazines called games like Secret of Mana, Terranigma, Zelda, etc.

 

[EtcEtcEtc]

It's not that action rpg's can't be a true RPG it's that it's a mediocre game.

Terranigma being #2 OF ALL TIME is like putting together a list of top 50 movies of all time and #2 being Baseketball.

Top 50 books of all time and #2 is Stephen King's IT.

Top 50 CRPG's and #2 is Drakensang River of Time.

What the hell puts Terranigma at 2? Its sub par combat?

Anyone who put that shit at a 5 did so because of the fucking goat. Pure nostalgia, that game does not hold up.

 

[Jasede]

Man I wouldn't put it at 2 either but I feel like you're too harsh on it. Cool story, unique concept, good art, great music, great ending...

What do you dislike about it?

It's probably only due to the unusual methodology of this poll that it's so high up but it's not like it's garbage. You sound like you really don't like it. What did you not like about it? It's a clear improvement over Illusion of Time/Gaia.

 

[Falksi]

@Gastrick can you share how all of the FFs ranked? I am of the opinion that the FFs are good despite being popular, so I am interested in what scores they got.

FFV and FFVI were quite close.

X is low is product of unfortunate contrarianism posting, but I am very pleased by A2 at ~3,6.
It is a really good game, one of the best srpgs gameplay wise.

I don't know, man. On one hand, it probably has the best combat in the mainline series and also a fun progression system, but Square doubled up on the trend of overdesigning the story and characters (Seymour, really?), blitzball is a drag, and the requirements for some feats are a real slog (the lightning dodging comes to mind). I feel like it deserves the score. A2 on the other hand I couldn't agree more, an excellent game overall.

FFX was my fave Final Fantasy for a long time. Played it through 3 times in the space of as many years and loved it. I even think Tidus is top lad lol.

But I very recently replayed it and had to quit half way through. Still has some great aspects and I'll always think fondly of it, but I agree with your criticisms, and the lack of any real exploratory dungeon design for huge chunks of the game drags it down a ton.

On reflection it originally came to me at just the right time and place, and it was easy to overlook a lot of it's flaws.

 

[Viata]

OF ALL TIME

More like "among the jrpgs that some codex users played".

 

[EtcEtcEtc]

I don't hate the game, it's good enough. I also don't hate baseketball, it, or drakensang.

But it's not a better game then the vast majority of the games underneath it.

I bet money y'all haven't played it since you were kids. I'd also bet money that the majority of people responding to this poll will turn out to be Europeans - and you drastically overrate a nostalgia pick because it was the one big SNES JRPG 'get' Europe got.

Anyways, I appreciate the work put in on this, and would love to see this methodology applied to CRPG's - although next time get the full list from people before starting voting.

 

[Falksi]

Regards Terranigma, I always have a bit more affection for games which are linked to feel part of the same timeline or world as others in the series, even if it's tenuously like with the quintet games.

One of the reasons why I could never take to Final Fantasy as a series as much is because each pre-X story feels massively detached from the others, despite familiar names & faces. When I saw how neatly Phantasy Star 4 tied up the previous 4 games I was expecting something like that from Final Fantasy. In fact the way that 3's plot unravels to reveal it's links with 2 is nothing short of genius. I always thought something like that was on the way from Final Fantasy, yet it took forever to get it with X-2, and that wasn't good.

 

[TwoEdge]

I never thought about it like this. By linking each iteration in this way, they not only manage to merge the perception of quality a game gets without the weight of continuity a sequel would need to have, but they also create this gotcha moment, where we can puzzle the connection and feel rewarded. Nice food for thought there.

 

[Grimlorn]

List is pretty terrible. Looks like barely anyone voted a lot of the top games. Around 10 people each. Even in recent popular ARPGs like Dark Souls, Dragon's Dogma, etc, there were only about 40-50 votes.

Pokemon games aren't RPGs. Strategy games like the Romance of the Three Kingdom series aren't RPGs.

Is Shining Force 3 superior to 2? I've only played 2 and missed 3 but never heard 3 praised as well as 2. It's kind of hard to tell because only 7 people voted for SF3 while 20 voted for 2. There just aren't enough votes. You should have at least 20-30 people voting for games, and at least 50 would be ideal. But I don't think enough of the Codex knew about this poll.

DQIII being rated so high is bizarre, and FF1 lower than DQ1 is some sort of sick joke. In FFI you could customize your party, customize what spells your casters got, once you got the airship you could explore the world, and do things in whatever order you wanted. In the DQ games you could not do these things and everything was linear. DQI is a small game where you have 1 character attacking 1 mob every battle and have to grind most of the game to level 19-21 to beat it. When even with my limited RPG knowledge, I can see games that do everything superior to others being rated lower than something much simpler, you know something is wrong.

I enjoyed Vagrant Story as a kid, but I don't think it should even be top 50. The mystery and story is interesting, but the combat is pretty bad, and the progression system that grinds to a halt and requires hundreds of hours grinding to complement a NG+ mechanic thrown in is abysmal.

 

[Viata]

Pokemon games aren't RPGs

 

[Grimlorn]

Pokemon games aren't RPGs

I'm not wrong. Just because the pokemon level up doesn't make it a RPG. It's like the most brain dead turn based strategy game with you just needing to have the right type to 2 or 3 shot a pokemon. Shouldn't even be considered for best game in whatever genre it's in.

And on the subject of Action games with RPG elements. If you're going to do that with new games like Souls games or Dragon's Dogma, you also have to do it with games like Secret of Mana and Evermore which are also completely dependent on player skill when it comes to movement and attacking. Hell even in Souls games and Dragon's Dogma, you can customize the way your stats grow and how you build your character. It's not just a level up with static stat gains like in those older games.

 

[flyingjohn]

I'm not wrong

Press x to doubt.

Just because the pokemon level up doesn't make it a RPG

Over world exploration,Pokemon customization and level ups make it a Jrpg. And if you refute that then by your own criteria there is no such thing as a jrpg.

It's like the most brain dead

Play a romhack,that is where the difficulty comes from since the trainers are gimped on purpose by the devs.
Or just do a nuzlocke run on anything that isn't post gen 6.

turn based strategy game

There is not a single strategy game element in Pokemon minus the conquest spin off.

with you just needing to have the right type to 2 or 3 shot a pokemon

Types? You only need a couple of moves and speed,types are completely irrelevant unless you choose the worst stat Pokemon.
You have items that let you survive with 1 hp and then you just kill the enemy.

Shouldn't even be considered for best game in whatever genre it's in

It is called monster trainer.And yes,it is worse then dq monsters,but the romhacks make it into the top of the genre.

like Secret of Mana and Evermore

Or tales or Star Ocean,etc.. There is plenty of Japanese action games with rpg elements.

 

[flyingjohn]

Strategy games like the Romance of the Three Kingdom series aren't RPGs

Agree,and this goes foe Sengoku Rance as well.

Is Shining Force 3 superior to 2

Yes.It is a harder, bigger,better game then 2 by far.

DQIII being rated so high is bizarre

Not really. DQ3 came after 2 which was a mixed bag for the fans it was a return to the traditional norm so people liked it.

and FF1 lower than DQ1 is some sort of sick joke

This i agree. Dq1 is nice nostalgia but as a game it is just bare bones.Some people like that but,that isn't good for a genre that is already light on rpg elements.Having no party just butchers the gameplay.

 

[Grauken]

I'm not wrong

Press x to doubt.

Just because the pokemon level up doesn't make it a RPG

Over world exploration,Pokemon customization and level ups make it a Jrpg. And if you refute that then by your own criteria there is no such thing as a jrpg.

It's like the most brain dead

Play a romhack,that is where the difficulty comes from since the trainers are gimped on purpose by the devs.
Or just do a nuzlocke run on anything that isn't post gen 6.

turn based strategy game

There is not a single strategy game element in Pokemon minus the conquest spin off.

with you just needing to have the right type to 2 or 3 shot a pokemon

Types? You only need a couple of moves and speed,types are completely irrelevant unless you choose the worst stat Pokemon.
You have items that let you survive with 1 hp and then you just kill the enemy.

Shouldn't even be considered for best game in whatever genre it's in

It is called monster trainer.And yes,it is worse then dq monsters,but the romhacks make it into the top of the genre.

Found the Pokemon fan

That said, Pokemon games are technically RPGs, the same way that FIFA games or Ubisoft open world games are technically RPGs

 

[Alex]

You guys name a porn game for top jrpg and then wonder why you get a word filter for anime...

 

[Roguey]

If Pokemon isn't a jrpg, srpgs aren't jrpgs either (similar set-up only you're fighting with individual units in one-on-one fights instead of groups) and that's silly.