Incline The RPG Codex Lists Their Top 10 Favorite JRPGs!

[Clockwork Knight]

You said one point for every horse isn't it? Persona 3 FES has also some personas that look like horses.

P2 EP also had a...werehorse enemy you could grind for a useful item. I think it was a heals-all-ailments potion.

Also:

http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Pixie

They may also steal horses during the night and return them by the morning with tangled manes.

BTW why nobody mentioned .hack?

I've wanted to try that series for a while, but it's an action rpg, so maybe that's why no one mentioned it.

 

[Cassidy]

From 1 to 3: Good
From 4 to 7: Passable
From 8 to 10: "Good for what it is".

1. Anachronox
2. Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden
3. Uncharted Waters 2: New Horizons
4. Septerra Core
5. Pokemon Red
6. Pokemon Blue
7. Pokemon Nigger
8. Terranigma
9. Chrono Trigger
10. Final Fantasy VI

 

[ghostdog]

Goddammit. I Rage when people call Anachronox a JRPG. Anachronox is a fucking awesome western adventure game with fucking awesome western humor that simply borrows some not-so-awesome combat mechanics that are mostly used by JRPGs. It has nothing else to do with Japan and there's no fucking way Japanese could write a game with Anachronox's kind of humor, they just can't do this stuff. You might as well call Quest For Glory a JRPG godguckingdammit.

 

[SCO]

If that's the way it rolls:

1. QFG
2. Bloodnet
3. Torment
4. Vampire Bloodlines
5. Anachronox
6. Betrayal at Krondor
7. Ultima 8
8. Super hero league of hoboken
9. Princess Maker 2
10. Arcanum


Kawaii!!!

 

[Andyman Messiah]

SCO's list is probably the most accurate one yet. I haven't really decided.

 

[Hobo Elf]

BTW why nobody mentioned .hack?

I've wanted to try that series for a while, but it's an action rpg, so maybe that's why no one mentioned it.

the .hack series is fucking terrible. I've got them all right here and I cannot conjure any kind of will to play them. I tried the first one but it was lame. Crap combat and lame copy paste corridor dungeons.

 

[anus_pounder]

What about the anime series?

 

[Andyman Messiah]

No more bullies. Play now.

 

[DraQ]

Top1. Anachronox

 

[kris]

1. Chrono Trigger. Only JRPG I remember liking in some way.

2. Final fantasy 7. At least I finished it back then.

Thats all.

 

[WetWorks]

If Anachronox doesnt count then none. They all blow.

If Anachronox counts.....

1: Anachronox

 

[DwarvenFood]

1. Anachronox
2. Planescape: Torment
3. Legend of Zelda (1)

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

1. Charles Barkley Shut Up And Jam Gaiden

No contest.

2. Obligatory Planescape: Torment kingcomrade option

Baatezu or Tanari, which is better and why?

discuss!






Qwinn


Now you know how the Blood War started.

3. Paper Mario

Nice writing, more adventure-esque elements, simple and fun enough.

4. Super Mario RPG

Same as above, though to a lesser degree.

5. Drakengard

The gameplay is pretty weird, being a strange mashup of Dynasty Warriors with the option to jump on a dragon and roast everything interspersed with actiony dungeon crawling and dragonback shooting sequences.

The real reason it gets on the list is because it is seriously fucked up, and in a way that's downright impressive. Spoiler, two of the party members are a pedophile priest and a woman who went mad and ate her two children.

6. Quest 64

I hate myself for having played this.

Actually, in all seriousness, there was some pretty nice core design, and it's a lot better than most menu-driven grindfests.

7. Earthbound

It's quirky and funny, but the gameplay is pretty stale. At least it isn't a total grindfest.

8. Skies of Arcadia Legends

Don't ask why I played this. It's standard fare, but with pirates...in the air. The ship combat was kinda cool though.

9. Shin Megami Tensei series

Such a cool concept...but so much of the "guide or grind" ultimatum to deliver challenge. That, and now the series is apparently into dating sims instead of demonic Pokeman-catchin'. Weird.

10. Pokeman

Yes I tried these n an emulator, yes fuck you.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

1. Paper Mario the Thousand-Year Door
Funny, witty and looks nice, having jump and various things you can do outside of battle makes it more interesting to play than the average JRPG.

2. Guardian Heroes
It has stats, level-ups, crappy conversations where the various characters use the word "Sword" probably a thousand times ("This is such a great sword! This sword was used in the age of sword."), multiple paths and awesome C&C such as attack the evil guy, three other choices, OR attack the princess you were supposed to save. The basic gameplay works like a side-scrolling beat 'em up game with special moves.

3. Paper Mario
Like TTYD. Also good N64 game that also looks good, what the shit.

4. Pokemon
Grindtastic as shit, but doesn't bother me that much. The plot isn't about saving the world, you just kinda defeat a criminal gang while you're working on your more important goal, becoming the best. I'm not saying the plot is good but I don't dig that emo shit and saving the world from something either. Trying to become a champion at something, now that's a positive attitude. The gameplay is more entertaining than whatever else you'd do at school. The later Pokemon games don't have any reason to still have random encounters and didn't improve upon the formula significantly so they won't appear on this list.

5. Chrono Trigger
No random encounters, no emo characters save for maybe Magus, kick-ass music and it's pretty well paced unlike almost all other JRPG's I have played.

6. Front Mission 3
It's a Japanese game with lots of text boxes, leveling up and combat, so it's a JRPG.

7. Front Mission
Ditto. In some ways it's better than 3, like the plot, graphics, amount of participants in battle, but the upgrading of your mechs is more tiresome and there are only a few battle skills, also the battles practically revolve around missiles only.

8. Super Mario RPG
Funny, better written than your average Bioware game for sure, the graphics and music were awesome at the time.

9. Final Fantasy 7
The music and backrounds are cool, the writing is pretty shit, messing around with materia was fun and there's a sense of adventure. And it spawned the messianic equine Let's Play.

10. Secret of Mana
You could play it with a friend and get into violent arguments over which direction should we go.

 

[turn_based_fanboy]

1. Valkyria Chronicles
2. Persona 3 (is it counted together with FES or Portable ?)
3. Persona 4
5. Valkyria Chronicles 2
4. Jeanne d'arc
5. Suikoden
6. Final Fantasy X
7. Valkiria Profile 2
8. Eternal Sonata
9. Star Ocean 4
10. Xenosaga

 

[Xor]

I liked Mario RPG more than Paper Mario.


But that's probably because it was the first game I paid for with my own money, and I played the hell out of it.

 

[kingcomrade]

I always try to like Suikoden 2, and I start playing it again, then I realize why I didn't like it. As cool as having 108 different characters to play with is, the actual battles are boring. You do the exact same thing every time and random battles are every 5 steps.

Has nobody here played the Phantasy Stars?

I don't really have a list. A bunch of squaresoft games, a couple phantasy star games, and I've never really played any others.

 

[circ]

I have. Shitty compared to the NES and SNES counterparts. Shining Force series was great though on Genesis.

 

[commie]

JRPG's are shit. Don't think I even have played enough to make a list of 5 even.


Oh wait, there is one great one, as mentioned by my buddy Skyway: ANACHRONOX!!!!

 

[Admiral jimbob]

I liked Mario RPG more than Paper Mario.


But that's probably because it was the first game I paid for with my own money, and I played the hell out of it.

I didn't like SMRPG much - it felt like a pretty generic Square SNES RPG with a decent battle system and a Mario coating on top (the plot, the locations, even most of the party; there's nothing "Mario" about most of the game). Loved Paper Mario 1, though, and the Mario and Luigi games for the handhelds are a blast.

Also, I am too lazy to do a list.

 

[Xor]

It was fresh to me because at the time I hadn't played any other square RPGs. Hell, I didn't even play Chrono Trigger until around 2000. Nostalgia obviously has a lot to do with it. I thought the battle system in Paper Mario was too simple, though.

 

[Catalina]

I have gaming ADHD, especially when it comes to RPG's, so there are a lot of JRPG's I've played but not finished, and thus I don't think I'm competent to judge them. Except for Final Fantasy Tactics, which is so awesome I don't care if I never finished.

1. Earthbound
2. Chrono Trigger
3. Persona 4
4. Mother 3
5. Persona 3 Portable
6. Final Fantasy Tactics
7. Suikoden III
8. Suikoden II
9. Final Fantasy X-2 (no I'm not trolling, and I'm not ashamed, either.)
9. Shenmue (I guess that counts as at least a hybrid rpg)

 

[funkadelik]

Monster Hunter (Tri) - I know this wouldn't technically be defined as an RPG, but god damn, it has so much shit you can do in order to advance your player and there is no leveling. It's story is much better than DA:O or ME 1 or 2, basically you need to hunt different monsters to save a village(not the world) and then you create shit out of their body parts.

Secret of Mana

Final Fantasy 8 - What a good love story, eh?

Dragon Warrior 1

Zelda: A Link to the Past - Again, more RPGish than DA:O or ME so I will count it.

Demon's Souls

Chrono Trigger

Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - A stylish, but extremely easy, Jap RPG

Shadow of The Colossus - Awesome, streamlined storyline, straight to killing giant monsters in awesome ways.

The Mystical Ninja - I can't think of many JAP Rpgs that have storylines I can tolerate, you know, the ones where all the girls act like they're 5-years-old and the boys act 12, with big, giant, stupid fucking bug-eyes and horrible fashion senses.

 

[malko_sundervere]

Final Fantasy 8 - What a good love story, eh?

No.

 

[deuxhero]

4. Pokemon
Grindtastic as shit, but doesn't bother me that much. The plot isn't about saving the world, you just kinda defeat a criminal gang while you're working on your more important goal, becoming the best. I'm not saying the plot is good but I don't dig that emo shit and saving the world from something either. Trying to become a champion at something, now that's a positive attitude. The gameplay is more entertaining than whatever else you'd do at school. The later Pokemon games don't have any reason to still have random encounters and didn't improve upon the formula significantly so they won't appear on this list.

Wut?

I just replayed 3 different Pokemon games (XD, LeafGreen and Sapphire) in the last 6 months (not enough money for new games and I was bored as shit), plus did one of the new ones (SoulSilver). Even though I split up my XP between 4 Pokemon (5 in XD) in all of them, I only ever had to grind in XD (and that was for the money because I was doing a self imposed challenge to get everything in a premier ball, I never needed to do it for level reasons) and at the very end in SoulSilver (The final boss has about 20 levels on the next strongest foe, and given who the final boss is, I find it entirely fair). As long as you don't purposefully avoid trainer battles, you are completely fine. Black and White even overhaul the EXP formula to make it so you are overleveled most of the time regardless of what you do.