What JRPGs have the most compelling or believable story, motives or characterisation?

[Maxie]

fact - Earthbound or any RPG set in a real world-resembling secondary world is a social commentary at its heart, and as such cannot be terribly compelling

 

[Nutmeg]

I didn't like Earthbound's setting after a few hours play, so will probably give Mother 3 a pass, despite knowing it has a good reputation.

It's actually vastly, vastly different from Earthbound, in plot especially, in feel a great deal, and in setting a fair bit too. If you are superficial it will make you (I mean you personally) very angry (it even made me quite angry a few times), but if you are not superficial, you will enjoy it. It has a somewhat sophisticated take on the interaction between society and evil and IMO the evil is not very grey or anything like that, in fact if anything the quirky aesthetic is used to really drive things home, oft too far (e.g. the baddie brown shirts wear literal pig costumes).

It's also incredibly well paced and makes the most of the JRPG gameplay format.

Anyway that's just my recommendation.

 

[Nutmeg]

TBH dunno if you've already played it but Radiant Historia (the original...) is absolutely fascinating story-wise, and not a cringe subversive story either

I can second this. Never finished it but had trouble putting it down. Hate the art style tho

 

[Maxie]

TBH dunno if you've already played it but Radiant Historia (the original...) is absolutely fascinating story-wise, and not a cringe subversive story either

I can second this. Never finished it but had trouble putting it down. Hate the art style tho

really? aww that's a shame I sincerely think it's one of the prettiest Atlus games

 

[Nutmeg]

TBH dunno if you've already played it but Radiant Historia (the original...) is absolutely fascinating story-wise, and not a cringe subversive story either

I can second this. Never finished it but had trouble putting it down. Hate the art style tho

really? aww that's a shame I sincerely think it's one of the prettiest Atlus games

Looking back on it I shouldn't say style, the style is OK. It's rather the character designs. It's just personal preference and not a big deal. I repeat that I think the game is quite good (for a JRPG, ofc.)

 

[Sreggin Etah I]

almost all of them have believable motivations, since most JRPG plot is about saving the world/civilization, so themselves in the end, i can't think of a better reason. It's true that if somewhat that happens in real life, not all people would be willing to personally risk their asses, but a few good of them or even the majority would.

Just think of all those foreigners willing to fight in the Ukraine war, they leave the comfort in their homes to put their lives in danger for free for another country.

JRPGs stories get repetitive because their gameplay design is more conservative, 70% of them copy paste Wizardry, and since most JRPGs needs to have a lot of battles against different enemies(usually 'monsters')with reasonable pacing, it's hard to design a innovative story(for the genre) while keeping the same gameplay tropes. It's the same reason why almost all of them are generic fantasy, and even the Sci Fi ones are fantasy in practice. This is not a problem only found in JRPGs or even RPGs, however WRPGs are a bit more loose on their gameplay design and pacing, something like Starflight or Star Control plays nothing like Wizardry and Deus Ex plays nothing like Planescape, so they are able to do more different things with the story and setting.

Generic RPG gameplay loop: Town > Shop > Tavern/Quest > Dungeon > Town.. just fits better with fantasy worlds with lots of 'monsters' roaming around.

Also JRPG writing is usually very bad, but i'm not sure if this is just not a language problem, maybe in Japanese it's fine and the translators do a dry accurate translation instead of adapting the writing for the new language, like what book translators often do. I think Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics PSP, Tactics Ogre PSP and FFXII are some games that did adapt the writing instead of doing a dry translation.

There is nothing in maturity that says you can't have "good vs. evil". For 6000 years good vs evil was considered mature storytelling, and 120 years of the "modern novel" ain't gonna change that metaphysical standpoint.

There is no such a thing as 'good' or 'evil', it's a human construct specific to each individual, society and era. Just take animals, they don't have such concepts, the closest thing would be: 'reproduction good and dying bad', but that because survival and reproduction it's the only objective goal of life. They act on their instinct, they don't need to use metaphysical moral concepts to justifity their actions like humans do.

It's just I prefer something a bit more like a romantic sci-fi/fantasy canvas, along the lines of Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, or say Suikoden and Trails in the Sky.

I don't know wtf you meant by that, but try Strategy RPGs, they're usually about nation or resistence group fighting against an opressive force or rival nation, instead of a group of inexperienced teenagers adventurers on a quest to defeat a evil god.

I recommend:

Ogre Battle SNES
Tactics Ogre PSP or remaster
Fire Emblem from 3 to 7
Vandal Hearths 1 and 2, the second game have a very political Game of Thronesk story.

And since you like Star Wars you might like Final Fantasy 12, that game is almost a reskin of Star Wars.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

There is no such a thing as 'good' or 'evil', it's a human construct specific to each individual, society and era. Just take animals, they don't have such concepts, the closest thing would be: 'reproduction good and dying bad', but that because survival and reproduction it's the only objective goal of life. They act on their instinct, they don't need to use metaphysical moral concepts to justifity their actions like humans do.

Our interaction with nature is a reflection of natural laws.

Good = everything that flourishes life and habitable order. Evil = everything that decays it. That's what the ancients believed. "Rta" / "Asha" / "Ma'at"

Back on topic however, saving the world is the highest order of motivation, but we are really talking about every interaction between now and then. If events are mere happenstance, it erodes the credibility of any action you take. If people have powers with no etiology, or teleology, like suddenly the boss can levitate for no reason, when it could have been useful earlier, it erodes verisimilitude. Likewise if a character is written in a way that does not show their credible standpoint, they are not going to ever seem like more than a faux character.

 

[lightbane]

fact - Earthbound or any RPG set in a real world-resembling secondary world is a social commentary at its heart, and as such cannot be terribly compelling

What kind of social commentary Earthbound makes? Bureaucracy sucks?
Earthbound (and Mother 1, the first game) is pretty much your party fighting ultimate evil taking the form of alien invaders. It's quite zany of course, but it works (the gameplay is a bit archaic compared to Mother 3 though). Mother 3 is more personal and at times depressing, but it's not grimderp at all, and the game's implications can run quite deep if you explore thoroughly (shame M3 is a remnant of a bigger game that will never be done, the backstory of Mother 3 is also interesting on its own).
Then we have the LISA games. I'm not sure if you would consider them JRPGs as they have plenty of choices and consequences. They're postapocalyptic and grim, but the story and the characters' motivation are believable, even if they're monstrous, as pretty much half of the cast has severe issues and the world is over to boot. No world-saving here, the stakes are much more personal. There are also some fangames here and there with their own take, but I haven't played any yet.

 

[Bigg Boss]

Super Mario RPG. Deep Cut.

 

[Sreggin Etah I]

Back on topic however, saving the world is the highest order of motivation, but we are really talking about every interaction between now and then. If events are mere happenstance, it erodes the credibility of any action you take. If people have powers with no etiology, or teleology, like suddenly the boss can levitate for no reason, when it could have been useful earlier, it erodes verisimilitude. Likewise if a character is written in a way that does not show their credible standpoint, they are not going to ever seem like more than a faux character.

I don't know, any fantasy setting is not 'credible', because magic and unrealistic things exist there, even in fantasy novels with hard magic system, they only explain how magic works not why. Even in real life there are things that can not be explained yet like why everything exists, there is the Big Bang but what was before that? and before? and before?... so scientists can explain how things came to exist but not why.

Analising "every interaction between now and then" in fiction to see if they're 'logical' or 'credible' seems incredibly overthinking and retarded to me, like a lot of actions and interactions in real makes no sense as well, some people, even normal sane people might take insane actions that makes no sense for a variety of reasons that we don't know, just hidden variables that can not be detected. Things doe not have to make sense to be credible in fiction, and for your example:

like suddenly the boss can levitate for no reason, when it could have been useful earlier, it erodes verisimilitude

If the game gave no explanations, there could be a lot of reasons or hidden variables on why he did not when he could: maybe it was his ego to fight you without it, he forgotten, it uses a lot of 'energy', he did not need to use it until now.. the reasons given might not be 'credible' for you personally, but like i said a lot of things people do in real life, the motivations behind it, are not 'credible' to me as well, but they still true.

Credibility in fiction is subjetive, for me, i think talking Deathclaws in Fallout 2 is retarded, but a lot of people have no problem with it or even like it, to each their own.

 

[S.torch]

It's just credible and grounded.

Sounds like you still have some nihilistic brainrot to get rid of, friend.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

It's just credible and grounded.

Sounds like you still have some nihilistic brainrot to get rid of, friend.

To be honest it sounds like a lot of people just automatically think of the modern redefinition of words, instead of their real meaning. Grounded to a modern audience is a marketing term employed by entertainment companies to mean their soap operatics. Grounded has an original meaning akin to verisimilitude, authenticity, realism, spiritual awareness and unpretentiousness.

Needless to say I never once advocated for this, but people assumed this is what I meant, because we have fallen so far.

 

[Absinthe]

What's wrong with Chrono Trigger (nobody's saying it's got better characters or story then Planescape here)?

OP asked for a well-developed, believable tale with solid characterization and compelling narrative. Chrono Trigger may be fun, but it's the wrong recommendation for the topic. His description alone should've been enough to tell you he isn't looking for basic JRPG narratives, and the fact that he derided FF games in the second sentence of his post made it even more obvious.

I know on other forums it's a common pastime for people to basically ignore the details of OP's request and recommend to OP the exact stuff he said he isn't looking for just because you think it's good, but we look down on that sort of behavior here.

So that's why you got the reddit rating. Because that's exactly the kind of shit reply you'd expect to see on reddit.

 

[Sreggin Etah I]

original meaning akin to verisimilitude, authenticity, realism, spiritual awareness and unpretentiousness.

Why are you looking for that in JRPGs? or even in video games in general? lol. Anyway, Front Mission and other mechas JRPGs is about as 'realistic' as you can get in a JRPG, since it's just soldiers in machines fighting each other.

unpretentiousness

you sound pretentious as fuck though.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

you sound pretentious as fuck though.

Imagine caring about what people 'sound' like instead of substance.

 

[Derringer]

I like Grandia 1 and Persona 2 a lot, BoF2 and Phantasy Star 4 are also alright.

 

[Nikanuur]

What's wrong with Chrono Trigger (nobody's saying it's got better characters or story then Planescape here)?

OP asked for a well-developed, believable tale with solid characterization and compelling narrative. Chrono Trigger may be fun, but it's the wrong recommendation for the topic. His description alone should've been enough to tell you he isn't looking for basic JRPG narratives, and the fact that he derided FF games in the second sentence of his post made it even more obvious.

I know on other forums it's a common pastime for people to basically ignore the details of OP's request and recommend to OP the exact stuff he said he isn't looking for just because you think it's good, but we look down on that sort of behavior here.

So that's why you got the reddit rating. Because that's exactly the kind of shit reply you'd expect to see on reddit.

That's just bullshit and it's not eben in the description.
Anyway, you are not responsible for it, you just gave an explanation of the bullshit. Thank you for taking the time to compose the answer.
I will leave you to it then, however, not sorry to have bothered those with zero tolerance for stating something about a nice game as unbeknownst to the fourth-subgenre-of-followers-of-the-cult-of-the-fifth-stereotypically-hated-subgenre.
Madre mio, this web page sometimes, really.

 

[430am]

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. It has a believable and grounded in war story without any anime chuuni shit. Solid gameplay too. It's probably my favorite tactical JRPG. There's a modern version of it on Steam called Tactics Ogre Reborn.

Images

 

[S.torch]

Grounded has an original meaning akin to verisimilitude, authenticity, realism, spiritual awareness and unpretentiousness.

Grounded has nothing to do with the creditability or verisimilitude of a story. Verisimilitude is entirely defined for the adhesion of the story to its own rules, themes, atmosphere and setting. Grounded is close to realism, and both are defined by a utilitarian and nihilistic vision.

I am surprised that a fellow fan of Chivalric Romances does not know something like this, given that the Chivalric and Romantic genre in general always had ideals radically opposed to those of realism. It is completely contradictory to designate oneself a supporter of one and at the same time defend the other. Many of the stories you have proscribed here are authentic precisely because of their honest and straightforward premise.

As far as recommendations go, I think the best recommendation you've been given so far is Trials in the Skies. Personally I feel it's one of the best JRPG sagas, if not the best, and it perfectly constitutes what you expect from a JRPG when you start playing one. I suggest you start that one first before the rest.

 

[Ashigara]

I understand where you are coming from but surely grounded has more connotations than 'profane' or 'worldly'?

You could say that Tolkien is grounded but not profane, because his world is systematic and historical. Magic is minimal, comes from divinity, has a well explained origin. Yet the world itself is filled with light, beauty, the sacred.

 

[Shadenuat]

Zero > skies

Grandia and lunar are just nice fairy tales

As a premise i have a strong like to atelier ayesha and totori. Both are about searching lost relatives interestingly enough. Rorona is about saving your shop from going out of business. Firis is about reaching city of baldursgate and taking exams to become alchemist so its like road story. Its not nier planescape or chivalrious politicking but it is as grounded as it gets (fallout1 timers included).

 

[Falksi]

Thanks for the replies everyone, I am getting some nice ideas.

So far then the list is something like:

• Phantasy Star IV
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 1
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 2
• The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky 3
• Grandia 1
• Grandia 2
• Valkyria Chronicles 1
• Valkyria Chronicles 4

I think for the sake of the internet I wanna clear up what I consider true "maturity" to be. It ain't neccecarily 'dark'. It ain't neccecarily 'grey'. It's just credible and grounded. There is nothing in maturity that says you can't have "good vs. evil". For 6000 years good vs evil was considered mature storytelling, and 120 years of the "modern novel" ain't gonna change that metaphysical standpoint.

I'm a Traditionalist, of course I want good vs evil in my JRPG. It's the only reason I even bother to enjoy fantasy. True fantasy is metaphysical by nature. Likewise moral ambiguity is not neccecarily maturity. Post-modern "intellectual masturbation" about character development ain't it either. I'm glad many people here understand shonen exhuberance is no less mature than cycical cringewank.

I'll chuck in another which has simpler writing and isn't as grounded as most on that list, but which is still worth looking at, and that's Shining Force 2.

It is again "friends kill God", but again the way events unfold are somewhat grounded. The start of the game especially has you leave your homeland and setting up elsewhere, then adventuring out for the initial purpose of trading. Some of the dialogue does stray into the immature zone, but a lot of it is pretty cool.

 

[Arthandas]

There's no such thing like a good mature story in a jrpg. All of them are filled with tropes, clichés and are written by manchildren. What do you expect from a genre that features children/teens as protagonists in 90% of games?

 

[Machocruz]

The answer is always Vagrant Story

The game takes place in the kingdom of Valendia and the ruined city of Leá Monde. The story centers on Ashley Riot, an elite agent known as a Riskbreaker, who must travel to Leá Monde to investigate the link between a cult leader and a senior Valendian Parliament member, Duke Bardorba. In the prologue, Ashley is blamed for murdering the duke, and the game discloses the events that happen one week before the murder.

It's the most no-nonsense jRPG that I personally played, from people behind Tactics Ogre and FF Tactics. Narrative and writing are along similar lines. Main character is a stoic, adult male with a job to do.

 

[Arthandas]

The answer is always Vagrant Story

The game takes place in the kingdom of Valendia and the ruined city of Leá Monde. The story centers on Ashley Riot, an elite agent known as a Riskbreaker, who must travel to Leá Monde to investigate the link between a cult leader and a senior Valendian Parliament member, Duke Bardorba. In the prologue, Ashley is blamed for murdering the duke, and the game discloses the events that happen one week before the murder.

It's the most no-nonsense jRPG that I personally played, from people behind Tactics Ogre and FF Tactics. Narrative and writing are along similar lines. Main character is a stoic, adult male with a job to do.

The protag has a girl's name and runs around with naked ass cheeks, very mature, much characterization.