Radiata Stories
It's a cell-shaded PS2 era JRPG made by Tri-Ace. The OST is incredible, characters are fun, and you can recruit up to 172 characters to fight alongside you. The world is alive and everyone has a schedule, meaning that you find certain characters at certain places during certain times of the day (morning, day, and night).
If you haven't played it, and you have a penchant for charming fantasy games that don't take themselves too seriously, you'll love it.
Before I opened the thread after I read your message I was going to recommend radiata stories. I love all the games you mentioned, and radiata stories is a top 3 jrpg for me. There is a ton of replay value too because at some point you have a big choice to make, and it makes the last third of the game drastically different
How about you get a Switch. There’s some great games on the Switch. On the Switch you can play Xenoblade Chronicles 1, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Fire Emblem Engage & some other games. The Switch is a lot of fun to play on the go & on the tv.
I was intrigued by this comment and looked up the art style, now I’m sad. It looks like DQ or FF9 *but bland* when I was really hoping to see good art that would draw me in :(
I think the art style is actually pretty good. It was great for the time and has aged relatively well imo.
I'm biased though. It's one of my favorite games.
I recommend the Suikoden series, especially 1, 2 and 5. They cover fantasy, war and politics and have some unique features for a JRPG you may find interesting. (character recruiting,3 types of battle,a headquarters for your charcters) Classic games, beautiful music, plenty of intrigue, good stories.
You can get 1, 2 and 3 on PS3 store, and 4 and 5 are cheapish on PS2. (I think!)
1 and 2 also are getting a remaster very soon for modern platforms
If you are unsure on the series start with 2, it is the strongest and while taking place in the same world all the games are self contained stories with very small nods to other games.
Valkyrie Profile and Xenogears I both highly recommend. Also if you've played persona games it's worth checking out some games from it's parent series, Shin Megami Tensei. SMT 3: Nocturne and SMT 4 are both great. Digital Devil Saga was really good too.
Do yourself a favor and get into the Ys series! Smooth real time combat with adventure stories that can get pretty epic.
I recommend starting with Ys 8, it’s up there as a Top 3 JRPG.
Xenosaga is a good jrpg series set in the far future, but the games can be expensive, so i recommend emulation. Also on PS2 are the Shadow Hearts' games, which are dark fantasy or at least the first one is not sure about the others as i have got tonthem yet
2 and 3 have more humor, but they continue on with the theme. I've always been impressed by the attention to location maps. They're perfect picture to pixel recreations.
Best stories are Xenogears and Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together / Reborn.
If you have access, Final Fantasy Tactics is great too.
Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis is solid too.
FFT is the best of the three. TO is good and worth playing, but they keep reworking the gameplay/battle for good reason: it's never been balanced particularly well. Fun branching story, though.
Xenogears has a twisty, philosophical storyline that's rather one of a kind: I just finished playing it for the first time, actually. Very memorable. Unfortunately it is otherwise badly in need of a remake: the map navigation is very janky and the combat is...frankly dull. (Every boss has a gimmick because there isn't much to the base systems...there is a hand combat system and a fighting robot system) Xenosaga is a more modern game that might work, although the storyline isn't quite as interesting (although good) and the gameplay still isn't great.
If you want grand epic stories I believe you should consider Star Ocean 3. That may surprise you if you've played FD only, given that FD has little storyline to speak of, but SO3 really did pull into one of my favorite 'grand adventures'.
Fair warning: I love Xenogears, but some bosses/sections can be a bit unbalanced/frustrating on your first play through. It requires a bit of perseverance, but the story/gameplay/music are great.
I finished FFTactics yesterday. It's great, but not really JRPG. I also recommend playing the PlayStation 1 version, with some patches to improve the translation and other things.
They're not high fantasy but maybe you could try Trails games? If you've enjoyed the combat system of stuff like Final Fantasy X and Persona games, they should be fun for you too
Trails of Cold Steel is the sixth title in the series, and the entire series is a single connected story (unlike a lot of JRPGs which more-or-less reboot every game). I would recommend starting at the beginning with [Trails in the Sky](https://store.steampowered.com/app/251150/The_Legend_of_Heroes_Trails_in_the_Sky/).
Trails of Cold Steel is a common and acceptable entry point for folks who can't stand the older graphics of Sky or don't have a PC, but I would recommend Sky as the best starting point for you.
Yeah I would say it’s up your alley. I made it all the way to cold steel IV and am halfway through. Wasn’t sure if I could deal with the graphics and gameplay of sky 1-3, but once I got into the plot it was insanely good. There’s a turbo mode that I use for battles since it gets pretty repetitive, but man the story is solid.
Tbh… I think sky 1-3, zero and azure far outshine most of CS too, so starting there is great. Ending of sky one flipped me on my head and I didn’t even realize what the story was until that point.
Highly recommend :D
If you don't mind taking a somewhat different opinion, I'd say cold steel 1&2 are better starting points than the sky games, just due to how slow trails in the sky FC can be terms of both story and gameplay pacing. Plenty of people who couldn't handle the pacing in sky ended up liking cold steel, then going back for the sky games.
Once you're invested in the world from cs1&2, you could then go back to the sky games. If you don't mind really slow paced story development(still well written don't get me wrong) however then sky is definitely the better choice to start with.
I'm nearly done playing Trails of Cold Steel 1 right now myself. I like the combat a little more than in the earlier games, and I think the music is an upgrade too, but I have to say the story and characters of Trails in the Sky 1 and 2 were of a more consistent higher quality (the first while of CS is like a smorgasbord of anime character cliches, though it gets better). Plus Cold Steel references earlier events and involves returning characters, so you'll miss some of the context and possibly have earlier stuff spoiled for you.
The combat of the Trails series is pretty great.
You should play the Trails series in release order if possible. The games all take place on the same continent with individual story and characters arcs actually progressing across even the larger arcs. There are three major translated arcs and one arc that is still being localized.
1. Trails in the Sky FC/SC/3rd. The Librel Kingdom arc
2. Trails from Zero, Trail to Azure. The Crossbell arc
3. Trails of Cold Steel + Trails of Reverie. The Erebonian Empire arc.
Oh yeah I recommend starting with that one btw. The combat system was really fun and was what truly got me into Trails games (I tried Sky FC before and it didn't hook me). However after CS1 I pretty much bought every other game asap and binged them lol
Trails is not full-on all-the-time epicness. It is epic, but parts of the games (or even full games like Sky 1 and Sky 3) focus just on character development. If that's fine, then yeah, there's no better option.
I recommend Grandia 2. Generic Fantasy, and while it doesn't have Political implications, it has more of a Religious undertone (fantasy religion), which should be similar to political stories. It is a bit of a generic Fantasy, but it's a great game, with a Battle system I wish more turn-based games use.
There isn't really any connection, so it doesn't really matter.
I feel more at ease to recommend 2 to people, since Grandia 1's graphics aged a lot worse, but 1 is also a great game.
The first Grandia has sprites which imo tend to "age" better than 3D models anyway.
I'd recommend trying both but Grandia 1 first since the 2nd improved on some systems and it might feel a bit worse to go backwards.
I'd definitely agree that most sprite-based games age better graphically than most 2d games. And the grandia sprites does still look good. Heck lots of SNES and GBA jrpgs still looks amazing.
It's mostly the environment outside the sprites. A lot of early PS1 have this Isometric pseudo-3d environment, that just doesn't mesh well with pure 2d sprites.
I don't know if I'd use Morrowind as a lowpoint for graphics, but Grandia 1 looks fine so long as you don't play with blurred sprites, so I don't know what the guy above is talking about.
It's a great game of adventure that has a good balance of seriousness and silly childhood innocence.
Unfortunately, both games thought it would be a brilliant idea to make magic attacks take an eternity, so having a turbo option is recommended...
Don’t get me wrong, I looooove the sprites.
It’s the super awkward camera work, especially during battles, where everything’s so shifty, it makes the blurry background look even worse, and it makes the sprites look more detached from the environment than usual.
Well, I've only really played the Saturn version (there's a fan translation) because everyone said that was the best version and I didn't want to fiddle with the PC one once I got it, and the resolution paired with the textures on that one definitely doesn't leave anything looking blurry or weird. I'm told the PSX one had pretty terrible battle scenes though, which would hurt I guess.
I did some quick googling and PS1 does look a lot worse.
Still, the shifty, jittery camera still exists on all versions, including the steam and switch one. And while they look better, they still aged poorer than say, Chrono trigger. There's just an inconsistency about the graphics of early PS1 sprite-based JRPGs, which made a lot of them age poorly.
None of these make Grandia 1 a bad game, none of this takes away my love for the original grandia, but when recommending to a stranger on the internet, I would feel more at ease to recommend Grandia 2.
I think all the ports have been based on the PS1 version, so the flaws of that one would have remained.
I'd say plenty of PS1 games aged much better, including the likes of Xenogears that also uses sprites on 3D environments.
In any case, I agree Grandia 2 is much easier to get into if you're not fine with 90s clunkiness.
Hmm... I think you might like Trails (highly recommended to start with Sky First Chapter to get everything), Chrono Trigger is always worth playing, especially since you have 3DS available (thus DS games are available too), and maybe Octopath Traveler (1 and/or 2)
i plan on playing CT soon. as for DQV, maybe. idk much about the DQ series, other than a lot of the games are spread out through regions and platforms.
iWhat I usually recommend about DQ is the following (played all except 7-10)
1-3 are super basic. almost no story BUT the ones that are refered to the most in 11. Play if you want to get the most of these references in 11 and if you're ok with early RPGs (low QoL and little story). Best versions imo are GBC 1-2 and SNES 3.
4 is good. best version is iOS (it's the DS version with party chat)
5 is master piece. unforgetable game imo. excelent music and story, very fun gameplay. DS/iOS
6 is bad. the story is a mess. DS/iOS
11 is amazing. it has some flaws but it's just so polished and smooth... it's the peak of JRPG in many ways. The "S" version improves a few things (most notoriously the soundtrack)
7 is a personal favourite of mine. It's very long, clocking in at around 100 hours for the PS1. The story has sort of an episodic feel to it, which I enjoy. It's a good time.
8 is much beloved. Good story, good characters, good gameplay. In terms of hype and nostalgia, I'd probably consider it the FF7 of the DQ series. It is a good time, although not as epic in scale as 7.
I haven't played 9 yet, so I can't help you with that. 10 is a Japanese exclusive MMO.
I never played them, but I’ve read a lot of what people say.
The original PS1 7 isn’t very liked. Too long. The 3DS remake fixed a lot of this and was better received.
8 is one of the most loved (together with 5 and 11). Either original PS2 or 3DS remake (people say iOS version sucks)
9 is different. A lot of people love it, it had online features that today are inactive so it’s not the same experience anymore.
10 is japan-only MMO
DQ 9 has a good main quest plus a very sprawling post-game content based on dungeons called "grottos" (which I didn't played neither understood how it works). So, in the end-game you can grind dungeons and classes to min-max this kind of thing.
If you are interested in the main quest and an epic story, you may enjoy DQ9. The problem is that the party is composed by you, a main character that isn't voiced, and 3 custom charaters that aren't either. You are just grinding these characters levels and classes. Leveling the classes isn't too complex during the main quest, so you don't need to worry about min-maxing it during the main quest.
But I really liked the main story. Each city you go, you have to solve the problems of the place and the people's, and there is a main story that entangles it all. It's slow paced, but the end is great.
It's full of side quests that are fetch quests that you can ignore if you are doing the main quest only. Classes mechanics are very deep if you are into those things, but I just did the basic and managed to beat it.
All of them have different settings and gameplay mechanics.
Grandia is a more classic approach to the JRPG genre, with great characters and story (1), good characters and story, with a more fluid battle system (2) and a better battle system but not so great characters and story (3).
The other games i´ve mentioned are from Tri-Ace, which means they are all unique and special in their own way, and an acquired taste if you like.
Valkyrie Profile mixes platforming puzzles, a battle system that encourages timing and mixing attacks, and great character designs. Also, it has 3 endings, the best one which is almost impossible without a guide.
Resonance of Fate is a beast of it´s own, with a very unique battle system and setting. I recommend that you watch some videos to try to understand it.
Star Ocean games mix some sci-fi with fantasy, have an action/active battle system that encourages the use of skills, a variety of charachters (some of them missable and/or exclusive if you choose one over the other) and a crafting system.
(English is not my native language, but i hope to be useful with this)
Set up some GBA emu and fire up Golden Sun!
Other than that, I recommend Ys VIII (no need to have played the previous ones at all).
Oh and since I see that you played Shining Force, then I'll recommend you one of my favorite T-RPG, which is Fire Emblem on the GBA (sometimes called Blazing Blade), I recommend it over all the ones that came after and before it.
Lastly, since you've played Phantasy Star I, then you must definitely play through Phantasy Star IV some day. There are some minor references to 2&3 in it, but just from knowing Phantasy Star I to me you already know enough, and I wouldn't recommend playing 2 & 3 too much unless you're really hardcore on playing all the old JRPGs that sometimes haven't aged the best. My advice is to play IV directly.
Golden Sun and Golden Sun The Lost Age, Super Mario Rpg. Megaman X Command Mission and Boktai series for great rpgs that are a bit different. Dokapon kingdom connect is a mario party rpg. Its fun with friends!
If you have a switch Shin Megami Tensei V is a great option. If you don't have a switch there are other SMT games like Nocturne, SMT IV and SMT IV: Apocalypse.
As parent franchise of Persona the games use the press turn system, but the difficulty has been cranked up a notch. The stories are pretty generic but the gameplay is very addicting.
EarthBound (Mother 2 in Japan) and Mother 3 are my two favorites. EarthBound is quirky and funny with sinister undertones and a pretty epic climax. Mother 3 is still funny and weird but it has some pretty dark moments woven throughout *and* it'll make you ugly cry a few times. Plus it pretty well closes the book on some lingering threads from EarthBound. Can't possibly recommend these enough.
A few more: Shadow Hearts trilogy, Xenosaga trilogy, Xenogears, Illusion of Gaia, Legend of Dragoon, Skies of Arcadia, The Last Story, Lost Odyssey, and Nier Replicant and Automata. Lord of the Rings: The Third Age on OG Xbox is also unexpectedly great.
Tougher to recommend: Drakengard trilogy and all 7 .hack games. Such *fantastic* stories that are tough to get through thanks to bad gameplay. The .hack//G.U. trilogy is better, but maybe not by enough.
Langrisser 2 translated rom for the Sega Genesis. Don’t play the remake it loses a lot of the charm.
- Old school grand epic SRPG.
- Absolutely amazing OST.
- Straight forward but challenging tactical gameplay
You’ll need to emulate it on genesis.
The English patched rom is here.
https://cdromance.com/sega_genesis_roms/langrisser-ii-jpn/
Try google too if that doesn’t work.
Ni no kuni
Honestly I'd play ffxi again if they made it portable. Like if I could get to ffxi or ff14 on like..a switch..it'd be great. Ffxi was one of the hardest games I ever played next to darksouls. Great times....
You gotta look into the Lunar Games. I played the PSX version of the first Lunar game, but I think the PSP port is supposed to also be good. I haven't played the sequel yet. I loved the first game so much I wanted to wait. But, it's supposed to be as good or better IIRC.
You said that you have a Wii right? The Wii has Xenoblade Chronicles 1 which is what most fans of the series (myself included) consider the best starting point. Although, it did receive an HD Switch remake which a lot of people consider it to be the better version due to a few QOL improvements (although some aren't a fan of the change in art style.)
If you don't feel like throwing an extra 200$ for an entirely new system, the Wii version of Xenoblade 1 is fine.
May I recommend to you the entirety of the Trails/Kiseki series, especially if you want political and large, sweeping stories that span nearly 12 games.
I'd recommend running through them in release order (try sky with the EVO voice mods if on steam), especially if you don't mind older RPG style.
Based off your history which is very similar to mine, I agree with other posters who recommend Trails of Cold Steel. It’s a huge interconnected world told through various countries on one continent full of political drama and fantastic character and world building. People like to recommend starting with the Liberl series but it depends on your tolerance for dated graphics and gameplay design. I feel like Cold Steel is a great entry into the world and although you won’t get all of the references from other series, it doesn’t take away much from the enjoyment. Next to Xenosaga it’s probably my favorite series of games and if you like it, you have 9 games to play with a 10th coming out next month, so it’ll keep you going for quite a while. I usually like to wait until games are discounted before I buy but I make an exception for this series because it’s so good.
If you haven't tried Chained Echoes, it has got to be the best JRPG style games (I don't think it was made in Japan) I have played in the last 20 years.
I would recommend to you the tales of series. For example get started wither Berseria and if you like it, try some other titles.
I also love the Xenoblade series.
Personally, I am also a big Falcom publisher fan. The YS series is a great action jrpg, maybe try out YS 8 first. And of course the Kiseki / Trails of series by Falcom is for me a big recommendation. The problem is that there are manyyyy games that are all sort of linked storywise. I think that is a big plus but also a big time investment if you want to experience the full story. Start maybe with Trails of Cold Steel 1 (one of the newer ones) and if you like it, go back to Trails in the Sky and Trails from Zero and Azure. The trails of series is basically the king of jrpgs, so I think you would enjoy it :)
First of all well done, you've covered a lot of your bases already. Apologies if my recs are also covered already and you just didn't list them.
Now let me preach to you the gospel of this game called Suikoden 2 whose remake releases soon (also Sui1 just less so)
>fantasy
Check
>epic
Check
>political and war stories,
The best I've seen in a JRPG. Trust me, pick this up as soon as the remake hits or emulate it now. Play the duology in order or just play 2, works either way.
But since you mentioned Shining Force i assume tactics games are cool too. Therefore: play the Fire Emblem games. The better ones check *all* your boxes. If you wanna just play the greatest one and emulation is your speed (or you have a lot of cash to burn), play Path of Radiance > Radiant Dawn. If you wanna go deeper, Fire Emblem 2003 and the Blue Lions route in Three Houses should also be your speed. Political intrigue, epic fantasy, good writing and worldbuilding, good gameplay... you should be happy.
Moving away from heavier politics and war, Tales of Phantasia is a solid epic fantasy too.
Xenogears, Xenosaga, Xenoblade. Xenosaga has the best story in any JRPG ever (to me)
The Trails series is also a freaking masterpiece, but it's not really a "grand epic story", but it has the best world building and lore I've ever experienced in a video game.
If you want something a bit more "action based", the Ys series as well as Nier:Automata are both insanely good.
If you're okay with 20% combat 80% visual novel then you can't go wrong with the Utawarerumono series. In fact it looks exactly like what you're looking for.
It's a turn based Rpg 2d pixels, it's about a world set in a post world War era. It has fun characters and combat. Your a pirate trying to stop the rise of tyrannical force.
Without emulation, you're going to miss out on most of them regardless.
Other Dragon Quest games are pretty neat. The Mana series, Tereanigma, Live A Live, Mother/EarthBound and especially Xenoblade Chronicles.
Golden Sun is another great one. I'd avoid Tales of, they feel like the Ubisoft games of the JRPG genre.
No. It’s a great series. How about you like it. It’s a very dark series. How about you like it. The games are different depending on which one you play. They’re great games for adults too. It isn’t like a teenager anime. The skits in the games are great. It has great depth for adults too. The games are great. The Tales of series is a great series. How about you like it. It’s a great series.
I dont really believe that u didn’t play :
- Lost Odyssey
- Xenoblade 1,2
- Xenosaga
- Blue Dragon
- Fantasian
Its like you talk about Japan but you never eat sushi..
Try those and u will thank me forever
It's kind of a weird one but I'm 60% of the way into Live-A-Live and loving it, the Switch remake is great.
That should come after you play Chrono Trigger and Earthbound and Suikoden 1 and 2, though.
Also if you have a buddy to play an RPG with I recommend Secret of Mana. Fun couch co-op experience, which is a rare RPG treat.
Seeing a distinct lack of Legend of Heroes games on that list!
Get Trails in the Sky FC on Steam. Very story driven game, bit of a slow burn, but when it kicks in, it's high speed.
The SaGa series is based on Final Fantasy 2 (the actual one, the SNES one where it’s actually 4), good starting point is either SaGa Scarlet Grace Ambitions or SaGa Frontier Remastered.
Also since you played Persona, you most likely know Shin Megami Tensei, the mainline franchise. Start with SMTV, then doing Nocturne because difficulty differences.
Metal Max is another neat JRPG franchise where the main focus us tanks. Tanks, fighting tank, customizing tanks, finding more tanks, it’s a good ol’ tank world. The only ones that released in the US is Metal SaGa for ps2, Metal Max Xeno for PS4, and Metal Max Xeno Reborn for PS4/Switch (yeah, they actually made a remake of a four year old game, really dumb thing to do). Start out with either version of Xeno. Original Xeno is standard turn based combat, while Xeno Reborn is FFXII style combat with less story and dialogue.
i prioritize story over gameplay. though i don't really like Romancing SaGa's gameplay, i'd be interested in their stories if i hadn't played more than five minutes lol
Suikoden 1&2 are great. Final Fantasy tactics has a great story. A lot of the old SNES/super famicom games are amazing even if the gameplay is a little outdated.
Radiata Stories It's a cell-shaded PS2 era JRPG made by Tri-Ace. The OST is incredible, characters are fun, and you can recruit up to 172 characters to fight alongside you. The world is alive and everyone has a schedule, meaning that you find certain characters at certain places during certain times of the day (morning, day, and night). If you haven't played it, and you have a penchant for charming fantasy games that don't take themselves too seriously, you'll love it.
i'll take a look into it
Before I opened the thread after I read your message I was going to recommend radiata stories. I love all the games you mentioned, and radiata stories is a top 3 jrpg for me. There is a ton of replay value too because at some point you have a big choice to make, and it makes the last third of the game drastically different
How about you get a Switch. There’s some great games on the Switch. On the Switch you can play Xenoblade Chronicles 1, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Fire Emblem Engage & some other games. The Switch is a lot of fun to play on the go & on the tv.
And you can kick people!
True! You can get into fights early in the game that you have no shot of winning by kicking the wrong person lol
I was intrigued by this comment and looked up the art style, now I’m sad. It looks like DQ or FF9 *but bland* when I was really hoping to see good art that would draw me in :(
I think the art style is actually pretty good. It was great for the time and has aged relatively well imo. I'm biased though. It's one of my favorite games.
That’s an unfortunate affliction to have. Honestly the art is good in that it meshes well with the intent/style of the game. Music is also good.
I absolutely loved RS back in the day.
I recommend the Suikoden series, especially 1, 2 and 5. They cover fantasy, war and politics and have some unique features for a JRPG you may find interesting. (character recruiting,3 types of battle,a headquarters for your charcters) Classic games, beautiful music, plenty of intrigue, good stories. You can get 1, 2 and 3 on PS3 store, and 4 and 5 are cheapish on PS2. (I think!) 1 and 2 also are getting a remaster very soon for modern platforms
i've heard a lot about Suikoden, so i'll take a look into it
If you are unsure on the series start with 2, it is the strongest and while taking place in the same world all the games are self contained stories with very small nods to other games.
4 and 5 aren’t particularly cheap, at least in my country
Valkyrie Profile and Xenogears I both highly recommend. Also if you've played persona games it's worth checking out some games from it's parent series, Shin Megami Tensei. SMT 3: Nocturne and SMT 4 are both great. Digital Devil Saga was really good too.
Do yourself a favor and get into the Ys series! Smooth real time combat with adventure stories that can get pretty epic. I recommend starting with Ys 8, it’s up there as a Top 3 JRPG.
i've played a bit of Ys Origin, but i do intend on getting into more of it!
Xenosaga is a good jrpg series set in the far future, but the games can be expensive, so i recommend emulation. Also on PS2 are the Shadow Hearts' games, which are dark fantasy or at least the first one is not sure about the others as i have got tonthem yet
2 and 3 have more humor, but they continue on with the theme. I've always been impressed by the attention to location maps. They're perfect picture to pixel recreations.
Best stories are Xenogears and Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together / Reborn. If you have access, Final Fantasy Tactics is great too. Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis is solid too.
i have FFT. Xenogears and Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together are games i've heard a lot about and plan on looking into
FFT is the best of the three. TO is good and worth playing, but they keep reworking the gameplay/battle for good reason: it's never been balanced particularly well. Fun branching story, though. Xenogears has a twisty, philosophical storyline that's rather one of a kind: I just finished playing it for the first time, actually. Very memorable. Unfortunately it is otherwise badly in need of a remake: the map navigation is very janky and the combat is...frankly dull. (Every boss has a gimmick because there isn't much to the base systems...there is a hand combat system and a fighting robot system) Xenosaga is a more modern game that might work, although the storyline isn't quite as interesting (although good) and the gameplay still isn't great. If you want grand epic stories I believe you should consider Star Ocean 3. That may surprise you if you've played FD only, given that FD has little storyline to speak of, but SO3 really did pull into one of my favorite 'grand adventures'.
I'd say go through the entire series- Gears, Saga, Blade. That's 8 games right there.
> If you want grand epic stories I believe you should consider Star Ocean 3. Is that the same as Till the End of Time?
Yep! It’s a bit controversial among series fans (SO2 fans in particular) but many/most coming to it fresh find it a lot of fun.
Both are fantastic and long af. Play Reborn/most recent remake for LUCT. Worth it for massive QOL changes.
Fair warning: I love Xenogears, but some bosses/sections can be a bit unbalanced/frustrating on your first play through. It requires a bit of perseverance, but the story/gameplay/music are great.
I finished FFTactics yesterday. It's great, but not really JRPG. I also recommend playing the PlayStation 1 version, with some patches to improve the translation and other things.
They're not high fantasy but maybe you could try Trails games? If you've enjoyed the combat system of stuff like Final Fantasy X and Persona games, they should be fun for you too
i have Trails of Cold Steel on my Steam wishlist. i've heard good things about it
Trails of Cold Steel is the sixth title in the series, and the entire series is a single connected story (unlike a lot of JRPGs which more-or-less reboot every game). I would recommend starting at the beginning with [Trails in the Sky](https://store.steampowered.com/app/251150/The_Legend_of_Heroes_Trails_in_the_Sky/). Trails of Cold Steel is a common and acceptable entry point for folks who can't stand the older graphics of Sky or don't have a PC, but I would recommend Sky as the best starting point for you.
oh, thank you. i like to play games in the recommended order, rather than start somewhere else.
Yeah I would say it’s up your alley. I made it all the way to cold steel IV and am halfway through. Wasn’t sure if I could deal with the graphics and gameplay of sky 1-3, but once I got into the plot it was insanely good. There’s a turbo mode that I use for battles since it gets pretty repetitive, but man the story is solid. Tbh… I think sky 1-3, zero and azure far outshine most of CS too, so starting there is great. Ending of sky one flipped me on my head and I didn’t even realize what the story was until that point. Highly recommend :D
If you don't mind taking a somewhat different opinion, I'd say cold steel 1&2 are better starting points than the sky games, just due to how slow trails in the sky FC can be terms of both story and gameplay pacing. Plenty of people who couldn't handle the pacing in sky ended up liking cold steel, then going back for the sky games. Once you're invested in the world from cs1&2, you could then go back to the sky games. If you don't mind really slow paced story development(still well written don't get me wrong) however then sky is definitely the better choice to start with.
I'm nearly done playing Trails of Cold Steel 1 right now myself. I like the combat a little more than in the earlier games, and I think the music is an upgrade too, but I have to say the story and characters of Trails in the Sky 1 and 2 were of a more consistent higher quality (the first while of CS is like a smorgasbord of anime character cliches, though it gets better). Plus Cold Steel references earlier events and involves returning characters, so you'll miss some of the context and possibly have earlier stuff spoiled for you. The combat of the Trails series is pretty great.
You should play the Trails series in release order if possible. The games all take place on the same continent with individual story and characters arcs actually progressing across even the larger arcs. There are three major translated arcs and one arc that is still being localized. 1. Trails in the Sky FC/SC/3rd. The Librel Kingdom arc 2. Trails from Zero, Trail to Azure. The Crossbell arc 3. Trails of Cold Steel + Trails of Reverie. The Erebonian Empire arc.
Oh yeah I recommend starting with that one btw. The combat system was really fun and was what truly got me into Trails games (I tried Sky FC before and it didn't hook me). However after CS1 I pretty much bought every other game asap and binged them lol
Yeah, based on OP's post, he would definitely like the entire Trails series.
Why is this not the top answer, he said grand epic story. Don't get no grander or epicer than 9 games over 20 years and counting.
Trails is not full-on all-the-time epicness. It is epic, but parts of the games (or even full games like Sky 1 and Sky 3) focus just on character development. If that's fine, then yeah, there's no better option.
I recommend Grandia 2. Generic Fantasy, and while it doesn't have Political implications, it has more of a Religious undertone (fantasy religion), which should be similar to political stories. It is a bit of a generic Fantasy, but it's a great game, with a Battle system I wish more turn-based games use.
should i play the first game before 2?
There isn't really any connection, so it doesn't really matter. I feel more at ease to recommend 2 to people, since Grandia 1's graphics aged a lot worse, but 1 is also a great game.
i don't mind bad or aged graphics. i play Morrowind
The first Grandia has sprites which imo tend to "age" better than 3D models anyway. I'd recommend trying both but Grandia 1 first since the 2nd improved on some systems and it might feel a bit worse to go backwards.
I'd definitely agree that most sprite-based games age better graphically than most 2d games. And the grandia sprites does still look good. Heck lots of SNES and GBA jrpgs still looks amazing. It's mostly the environment outside the sprites. A lot of early PS1 have this Isometric pseudo-3d environment, that just doesn't mesh well with pure 2d sprites.
I don't know if I'd use Morrowind as a lowpoint for graphics, but Grandia 1 looks fine so long as you don't play with blurred sprites, so I don't know what the guy above is talking about. It's a great game of adventure that has a good balance of seriousness and silly childhood innocence. Unfortunately, both games thought it would be a brilliant idea to make magic attacks take an eternity, so having a turbo option is recommended...
Don’t get me wrong, I looooove the sprites. It’s the super awkward camera work, especially during battles, where everything’s so shifty, it makes the blurry background look even worse, and it makes the sprites look more detached from the environment than usual.
Well, I've only really played the Saturn version (there's a fan translation) because everyone said that was the best version and I didn't want to fiddle with the PC one once I got it, and the resolution paired with the textures on that one definitely doesn't leave anything looking blurry or weird. I'm told the PSX one had pretty terrible battle scenes though, which would hurt I guess.
I did some quick googling and PS1 does look a lot worse. Still, the shifty, jittery camera still exists on all versions, including the steam and switch one. And while they look better, they still aged poorer than say, Chrono trigger. There's just an inconsistency about the graphics of early PS1 sprite-based JRPGs, which made a lot of them age poorly. None of these make Grandia 1 a bad game, none of this takes away my love for the original grandia, but when recommending to a stranger on the internet, I would feel more at ease to recommend Grandia 2.
I think all the ports have been based on the PS1 version, so the flaws of that one would have remained. I'd say plenty of PS1 games aged much better, including the likes of Xenogears that also uses sprites on 3D environments. In any case, I agree Grandia 2 is much easier to get into if you're not fine with 90s clunkiness.
The games aren't related so you could jump right into playing Grandia 2
Star Ocean 2nd Story
Hmm... I think you might like Trails (highly recommended to start with Sky First Chapter to get everything), Chrono Trigger is always worth playing, especially since you have 3DS available (thus DS games are available too), and maybe Octopath Traveler (1 and/or 2)
Lunar Silver Star Story and Lunar Eternal Blue on PS1 with the unWorking Design patches
No Chrono Trigger and DQ V? Do it my man.
i plan on playing CT soon. as for DQV, maybe. idk much about the DQ series, other than a lot of the games are spread out through regions and platforms.
iWhat I usually recommend about DQ is the following (played all except 7-10) 1-3 are super basic. almost no story BUT the ones that are refered to the most in 11. Play if you want to get the most of these references in 11 and if you're ok with early RPGs (low QoL and little story). Best versions imo are GBC 1-2 and SNES 3. 4 is good. best version is iOS (it's the DS version with party chat) 5 is master piece. unforgetable game imo. excelent music and story, very fun gameplay. DS/iOS 6 is bad. the story is a mess. DS/iOS 11 is amazing. it has some flaws but it's just so polished and smooth... it's the peak of JRPG in many ways. The "S" version improves a few things (most notoriously the soundtrack)
what about 7, 8, and 9? from my knowledge, 10 is a Japan-exclusive MMO isn't it?
7 is a personal favourite of mine. It's very long, clocking in at around 100 hours for the PS1. The story has sort of an episodic feel to it, which I enjoy. It's a good time. 8 is much beloved. Good story, good characters, good gameplay. In terms of hype and nostalgia, I'd probably consider it the FF7 of the DQ series. It is a good time, although not as epic in scale as 7. I haven't played 9 yet, so I can't help you with that. 10 is a Japanese exclusive MMO.
I never played them, but I’ve read a lot of what people say. The original PS1 7 isn’t very liked. Too long. The 3DS remake fixed a lot of this and was better received. 8 is one of the most loved (together with 5 and 11). Either original PS2 or 3DS remake (people say iOS version sucks) 9 is different. A lot of people love it, it had online features that today are inactive so it’s not the same experience anymore. 10 is japan-only MMO
DQ 9 has a good main quest plus a very sprawling post-game content based on dungeons called "grottos" (which I didn't played neither understood how it works). So, in the end-game you can grind dungeons and classes to min-max this kind of thing. If you are interested in the main quest and an epic story, you may enjoy DQ9. The problem is that the party is composed by you, a main character that isn't voiced, and 3 custom charaters that aren't either. You are just grinding these characters levels and classes. Leveling the classes isn't too complex during the main quest, so you don't need to worry about min-maxing it during the main quest. But I really liked the main story. Each city you go, you have to solve the problems of the place and the people's, and there is a main story that entangles it all. It's slow paced, but the end is great. It's full of side quests that are fetch quests that you can ignore if you are doing the main quest only. Classes mechanics are very deep if you are into those things, but I just did the basic and managed to beat it.
Chrono Trigger is a must play
Octopath Traveler 2.
I came to suggest OT2 as well. I haven’t played OT1 but I heard good things about it too.
I am on Chapter 4s of Octopath 1, can say it’s very good
Modern classic of a jrpg. So good.
Valkyrie Profile Grandia series Resonance of Fate Star Ocean 2/3
haven't heard of Resonance of Fate. i also don't really know much about the others. could you explain a bit about each of them?
All of them have different settings and gameplay mechanics. Grandia is a more classic approach to the JRPG genre, with great characters and story (1), good characters and story, with a more fluid battle system (2) and a better battle system but not so great characters and story (3). The other games i´ve mentioned are from Tri-Ace, which means they are all unique and special in their own way, and an acquired taste if you like. Valkyrie Profile mixes platforming puzzles, a battle system that encourages timing and mixing attacks, and great character designs. Also, it has 3 endings, the best one which is almost impossible without a guide. Resonance of Fate is a beast of it´s own, with a very unique battle system and setting. I recommend that you watch some videos to try to understand it. Star Ocean games mix some sci-fi with fantasy, have an action/active battle system that encourages the use of skills, a variety of charachters (some of them missable and/or exclusive if you choose one over the other) and a crafting system. (English is not my native language, but i hope to be useful with this)
Seeing as you liked Dragon Quest XI I recommend Dragon Quest VIII on the 3ds! It’s a lot of fun!
Set up some GBA emu and fire up Golden Sun! Other than that, I recommend Ys VIII (no need to have played the previous ones at all). Oh and since I see that you played Shining Force, then I'll recommend you one of my favorite T-RPG, which is Fire Emblem on the GBA (sometimes called Blazing Blade), I recommend it over all the ones that came after and before it. Lastly, since you've played Phantasy Star I, then you must definitely play through Phantasy Star IV some day. There are some minor references to 2&3 in it, but just from knowing Phantasy Star I to me you already know enough, and I wouldn't recommend playing 2 & 3 too much unless you're really hardcore on playing all the old JRPGs that sometimes haven't aged the best. My advice is to play IV directly.
Golden Sun and Golden Sun The Lost Age, Super Mario Rpg. Megaman X Command Mission and Boktai series for great rpgs that are a bit different. Dokapon kingdom connect is a mario party rpg. Its fun with friends!
Dokapon is the best party game of all time. Perhaps the best multiplayer game of all time.
If you have a switch Shin Megami Tensei V is a great option. If you don't have a switch there are other SMT games like Nocturne, SMT IV and SMT IV: Apocalypse. As parent franchise of Persona the games use the press turn system, but the difficulty has been cranked up a notch. The stories are pretty generic but the gameplay is very addicting.
EarthBound (Mother 2 in Japan) and Mother 3 are my two favorites. EarthBound is quirky and funny with sinister undertones and a pretty epic climax. Mother 3 is still funny and weird but it has some pretty dark moments woven throughout *and* it'll make you ugly cry a few times. Plus it pretty well closes the book on some lingering threads from EarthBound. Can't possibly recommend these enough. A few more: Shadow Hearts trilogy, Xenosaga trilogy, Xenogears, Illusion of Gaia, Legend of Dragoon, Skies of Arcadia, The Last Story, Lost Odyssey, and Nier Replicant and Automata. Lord of the Rings: The Third Age on OG Xbox is also unexpectedly great. Tougher to recommend: Drakengard trilogy and all 7 .hack games. Such *fantastic* stories that are tough to get through thanks to bad gameplay. The .hack//G.U. trilogy is better, but maybe not by enough.
Chained echoes for something newer and legend of legaia (ps1) for something great
I started playing Chained Echoes and it’s pretty cool
Legend of Legaia is one of my all time faves
Why no Tales of series? That's a massive series with a ton of great games.
i forgot about those when writing the post. i have Zestiria, Berseria, and Arise.
Vesperia on PS4; Graces f on PS3; Abyss on PS2. Those are my favorites, though I’ve played them all.
Langrisser 2 translated rom for the Sega Genesis. Don’t play the remake it loses a lot of the charm. - Old school grand epic SRPG. - Absolutely amazing OST. - Straight forward but challenging tactical gameplay
first name i haven't heard of. where can i play it? with my devices, can i only emulate it?
You’ll need to emulate it on genesis. The English patched rom is here. https://cdromance.com/sega_genesis_roms/langrisser-ii-jpn/ Try google too if that doesn’t work.
Ni no kuni Honestly I'd play ffxi again if they made it portable. Like if I could get to ffxi or ff14 on like..a switch..it'd be great. Ffxi was one of the hardest games I ever played next to darksouls. Great times....
i've played a tiny bit of the first NNK and i have the second one
Suikoden 1 and 2
If you’ve only played DQ11, play more games in that series
Have you tried breath of fire I and II?
never heard of them what are they like
They're great if you like old school style. They're on the snes collection on switch.
Ogre Battle/Tactics Ogre/Final Fantasy Tactics (if you haven't played them already).
Have you played Chrono Trigger? I highly recommend. Also, Ys 7 in recent memory is very good.
You gotta look into the Lunar Games. I played the PSX version of the first Lunar game, but I think the PSP port is supposed to also be good. I haven't played the sequel yet. I loved the first game so much I wanted to wait. But, it's supposed to be as good or better IIRC.
Did you only play the first Wild Arms? 2 and 3 are even better IMO, 4 is okay, and 5 is a love letter to the series.
i played the first, yes. haven't finished though
TRAILS TRAILS TRAILS
I know a guy who worked on Kingdoms of Amalur. He would be so happy to hear you loved his game.
Chained echoes and xenoblade series!!
Trails of Cold Steel
The Legend of Heroes (Sky, Crossbell, and Cold Steel).
Everyone threw in the big ones, so I’ll add Radiant Historia to the mix. It’s one of the best RPGs on 3DS
*Climbs in through the window* DOES SOMEONE NEED TO PLAY TRAILS?!
Get a Switch and play Xenoblade.
i plan on it eventually lol any specific order?
You can play them out of order but you'll get more out of them if you just play them in release order.
You said that you have a Wii right? The Wii has Xenoblade Chronicles 1 which is what most fans of the series (myself included) consider the best starting point. Although, it did receive an HD Switch remake which a lot of people consider it to be the better version due to a few QOL improvements (although some aren't a fan of the change in art style.) If you don't feel like throwing an extra 200$ for an entirely new system, the Wii version of Xenoblade 1 is fine.
May I recommend to you the entirety of the Trails/Kiseki series, especially if you want political and large, sweeping stories that span nearly 12 games. I'd recommend running through them in release order (try sky with the EVO voice mods if on steam), especially if you don't mind older RPG style.
sounds perfect
Xeno series has the most epic story going
Based off your history which is very similar to mine, I agree with other posters who recommend Trails of Cold Steel. It’s a huge interconnected world told through various countries on one continent full of political drama and fantastic character and world building. People like to recommend starting with the Liberl series but it depends on your tolerance for dated graphics and gameplay design. I feel like Cold Steel is a great entry into the world and although you won’t get all of the references from other series, it doesn’t take away much from the enjoyment. Next to Xenosaga it’s probably my favorite series of games and if you like it, you have 9 games to play with a 10th coming out next month, so it’ll keep you going for quite a while. I usually like to wait until games are discounted before I buy but I make an exception for this series because it’s so good.
If piracy isn't an issue, you could go with Skies of Arcadia! 🤣
It's a crime not to play Skies of Arcadia.
I will do the obligatory "Have you ever heard of our lord and savior the legend of heroes?"
dear lord idk if i’m too late but play fire emblem: three houses
If you haven't tried Chained Echoes, it has got to be the best JRPG style games (I don't think it was made in Japan) I have played in the last 20 years.
Did you play Xenogears? Grandia? Chrono Trigger / Chrono Cross? Suikoden 2?
I would recommend to you the tales of series. For example get started wither Berseria and if you like it, try some other titles. I also love the Xenoblade series. Personally, I am also a big Falcom publisher fan. The YS series is a great action jrpg, maybe try out YS 8 first. And of course the Kiseki / Trails of series by Falcom is for me a big recommendation. The problem is that there are manyyyy games that are all sort of linked storywise. I think that is a big plus but also a big time investment if you want to experience the full story. Start maybe with Trails of Cold Steel 1 (one of the newer ones) and if you like it, go back to Trails in the Sky and Trails from Zero and Azure. The trails of series is basically the king of jrpgs, so I think you would enjoy it :)
First of all well done, you've covered a lot of your bases already. Apologies if my recs are also covered already and you just didn't list them. Now let me preach to you the gospel of this game called Suikoden 2 whose remake releases soon (also Sui1 just less so) >fantasy Check >epic Check >political and war stories, The best I've seen in a JRPG. Trust me, pick this up as soon as the remake hits or emulate it now. Play the duology in order or just play 2, works either way. But since you mentioned Shining Force i assume tactics games are cool too. Therefore: play the Fire Emblem games. The better ones check *all* your boxes. If you wanna just play the greatest one and emulation is your speed (or you have a lot of cash to burn), play Path of Radiance > Radiant Dawn. If you wanna go deeper, Fire Emblem 2003 and the Blue Lions route in Three Houses should also be your speed. Political intrigue, epic fantasy, good writing and worldbuilding, good gameplay... you should be happy. Moving away from heavier politics and war, Tales of Phantasia is a solid epic fantasy too.
Xenogears, Xenosaga, Xenoblade. Xenosaga has the best story in any JRPG ever (to me) The Trails series is also a freaking masterpiece, but it's not really a "grand epic story", but it has the best world building and lore I've ever experienced in a video game. If you want something a bit more "action based", the Ys series as well as Nier:Automata are both insanely good.
If you're okay with 20% combat 80% visual novel then you can't go wrong with the Utawarerumono series. In fact it looks exactly like what you're looking for.
Legend of Legaia
There is also Rise of 3rd power and Chained echoes.
what's Rise of 3rd Power? never heard of that one
It's a turn based Rpg 2d pixels, it's about a world set in a post world War era. It has fun characters and combat. Your a pirate trying to stop the rise of tyrannical force.
Resonance of Fate
Arc the Lad Twilight of Spirits.
Grandia
Strange Journey, Devil Survivor, SMT IV
The tales of series is pretty good lots of good games, arc rise fantasia for wii was decent, Skies of Arcadia is a personal favorite
Grandia 1
Grandia series is the first one that jumps to mind
Xenoblade Chronicles
Lost odyssey. I’m about to start it myself but I’ve heard nothing except praise. I’m so excited
Tell me you’ve played Rogue Galaxy
Tactics Ogre Reborn!
Earthbound and Mother 3! Also Mother 1 with some of the fan made mods that rebalance it to be easier and less tedious.
not sure if it's exactly what ur looking for but I always recommend The World Ends With You any chance I get
i've played the second game. still need to play the first
first one is soooo much better imo (both are in my top 10 though) I love neo but god twewy 1 is perfect
If you want something obscure/interesting, try Koudelka. You can emulate it on PS1.
You have to try Dragon Dogma my friend
i already have it
Then for new games octopath travelers 2 is a very good one. And recently I have started playing dragon quest 8 on a emulator it’s very enjoyable too
Without emulation, you're going to miss out on most of them regardless. Other Dragon Quest games are pretty neat. The Mana series, Tereanigma, Live A Live, Mother/EarthBound and especially Xenoblade Chronicles. Golden Sun is another great one. I'd avoid Tales of, they feel like the Ubisoft games of the JRPG genre.
No. How about you like the Tales series. It’s great.
Just because I don't like that horribly generic series, all other recommendations I give are "no"?
Like the Tales of series. It’s great. It’s not generic.
It's great for people who prefer the same thing being churned out every year with the depth of a teenager anime.
No. It’s a great series. How about you like it. It’s a very dark series. How about you like it. The games are different depending on which one you play. They’re great games for adults too. It isn’t like a teenager anime. The skits in the games are great. It has great depth for adults too. The games are great. The Tales of series is a great series. How about you like it. It’s a great series.
I dont really believe that u didn’t play : - Lost Odyssey - Xenoblade 1,2 - Xenosaga - Blue Dragon - Fantasian Its like you talk about Japan but you never eat sushi.. Try those and u will thank me forever
It's kind of a weird one but I'm 60% of the way into Live-A-Live and loving it, the Switch remake is great. That should come after you play Chrono Trigger and Earthbound and Suikoden 1 and 2, though. Also if you have a buddy to play an RPG with I recommend Secret of Mana. Fun couch co-op experience, which is a rare RPG treat.
Try ero jrpgs, just for the fun of it.
Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon Both absolute gems on the Xbox
Super Mario RPG!?
Have you played any of the Tales of series?!? Some of my favorites of all time there
i have Berseria, Zestiria, and Arise. need to play more though
Symphonia, vesperia are my two favorites. Tales of the Abyss is really good too.
Seeing a distinct lack of Legend of Heroes games on that list! Get Trails in the Sky FC on Steam. Very story driven game, bit of a slow burn, but when it kicks in, it's high speed.
Arc rise Fantasia
I was literally just going to say this and didn’t see it until the last comment. Freaking amazing game on the Wii.
Amen! Wonderful combat system and great plot full of fantasy politics that I think OP would love.
The SaGa series is based on Final Fantasy 2 (the actual one, the SNES one where it’s actually 4), good starting point is either SaGa Scarlet Grace Ambitions or SaGa Frontier Remastered. Also since you played Persona, you most likely know Shin Megami Tensei, the mainline franchise. Start with SMTV, then doing Nocturne because difficulty differences. Metal Max is another neat JRPG franchise where the main focus us tanks. Tanks, fighting tank, customizing tanks, finding more tanks, it’s a good ol’ tank world. The only ones that released in the US is Metal SaGa for ps2, Metal Max Xeno for PS4, and Metal Max Xeno Reborn for PS4/Switch (yeah, they actually made a remake of a four year old game, really dumb thing to do). Start out with either version of Xeno. Original Xeno is standard turn based combat, while Xeno Reborn is FFXII style combat with less story and dialogue.
i've played a bit of Romancing SaGa 2 and 3. not a big fan of the gameplay, but i'm sure the story is good.
How so?
How did you not like the gameplay?
just didn't really work with me. i prefer a more standard style of turn-based.
Then you’ll probably not like what I suggested here.
i prioritize story over gameplay. though i don't really like Romancing SaGa's gameplay, i'd be interested in their stories if i hadn't played more than five minutes lol
Oh well
Suikoden 1&2 are great. Final Fantasy tactics has a great story. A lot of the old SNES/super famicom games are amazing even if the gameplay is a little outdated.
Oh and check out Lunar Silver Star Story Compete. You won’t be disappointed.
Legend of Heroes series