Recommend me a good JRPG that ISN'T Final Fantasy

thejboy88

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Aug 29, 2010
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Title says it all. Whenever I play JRPG'S, they've largely been from the Final Fantasy series, and while I love those games (upto 12 that is), I would like to try and see what others are out there that I might like.

So, I'd like you to recommend me a JRPG from outside the FF series that you personally like I might want to play.

P.S. I've already played Ni No Kuni and Breath of Fire IV, so don't bother mentioning those.
 

remnant_phoenix

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Apr 4, 2011
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Chrono Trigger. It's the quintessential JRPG.

Vlado said:
Xenogears. It's the best RPG, period.
I don't agree that it's the best. It does have one of the best stories in any JRPG, but the gameplay and overall design is problematic. Also, the case of "oops, there went the budget!" is REALLY obvious when the last third of the story is delivered through long text-dumps. I still highly recommend it though.
 

Vlado

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Feb 21, 2015
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Well, I never said it was perfect. :p But aside from the elephant in the room (the text dumps delivering the story in some of the final stages of the game instead of actually playing through it) that you mentioned, the only other problem I saw was the occasional high frequency of random battles in some dungeons.
 

Fox12

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Jun 6, 2013
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Persona 3 and 4. You can find them on PSN for about ten bucks. These games single handedly revived my love of the genre.

The first half of the game is a social sim where you interact with other characters during your school day. You build up social links that help you in battle, and learn more about the characters. At night you have the dungeon crawling bit, where you party advance deeper into the dungeon. Here you get personas, powerful entires from mythology. They have unique skills, and you can fuse them to make new personas. It's similar to Pokemon, I guess. The plot advances based on a calendar system, so you have to plan how you want to spend your time. It's really innovative and unique. 3 had one of my favorite ending of all time, and 4 had one of my favorite casts ever. This is the easily the best series to be released in a long time. Here's the trailer for 5.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPqSkzNNPIg

Also, anything else by Atlus. They've always marched to the beat of their own drum. They were doing their own thing while other companies had gone stagnant. Shin Megami Tensai Nocturne is really good, but damn is it hard sometimes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-zNF3Ef6PE

Edit:

I forgot to mention Fire Emblem Awakening. It's a wonderful turn based strategy game with a fantastic story and characters. The best title on the 3ds, period.
 

Sleepy Sol

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Feb 15, 2011
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Obligatory Atlus mention is already out of the way.

Why not try out a Tales game? Tales of Symphonia, Tales of the Abyss, and Tales of Vesperia are all quite excellent.

Vesperia would probably be the best to me, though. You can get it on Xbox 360. PS3 if you import from Japan, which has a few extras, but I can't remember which since I never took that route. Also the whole needing to be able to read Japanese to understand anything issue.
 

DOOM GUY

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Jul 3, 2010
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Hyperdimension Neptunia (except for the first game on PS3, go for the remake on Vita or PC instead)

It's quirky and upbeat, tons of fun, and has very entertaining characters and situations. It's not exactly an epic, story heavy game, but it's just so fun.
 

renegade7

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Feb 9, 2011
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Xenoblade Chronicles or Golden Sun. And I've wanted to play Xenosaga for ages too, I've heard that's good.
 

EscapeGoat_v1legacy

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Chrono Trigger and Persona 3 and 4 have already been mentioned but it's well-worth recommending all three another time. I'd specifically recommend the DS version of Chrono Trigger, which has the added cutscenes from the PlayStation version as well as extra content, mainly in the form of extra endings. And while getting a hold of a PSP version of a game might not seem that great at first, the PSP-exclusive Persona 3 Portable is easily the greatest version of that game.

Aside from that, I'd recommend:

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King - this is my favourite RPG of all time. It has a massive world, gorgeous anime graphics with characters and monsters designed by Akira Toriyama, a fantastic story, one of the best soundtracks and absolutely perfect classic turn-based combat.

Breath of Death VII and Cthulhu Saves the World - you can buy both of these together for a tiny amount of cash on Steam and they're brilliant. Old-school pixel graphics, solid turn-based combat and a cracking self-aware sense of humour.

If you have a 3DS, Bravely Default is a very good purchase. It's basically a Final Fantasy game in all but name but no less worth a play, if only for one of the best attempts at a job/class system since Final Fantasy V.

Finally, you could give the GBA/DS Golden Sun games a shot. While I'm not a fan of the soundtrack, basically everything else about it works especially well, particularly how the class and magic systems change by equipping the collectible Djinni.
 

Fractral

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Shin Megami Tensei is always a good bet. They're dark and pretty difficult, with an addicive pokemon-esque mechanic based around collecting demons and fusing them to make better demons. Nocturne and IV are the main series games which are both worth a play. Devil Survivor is an SRPG. Persona 3 and 4 are widely liked, and are a mixture of a Dating Sim and a Dungeon Crawler, and unlike anything else out there. Make sure you check out whichever you choose to play before you play it; they vary quite widely.

Pokemon is another obvious choice, though you've probably got your own opinion on this one by now. I'd reccomend Black/White and Black 2/White 2 as good places to start, as well as X/Y.

The 'Tales of' series are fun and seem to have good stories generally. They're more action-rpg's though, where you control a single party member. I've only played Tales of Hearts and Tales of the Abyss, but I'd reccomend both, especially Abyss. There's a whole load of them spread across a ton of different platforms, so chances are you'll be able to play one.

A final mention I'm going to give is for Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, which is avaliable on Steam. While I haven't finished it (about 20 hours in) it's a light-hearted SRPG that follows a pair of adventurers as they travel around their home country doing odd jobs for people and uncovering a conspiracy (because there's always a conspiracy). It's notable largely for the crazy level of detail in the world- every character has dialogue that changes after every major event and a lot of plot points can be predicted if you look around- before a heist, for example, you can see the shady characters casing the joint. Good fun, although its slow pacing means it may not be for everyone.
 

bartholen_v1legacy

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Jan 24, 2009
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Eh, I'll only stress how important Chrono Trigger is. Play it for the soundtrack if the others didn't convince you yet. Plus there's 13 different endings in the DS version and many lengthy sidequests to find.
 

Gatlank

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Aug 26, 2014
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Any Atlus game available. I think almost any other relevant title was already mentioned.
 

WhiteFangofWhoa

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Jan 11, 2008
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Any SMT, I hear Nocturne is the best one
Secret of Mana
Wild Arms 3
Breath of Fire 3 (enjoyed it more than 4, but it can be difficult early on when it's just Ryu and Nina)
Any Mario & Luigi game that isn't Partners in Time. Currently following Lucahjin's Blind LP of Superstar Saga that gives me new appreciation for just how much stuff that game did well
 

Auron225

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Tales of Graces is the only Tales game I played but I very much enjoyed it. It has one of my favourite cast of characters in any game.
 

Johnny Novgorod

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EscapeGoat said:
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King - this is my favourite RPG of all time. It has a massive world, gorgeous anime graphics with characters and monsters designed by Akira Toriyama, a fantastic story, one of the best soundtracks and absolutely perfect classic turn-based combat.
Second Dragon Quest VIII as the best JRPG I've ever played. It's one of those games that looks, sounds, feels and plays beautifully. And it has a relatively simple and upbeat story, which is a relief from all the emo bullshit that seems to plague every other Japanese RPG.
 

Vlado

Independent Game Journalist
Feb 21, 2015
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To recommend also a couple of lower-profile ones I played recently - Terranigma and Vagrant Story. Both action RPGs, with real fun gameplay.
 

hybridial

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Feb 24, 2015
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Consider the following:

Shadow Hearts
Shadow Hearts 2
Suikoden II
Suikoden V
Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
Digital Devil Saga 1&2

I never ever liked Final Fantasy, but I liked these a lot, take that for what you will.
 

BytByte

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Nov 26, 2009
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A lot of the bread and butter has been mentioned, but I would add Radiata Stories. It's a one off made by Tri-Ace of Star Ocean fame that has a small but absolutely gorgeous and meticulous world. The story is common, but the characters are fleshed out super well. Like Suikoden, you can recruit a bunch of people to help you fight, and the soundtrack works perfectly. It doesn't get much attention, but it should.