Dragon Quest XI is one of my all time favorite games. Highly recommended. It’s like playing an anime, and the party members are like friends. Beautiful game.
Turn-based JRPGs will never die. They are my bread and butter when I enjoy games. Whether it be Persona, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and others, they are my comfort food. My go to genre of choice when I want to spend hours upon hours. Excellent list Alex. Very well done.
@@organiccotton2731 if you love FF12, you should check out Unicorn Overlord if you haven't already! It's using a combat system that's almost identical to 12's gambit system
I don't understand how JRPG fans can complain about Square. They have been killing it with the quality of their output for like the last ten years. Props for putting together this video, it's a needed voice amongst the sea of boo-hooers.
@@jembozaba4864 yea I agree! I absolutely thought KH3 was an amazing game in its own right. FF15 was a great one too, in that it marked the return of Square Enix being so less focused on western development and committing to quality and new ideas.
@@SuperPowerPainter People complain that “It’s not Final Fantasy”. EVERY Final Fantasy experiments with its gameplay in major ways. It has done since the first 1
One of my favorite things is, after the success of games like Bravely Default is that they really seem to be letting creators just kind of make something they want to make.
Got Tactics Ogre last January... still playing it even now. I ALMOST gave up on it. After my first 20 hours I felt so frustrated and wanted to give up. It felt impossible. That's when I made a pretty big decision: I restarted the game entirely. This time, I went in prepared, following guides pertaining to the Law route. And once I got Ravness in my party, it's like a door unlocked and everything changed for the better. Now, 200+ hours later, I've been through Palace of the Dead multiple times. I have Warren and Lancelot. I have the Ogre Blade, Armor and Helm, and I can unequivocally say... this really is one of the greatest SRPGs of all time. Glad I didn't give up on it.
Glad you stuck with it! It's definitely the srpg that I think bounces people off despite being my favorite game ever. It's so complex and deep that it does take that extra effort to get into it. Hope you enjoy all the CODA missions (post-game stuff)
This almost happened to me, I played through the entire game without any guides and without even bothering with the Warren report as I thought it was just background text. So I went into the last boss with a very generic team, missing all of the overpowered weapons and classes, and thought oh my gosh, I'm going to need to start all over again. Fortunately, I tried out a couple of different configurations and intentionally knee capped myself to make the fight easier, and it actually worked.
DQ 11 is at the top of my list of best games of all time. Right up there with Chrono Trigger. Octopath 2 is phenomenal and I am anxiously awaiting the DQ remakes. I would love to see them do an HD remake of DQ 1-8. FF did the pixel remasters and DQ is just as iconic. Sea Of Stars proved that a new retro styled turn based RPG is a hit with the game market. Hopefully we see others following the same path and the old names wake up and realize they are missing out.
I'm usually not a fan of action combat in jrpgs. I've been playing jrpgs since Dragon Warrior 1 and Final Fantasy 1. Turn based is my jam. Unfortunately it seems like what was once my favorite video game franchise is not doing that anymore. Thankfully for me, Octopath has filled that void and then some! And then add in evolutions to other rpg genres like Triangle Strategy (srpg) and Unicorn Overlord (trpg), and Final Fantasy basically dying for me hasn't been anywhere near as tough a pill to swallow as it could've been.
Got the plat for WoFF, i love that weird stacking system 😂 beat Bravely Default to the bitter painfully long 7x final boss thing. Currently playing between Bravely D 2, Octopath 1, and Crisis core. Excited to try a few new things from this list - thanks for potentially adding to my backlog 😂. Great vid, new sub ❤
I tried one of the Voice of cards. It was pretty short, but I did really enjoy, and it did surprise me as how good it was. I also have Dragon Quest 11, and never finished it. I don't know I just can't get to DQ titles in general, they never really could hold my attention. Except for Dragon Quest Builders 2, I love that one. I don't know, maybe it's the thing when they often try to really spell out things for the player, like it's guiding a small child or something, that ticks me off. World of Final Fantasy was a big surprise to me too, I was put of by the chibi looks at first, but I really enjoyed the game. And as a big Final Fantasy fan, it was great for nostalgy. Can vouch for Tringle Strategy as well. I really enjoyed it.
The only pet peeve I got with Tactics Ogre Reborn is how you can only pick 4 spells now, that really limits versatility. Tactics Ogre has lot of interesting gimmick spells that doesn't actually really broken powerful but fun to use, if they think it's making the game easy, I don't mind having the forbidden nuke spells with harder requirement such as higher MP cost or anything, but god I love playing around with teleport or even springboard spell. Having only 4 slots restrict me to pick only the useful spells, can't really afford to pick those fun spells. On the other hand we got 8 slots for Finisher moves, that's just too much, my Canopus can live with only 2 axe and 2 bow finishers, why don't they just give that 4 excessive slots to spells instead, 8 spells would be perfect!
I WAS EXPECTING for you to talk about triangle strategy and im so happy you did, literally one of the best games ever released by square, a masterpiece!!
I will recommend the Tokyo Game Factory games when on sale. I Am Setsuna and Lost Sphere, haven't played Oninaki yet. They are solid $20 games, definitely not worth the $60 full price tag though. They are Chrono Trigger knock-offs, and even though not nearly as good, they are solid. Also not turn-based, but I also recommend Harvestella. The Battle System is basically a simplified FF14. The farming element isn't bad, but where it really shines is the characters and story. If I could rate the RPG aspect of Harvestella, I would go 8/10.
WoFF is one of the most mechanically interesting JRPGs I've played. It's a shame that the cutesy look is a barrier for people, because it really is a quite solid play.
I just about only play JRPGs and turn based is my preference. I might go outside of that genre and play Story of Seasons or Rune Factory but that's because those are just that good. For me it's just about JRPG or nothing. I've been gaming since 1985 and honestly every other genre just got boring. If I can beat a game in one sitting, I'm not interested. Favorite series is definitely Dragon Quest and it's not even close but there are many others that are almost as good. No one mentions some of the best series such as the Ys series, Tales of series, Mana series or Star Ocean. Funny, none of those are turn based but I love them all. Hopefully they finally release the Dragon Quest III HD 2D remake.
I would've included FFX-2 had they fixed the biggest problem I had with the original: Skipping cutscenes counts against 100% completion to unlock the true ending.
This list made me realize how awful I am! I am the kind of gamer who buys all the latest games that I know I will love and then continues to play something from the 90s again instead. I own most of the games on this list and, with the exception of Octopath Traveler and Triangle Strategy, haven't even taken the plastic off yet! I need to get my butt in gear and actually partake.
A wonderful selection of games, DQXI and the FF Pixel Collection are both great and all the others I've heard great things about or enjoyed. How about talking about some JRPGs not from Squeenix? Like the newer Persona games, I would say super mario RPG though I suppose that was Squeenix, Disgaea, Star Ocean, I don't know that Ni No Kuni and it's sequel count.
I don't know why I feel like strategy RPGS should be on there own list as when I think of turn based I don't ever consider them. Great list tho Square Enix know how to make great turn based games.
Love all those games... I just hope than DQ XII will not be an action one. Because the developers said in an interview, than they were looking for something more mature and closer to what FF had done in their last games... Turn based is the charm of DQ!
Loved Octopath traveller Act 0 and Act 1. But once I entered Act 2 I had to run after 1 or 2 mobs. How is it that even today they get the XP pacing so wrong and you have to stop and start grinding just so you don’t hit a wall. Really sad that I had to stop it.
@@BacklogBattle Probably, this is also the reason why some games just set the enemy level to your level automatically and don't even bother with balancing :( Looking at you Midnight Suns.
@@BacklogBattle In some other RPGs I could solve the problem, by doing side quests and usually I skipped side quests, because I didn't want my heroes to become too strong for the main story. But, in this case there were no side quests at the start of Act2. Would have had to grind world map mobs. And no thanks, I did that when I was 11 years old and played Breath of Fire on SNES. But only because I was young and bad at RPGs.
The pixel remasters are great but the text boxes being higher res than everything else always throws me off. For me, the PS1 remasters of the first 6 games minus 3 stay the definitive versions.
Im always buying and dropping jrpgs about 3 hours in. I love the worlds and esthetic of jrpgs. But turne based combat just leaves me feeling bored. I desperately try to break through that wall of boredom but its so difficult. I want to play these games so bad yet each time my party lines up in a horizontal line and the battle menu pops up on screen my ability to focus on the game evaporates like a mirage in a sandstorm.
I really love that Alex isn't afraid to use the nomenclature "JRPG". Nowadays it seems like a lot of people shy away from the distinctive "J" and instead just use "RPG" especially after Noaki Yoshida had something to say about it. I know it's minor, but I appreciate it.
Thank you! I made a video about that topic months ago, and I think it’s worth watching even now! That said, because Yoshida didn’t want anything to do with FFXVI being a JRPG, it was disqualified from my massive JRPG shopping guide last year! 😂
For me FFX is the ULTIMATE Turnbased Game. The Spheregrid is such a unique one. I love the game ... not one Game could give me the feeling back i had with FFX :(
I didn't like Bravely Default all that much .... played 1 and 2 only to about 2/3rd of the story because it got waaaaaay to grindy to me .... I live classic RPGs but I really hate the insane grind some of them require. Dragon Quest is awesome, would recommend it to everyone. WoFF wasn't mine though .... I did finish it but the fights felt so slow and meh ... also I am not that into the chibi style even though I don't mind it if its done well .... didn't like it here though. Triangle Strategy .... at first I was like "yeah nice finally something awesome again" .... sadly they overdid it so much with story .... don't get me wrong I do like a proper story I even completed lots of the games translated by Falcom which noone else even dared to touch because of to much text BUT playing a Tactics RPG and you have like 30+ minutes "story" which wasn't all that awesome in my opinion, only to play 5 minutes and get another 30+ minutes of text was super annoying. I really want to try Life a Live and Tactics Ogre but didn't have time yet
Kinda sad that about half of this is just remakes/remasters. I miss good turn-based JRPGs. .... I need a modern turn-based Final Fantasy ASAP. Square is the developer that I have been the most disappointed in over the past decade or so.
There’s a lot of good turn based JRPGs out there, and none of them carry the Final Fantasy name, with many transcending the series’ innovations in the genre.
Honestly the only reason I'm stick to these people is because I'm an huge Dragon Quest fan. But the fact they haven't done anything to bring the series more attention they deserve like the released of Dragon Quest 3 2D-HD remake or more info of DQ12, focusing too much on Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and other popular franchise and all the controversy crap they've been pulling off makes me have very low expectations to them. It makes me wish Square & Enix haven't join forces and stick to themselves.
@itsalolmor Yeah. But those are spinoffs. I'm more talking about bringing the traditional/mainline Dragon Quest games into modern hardware. Like I'm still waiting for the remasters of Dragon Quest 4-6 to come on Switch since we have Dragon Quest 1-3 remasters on Switch and we haven't heard anything about an DQ3 2DHD Remake nor DQ12 since 2011 during there Dragon Quest Presentation Trailer.
Great video. World of Final Fantasy is such an underrated game. I loved every minute of it. I played it on the PS4 but I believe the Xbox version that came out later has extra content, so I’m going to do another run through of that version. Dragon Quest XI was such a great game. I put in over 90 hours on the PS4 version. When do you think we’ll see Dragon Quest 12? Unfortunately, I don’t think till next year.
I have it on ps4 with maxima dlc which added stuff like being a final fantasy character like cloud, i also got the sora from KH dlc but apparently that was only on the store for a limited time same with sephiroth from ff7 which i missed out on great game though
Man I really loved Triangle Strategy much more then I expected to based on some initial impressions. I really hope square continues the series, but it seems like based on the recent CEO statements this kind of game which is developed externally may be on the chopping block.
Dragonquest is so basic and boring i quit 3/4 of the way in, it just didnt evolve or introduce anything new tp keep me engaged, it is absolutely for people who like old school turn base rpgs because outside of that its the same old game with nothing new
octopath brought me back to turn based rpgs. I've always loved them since I grew up with FF1 and have played all the FF's , DragonWarriors(quest) and various other RPGs. When Octopath 1 was released I was stoked. played the demo roughly 3-4x and loved loved loved the music. the voice over work really added to the splendor of the game. I really wish they would redo so many other RPGs of yesteryear in the 2.5 3d hd remakes that Square stared with Octo and ran with when dong Live-A-Live and various other RPGs of that nature.
If anyone haven't, must play The Last Remnant. It is the most criminally underrated masterpiece of Square Enix. It required a sequel but somehow it never gained enough fame. It is a must play from Square Turn based JRPG
Triangle Tragetry I only have enough time for 1 single playthrough so I decided to google it up and go for true ending and be done with it despite the game wanted player definitely to go 2nd playthrough
i was so shocking knowing that little machine like 3ds has beautiful game like bravely default... yes, beautiful graphic and simple battle system.... and bravely default 2 is the only reason i want to have nintendo switch and I love it... I wish Final Fantasy I to VI will remake into bravely default graphic style
Dragon Quest is definitely one of the best rpg series of all time, with the best ones being Dragon Quest VIII Journey of the Cursed King and Dragon Quest IX Sentinels of the Starry Skies.
Maybe add War of the Visions and Super Mario RPG (that's from Squaresoft too, 50% ^^) No other particular recommandation, now just hoping for a remake to FFT. 🤞
Im 35 years old. It ballfes me talking to co workers that where not alive when some of my favorite games came out. Tell a 20 something year old, that you are older then the internet, and you will blow thier minds
Honnestly yeah I really wish they one day rerelease Nier Reincarnation, removing the grinding aspect of a Gacha game, while keeping the turn base mechanic, that would be great.
I know this is a very hot take, but DQXI was very underwhelming for me. I love traditional RPGs and all, but XI showed just how deep the cracks go when trying so hard to uphold 20+ year old design sensibilities, especially in a AAA game. And it showed me that silent protagonists REALLY need to go. They've become a detriment.
Silent protagonists are mostly prevalent in Japanese culture, whereas Western audiences need a little bit more to go on, which is why the mission objectives in Yakuza games from 6 onward actually added the character’s feelings and thoughts to spell it out for Western fans.
@@BacklogBattle I understand that the Japanese put a lot of emphasis on body language and unspoken social queues, but that has no bearing on the fact that Hero XI spends an entire journey surrounded by people making direct contact with him on a daily basis, and to see him not react in any tangible way is immersion breaking no matter how you slice it, especially during the plot climaxes (and he already has a VA ffs). It doesn't matter how shy, introverted or soft-spoken you are, staying completely silent through ALL of your social interactions is not normal, and people pick up on that. There's a reason why non-silent protags are much more popular, even in Japan.
Its crazy that some of these modern are consider good. As someone's who's been playing since the NES most of these games are average only. World of FF was the worst on this list for me. Dragon quest was the only one on the list that I actually enjoy
I’ve been playing since the Atari, and they’re legit good, especially with the majority of the people in the comments here being of mine and your age, probably!
I hope they continue remastering games because their are many I would love to see again, though not all are turned based. The Ogre Battle games are at the top of my remaster wish list. I like Tactics Ogre more then Final Fantasy Tactics but there are far more modern games with similar gameplay to it then to Ogre Battle so I think they should have gotten a remaster or remake first. Besides the first Ogre Battle game is still my favorite console SRPG though I think the main reason Ogre Battle 64 didn't take the slot is I never finished it because I never owned a Nintendo 64 and my one friend who owned the game sold his Nintendo 64 or the game before I had enough time to finish it during visits to his house. As for Square Enix turn based games Saga Frontier II is at the top of my wish list because its the only Saga game released in the US I have never owned (I didn't own Frontier I until it got remastered because I never owned a PS1 and by the time I got a PS2 I couldn't find them locally at a price I could afford.) then Robotrek (My favorite quintet RPG) and Bahamut Lagoon. I'm disappointed and surprised none of the Saga games made the list. Saga/Final Fantasy Legend II was the first Squaresoft RPG I played though not the first one I beat (I got it and Final Fantasy I with my Christmas money one year but mom and I were about to take a trip to visit her family so I didn't play Final Fantasy I until I got back from that trip)
Octopath Traveler 2 is one of the best JRPGs, turn based or otherwise, to release in the last 10 years. I avoided playing it until just last month, then realized how dumb I was for overlooking it!
@@BacklogBattle Oh neat! After checking it out, I believe your review was one of the ones that influenced me to buy it (I remember the ghost part from the beginning) :)
Not for sale! See My LA Trip To Experience Final Fantasy VII Rebirth! | Backlog Battle ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-U-NqdBhHbgU.html
Saying that "Bravely Default showed square enix that there still was a market for turn based RPGs" I don't feel is entirely correct. Remember that DQ9 came out only 3 years earlier and outsold Bravely Default, even in the west. Square Enix also always knew there was a market for turn based RPGs, especially on handheld systems, and just because mainline final fantasy went away from being turn based doesn't mean they ever stopped making turn based RPGs. Just the Nintendo DS alone had: Dragon Quest 9 Dragon Quest Monsters Joker Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 Final Fantasy 4 heroes of light Final Fantasy Tactics A2 Valkyrie Profile Covenent of the Plume And if you count remakes/ports there is also: Final Fantasy 3 Final Fantasy 4 Dragon Quest 4 Dragon Quest 5 Dragon Quest 6 Chrono Trigger Square enix never stopped making/publishing turn based rpgs The video was still really good! I'm just a bit tired about everyone always going on about how turn based JRPGs died in the mid 2000s, just because Final Fantasy stopped being turn based
You’re correct in that they never really stopped making them, but the series you’ve mentioned are all established, which are pretty safe bets, meaning they could ride the names of these games to sell them regardless of the genre! Bravely Default proved that turn-based is very much a profitable genre in that they took a pretty bold risk by creating new IP - and mind, new IP is a huge deal in this day and age - and it sold without being associated in brand with anything they’ve ever done before!
