10 WEIRD Hidden Gem JRPGs Worth Playing! 

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Man Sonic really deserves a better RPG than the Dark Brotherhood with the right team you could make a good one

I played Evoland and Evoland 2 in the past, and I reported a glitch that happened when I played. The developer replied so fast, which shows how much they cared about the game. Unfortunately, my new phone doesn't support the game anymore 😢

Knights in the Nightmare devs were tripping balls when they designed the combat

Given all the movies, shows and books that offer alternate takes on the Wizard of Oz, a JRPG take isn’t that unusual. Bear in mind, this includes a crossover with movie with Tom and Jerry that got a sequel.

Glad to see another video! I had the Sonic RPG as a kid, but I got stuck on a really bizarre puzzle. Years later I found a solution on youtube, but I forgot how to manage the party. More years went by and on a whim I wanted to finish it so I dumped the cart and just emulated it with cheats!

Ephemeral Fantasia is criminally underrated. Yes, it's a bit obtuse(especially near the beginning), but once you get used to the areas' layout and really get things in motion it's a neat little adventure with a great gameplay loop. Every time you manage to form a bond with another new PC(complete there quest basically), they begin to retain their memories when the time loop resets just like the main character. It shuts off certain events and opens up others, allowing you to move the overall story forward. The 2 most annoying features of the early game - losing money/items and some of the travel) eventually get mitigated a lot - a fast travel ability you can gain access to within the first couple weeks that becomes more useful as you find map pieces, and a time-loop-immune safe that you can get access to maybe a week or 2 after that to store items/money so you don't lose them when the loop resets. For anyone not familiar with EF, it's a game with a time-loop that functions similarly to Majora's Mask. Every time you get to the end of the week(or die in combat) the loop resets, and your character is able to retain his memories. But depending on your actions certain items will persist and certain NPCs will start to retain their memory(prior to your arrival to the island, their memories are reset every week) and become PCs from that point onward. This results in permanent changes to the time loop and you being able to explore new areas(and explore much more freely) after the first couple in-game weeks. It doesn't hold your hand or give you a whole lot of direction, so I understand why certain elements would be annoying to a lot of people(myself included), but there's just something about it that's extremely interesting. I'd love to see a game with a similar time-loop concept that's less obtuse and with less maze-like area design.

on one hand i'm shocked have many of these I have heard of, on the other hands the ones i haven't heard of sound so neat? maybe not something I'd want to play but I would love to see a speedrun of that one that uses the guitar. it's so fun seeing how creative some folks get with this genre even if it doesn't always land.

I need to get around to playing 3 Dot Heroes, and I never knew there was a Sonic rpg. Evoland 2 certainly looks interesting.

Number eight on this list was ridiculously fun. The RPG roles each character played as suited them so, so well

Damn, there's a LOT of obscure games on this list I'd love to try out one day. Great video man, I'll be hunting some of these down 👀

You always have amazing content, not just with new stuff but also hidden gems and worthy games to go back to. Awesome video!

3d dot game heroes is great. I have it on ps3. Such a nice tribute to classic Zelda and other top down adventure games from my childhood

Zanki zero was actually a sleeper hit for me when it came out , and im kinda bummed we never got a sequel. oh well maybe one day.

I remember playing Wizard of Oz: Beyond the Yellow Brick Road. Unless you were going to draw a map at light speed, exploration was done by setting up signs at the signposts. You had a limited choice of icons, like O, X, etc., and I remember deciding that X would be 'have not explored here yet, come back later' and O was 'explored everything past here' but it was useful to have little visual indicators while running around at high speeds. I really loved the combat system and the strategy it allowed for, too. The superbosses were hard enough I didn't feel like grinding to beat them, though. As for ones you didn't mention, I think Avalon Code is the most bizarre (in gameplay) RPG I ever played. You hit enemies with a book to open their puzzle grid, and you can do special puzzles to buff or debuff them, like removing the Invincibility blocks from an unbeatable enemy. It works for NPCs too, and part of the main story is helping certain NPCs by purifying their grid, like removing disease from a sickly girl (and saving that Disease block to debuff bosses later).

Love this list! I would totally play some of these!

Ephemeral Fantasia was originally scheduled to come out on the DC so I wondered if there was a plan to have a Guitar Freak planned for the DC at one time or this was added after being moved to the PS2.

Thank you for the great pronunciation of Katakana. It's really funny when I hear people say "caaaddaa kawnnaaaa

That Knights in the Nightmare mention is TOP NOTCH. Played it on my Vita and thought this is the wildest thing ever. I ended up loving it. Almost got the best ending but missed an item. Now this makes me wanna attempt a review on it.

Can we take a moment to appreciate the subtle editing goodness sprinkled around this video?

Really interesting video!

The music for emphemeral fantasia was so good for its time. The time travel and solving mystery was pretty cool. Never got to finish the game cuz my brother didnt like the game and sold it

I wanted to recommend an indie turn-based RPG for you. Its called Knuckle Sandwich and its kind of like if you took Undertale and you mashed it together with WarioWare. Really recommend it if you like funny RPGs, it also has a demo just an fyi. I've been playing it and loving it and wish more people knew about it!

Oh Evoland 2 was simply amazing, kinda wish there was a third one

I loved the wizard of oz. I remember emulating it because it never released in the UK and at the time, thos 3D graphics were phenomenal!

3D Dot Game Heroes has the opposite of a risk/reward system if losing health makes your sword worse...

I remember my brief time with Knights In The Nightmare playing the GBA version. Maybe nowadays I'd give it more time, but back then it was a lot to handle. The bullet hell, strategic unit placement and tic-tac-toe stuff was a lot on it's own, but you also could switch between a Law and a Chaos mode with a button press, which changed both the bullet hell patterns and your units attacks. I still remember the little voice clips that played when you switched("Obey the law!" "Let chaos reign!"), and at one point getting so stressed trying to remember which units did what attack pattern and flipping back and forth between the two modes so fast that the voice clips played over each other and became a jumbled mess, which kinda summed up how I felt trying to play that game. Still, it was so different and I'm pretty sure I've still got my GBA and the game in a box somewhere; maybe someday I should give it a try, or wait for a Switch port.

Evoland 2 is also a HUGE homage to gaming as a whole, not just JRPGs Definitely worth a playthrough! Also worth mentioning for both Knights in the Nightmare and Zanki Zero is that both have Easy modes. For KitN, it makes things much less chaotic on screen so it'll be easier for the Wisp to survive each combat scenario and to win each battle with a lot of time converted into a pool of experience points to level up the knights with. Fans of bullet hell (or danmaku) games will like this take on the genre by playing in its default and higher difficulties. For Zanki Zero, iirc it'll disable the survival elements or at least make them less harsh than on higher difficulties. If you don't like them but love first-person dungeon crawlers and engaging stories, this game is a must-play no matter your mixed gameplay tastes.

Sega should revisit the turn based sonic RPG idea since like a dragon is pretty popular

I have that DS Wizard of Oz game. It's legit. Kind of funky in terms of controlling it the way you do but, eh, it's a unique charm.

Just me, or does The Wizard of Oz game have surprisingly good graphics?

Evoland is interesting. Gonna check it out.

I am surprised at how many of the games on this list that i had played, except for the guitar hero and zenki and 3d dot hero, i think i had played all of the games on this list sometime in my life, they might have their gimmick but i dont recall having much fun with any of them

I can't believe a turn based Wizard Of Oz rpg exists. Definitely found a hidden one with that

Knights in the Nightmare! Holy sh-- I used to play that game a lot and NOT UNDERSTAND ANYTHING about it. Beat it though!

Huh...I wonder what it says about me that I've heard of every one of these before except for the guitar one.

Boktai is one that most people forget about. It was for the GBA and it had a peripheral on the cart that used the sun as a game element. Neat idea but it was pointless if it was dark out!

Knight in the Nighmare gameplay is indeed pretty nightmarish. I want to know what the dev was thinking 😂 But when i think about it, all Dept. Of Heaven series are nightmarish. Are these game series actually an experimental games or something

Oooh i remember ephemeral fantasia, i loved the song. Had to go through 3 gamestops to find a used copy. Game is kinda bad tho unimpressive tho, some enemies are bunnies that are made of two plygonal pieces etc

I loved Beyond the Yellow Brick Road. It is a very beautiful DS game. The battle systems is fairly simple. I always thought it would be a good smart phone game.

Sonic Chronicles is a game I so rarely hear people mention. I had it back in the day and somehow really loved it despite the fact that it looks and runs like absolute garbage. I think I just loved seeing the cast transformed into a full JRPG party, complete with Chrono Trigger-esque combo moves. I don't think I could ever replay it now, but it does make me think I'd love to see other franchises given turn-based JRPG spinoffs. A Zelda game with a full party of the iconic characters, for example. Mario already has tons of RPGs, I think the rest of the Nintendo cast is due for some! Also, thank you for bringing my attention to the fact that there are Japanese-learning games out there. I've been slowly learning the language, and while hiragana and katakana weren't too bad, kanji has been a nightmare. Maybe that game will help.

I actually love Ephemeral Fantasia.

Might I recommend “Half Minuite Hero: Super Mega Neo Climax Ultimate Boy”?

Always wanted to play 3 Dot Heroes. And games that help you learn Japanese sound awesome. Thanks.

is there any way to play 3D Dot Game Heroes other than physical on ps3? it's nice to mention these games but a lot of them cost a bit of money to play so telling the audience where to obtain them is important.

There's an A-Team JRPG?!

Thank you

JRPG time

Hey. As one of the only Ephemeral Phantasia fans....it's not a bad game. What I will say however though, is that without a guide, the game's damn near impossible. holy shit.

I have sonic chronicles and I gave up trying to beat that game

The algo doesn't like you, probably the ad.

Evoland is best here

Dude, WTF… “list of games and steam links in the comments” *puts one link, no other information of value whatsoever*

10???

Knights of the nightmare was extremely trash