7 JRPGs That EXCEEDED My Expectations 

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I remember like 7 or so years ago, I played Trails in the Sky FC, with exactly 0 knowledge, and just before the ending, I was thinking, "man, that was a cute, little self-contained jrpg." Arguably it blew away my expectations by consuming the next several years of my life.

"Divine Force is the best 7/10 I've ever played." That's honestly the best way to describe it.

Monster Hunter Stories, Baten Kaitos and Etrian Odyssey Untold. That's what great taste looks like 👍

Baten Kaitos is my favorite game, in part due to the fact that I played it as a teen on my gamecube and this was the game which sparked my love for video games and especially jrpgs. For days and days I didn't put the game down. I loved the art style, the characters, the story. I have so much love for this game. A few years ago my husband got me a Gamecube and a copy of the game, both of these I didn't have anymore. All so I could play Baten Kaitos again. And when I tell you I screamed when I saw that remaster annoucement during that Nintendo Direct. I'm so glad people are finally paying attention to this game as I feel like it went under the radar at the time. It's a gem.

But the first ys game you ever play is just so magical, I was not expecting to fall in love with ys 8! First game I 100%. Also I couldn't agree more on divine force, it had the only game with a minigame I was ADDICTED to! Liked for rapzura.

The JRPG that completely flipped my expectations was Persona 4. It changed my vision about japanese media to the point that nowadays, JRPGs are my favorite games. That said, this was me every time Teddie opened his mouth: 12:36 Really enjoyed the humor in the video :v

Walked into GameStop one day and saw Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ sitting on the shelf. Had no idea what the game was. Just saw that it had a sweet box cover. Bought it, took it home, and ended up playing for 12 hours straight. So glad its on this list. Also SO6 rocked. First demo i played since PS1. Bought game immediately after that.

Everyone that likes anime games with fast paced action combat system, jrpgs, Ys, Trails of cold Steel, Persona like games, japaneses themes of schoollife, citylife mixed with demons and japanese gods, idols, yakuza and some good old hot well scenes should play Tokyo Xanadu EX. Don't miss on it, its really cheap in sales on PS Store and a really fun game that will entertain you well. Also play the Trails series (Beginning with Trails in the Sky 1+2, but that will be a project for years if you havent started the series yet). Toky Xanadu is standalone.

Love the support for Alzará!!! I mean love to see it. I’m excited for it and Runa

Crystal Chronicles is my favorite FF game. It was so unique and enjoyable to play on the GameCube. Wish it had of gotten better with the remaster.

I love your sense of humor and the way you explain things. I want to play pretty much every JRPG you mentioned here, but I have to give a shoutout to Tokyo Xanadu Ex which I did actually play. It definitely exceeded my expectations as well, even if the story towards the end made me wonder what even happened.

Ohh Snap, now I have to add 4-5 more titles to my catalog. While I'm following your suggestions on how to deal with the back catalog, & it is working great, I think I'll have to wishlist these.

Those are certainly some great games. I had a simialr experience with 2 other games on my end. The first one was Project X Zone. I just heard that it was a big crossover with all kinds of franchises and I wanted to play it just to see what it was all about. It was great. The story was really wacky and I loved seeing all the different characters which sort of introduced me to all kinds of new games. Like Sakura Wars, Valkyria Chronicles and Shining Force and a bunch of games I cna barely remember. Tron Bonne form Megaman Legends was also in the game. MML is an amazing game and I encourage you to play it or watch it on RU-vid if you like Megaman. The Bonnes and the Servbots were the greatest thing ever. But again, PXZ is a really cool game. It is basically an SRPG but every character has their own abilities and certain attacks from their own games and you visit a bunch of different settings and there is even a few characters from anime shows. I love the crossover aspect and am glad I played it. I still need to cross the second game off my midlog. Then there is Radiant History Perfect Chronology. I bought this game on a whim from Saturn and just thought the Time Travel stuff sounded cool. And then I played it. And I loved it. Yes, I was running through the game one baby mode, but the game was still fun. The characters, the story, the music, the sidequests. I loved everything. And the ending. My god, the ending. I was sobbing like a baby. That was the first time in years a game made me cry that much. And during the credits I was sobbing even more. And then I did the whole sidequest with the new character that unlocks the perfect ending and that story was so damn sad, I was crying my eyes out. Great game. 10/10 in my book. The gameplay may have been not as great but everything else was just amazing. Especially that story. There is actually one other game I have in this category. And that is Rhapsody A Musical Adventure. I found this in a random gamestop on Germanies noth coast years ago. Like almost 13 years by now. I looked at the cover, thought it was cute and decided I needed to play it. I loved it. The music was great, the story was super whacky but also just amazing and it got a tad bit sad near the ending too. Like, I think I had at least some tears rolling when the story finished. I really want to replay it again before I play the sequels. I am excited to see more of the story and the characters. I also loved all of the many puppets you could add to your party and how they looked and played. It is just a cute little game with musical numbers and the villains were all great and I especially loved the little cat enemies. The kittens were so cute. I had a few of these games that you just buy because they look cool and I have loved these 3 the most so far. I grew up with my DS and 3DS so I sadly missed the golden PS 2 era of RPGs. I hope at least some of them see the light of day again. There are many great RPGs I have never heard of. I sadly didn't exist back in the 90s. I hope we all play many more nice games and just all have good time. I hope I can start Ys 7 and 9 this year.

Thanks for sharing!!! I'm gonna check out Tokyo Xanadu Ex - it looks great :)

I remember being so blown away when I played an English rom of Live A Live. Like, since the original game never saw a worldwide release, I was expecting a run of the mill JRPG, but not one of the best games in my life

I watched your video and bought Aterlier Lydie DX on e-shop yesterday. Loving it so far, I like the alchemy system, I have Ryza 3 also but did not finish it. The alchemy system is also very complicated (Ryza 3). Atelier Lydie is the most colorful RPG I have played in 30+ years. Love it on my Switch Lite. Tx for the recommendation.

Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ also caught me by surprise. Looking at the trailers I thought it would be a knock of of Persona 3 or something. Bought it on Steam sale a tried it one day when I was a bit bored. Was hooked pretty quick. Can't wait for the Switch version (portable gaming is more my thing these days. Hope they don't mess up the port but I doubt they will).

Nice to see Etrian Odyssey and Crystal Chronicles mentioned. I have been heard a lot of Baiten Kaitos lately, need to try this one!

I just finally finished Star Ocean Divine Force yesterday and I'm so excited. I wanted to keep playing. It was one of the most fun games I've played in a very long time. I rarely ever get to finish games because of time and life stuff but this one kept me wanting to move forward. I'm sure it's not for everyone but I will have to revisit it some day. I don't rate games but if I did for me this was close to perfect. Some frustrating things throughout make me have to admit that it's not perfect but every game I've played has some frustrations.

Happy you mentioned Tokyo Xanadu EX (great Anime Action RPG for fans of japanese culture, Anime, Trails of Cold Steel, Persona and even a bit Yakuza with fast paced Action and lovely cast and nice anime story), , Baten Kaitos (you have to love Honnes artstile, he worked Chrono Cross as well) and Star Ocean Divine Force (its not AAA but its a fun classic jrpg with nice world and a sense of adventure that spans a whole world and even parts of the universe).

For me it was folklore on PS3. An "acting rpg set around Welsh mythology" sounded like a fool's errand, yet I got it as a gift and it has become one of my favourite games of that generation

I've never been able to get into Lydie and Suelle, and have always meant to try another Atelier to see if it meshes better.

Know I mentioned Final Fantasy last video, but I first played the original FFVII on Steam in 2019. I'd heard it was good but really didn't expect a 22-year-old game to blow me away. Hoo boy...

Crystal Chronicles was my jam as a kid! I loved that game! It’s a shame the remaster didn’t do a better job with the multiplayer.

great list! I gotta get back to three of those games on that list that sadly hit the backlog. one being Baten Kaitos which by the way right now eshop has for 40% off, what a steal.

That Resleriana joke was gold XD I played it for about 10 hours, and I was so disappointed. It's literally cycling through the same exact menus, and progress = slower cycling through.

For me, it's always the indie games and other smaller games that surprise me the most! Some of my favorite games through the years have been some random jrpg, strategy RPG, or metrovainia made by an indie company. Like I highly enjoy Symphony of War which was basically Unicorn Overlord before Unicorn Overlord came out. Same idea game, but it had its own charm that surpassed even Unicorn Overlord in some ways, which was some more unique mission variety and enemies. Record of Lodoss War-Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth was the Castlevaina Symphony of the Night clone that I didn't know I needed. This one wasn't so much better than Castlevaina Symphony of Night, but had its own different qualities that made it extremely fun to play. For standard JRPG probably the best one I have played in recent days is Chained Echoes. Unlike some of the other good indie RPGS that came out recently that take a lot of influence from other games or are spiritual successors of older titles. This one fricken nails it and tells a story that doesn't resemble any other game I have played. It was one of those games that I played non stop till completion, and when I wasn't playing I was thinking about it. What I can say about these 3 games that I can't about most other games and the ones on your list is that nothing in these games ever feel tedious or over padded. To me that is starting to matter to me a lot more as I have grown older. So many games I have fun with and just get to a point where it feels like a chore to finish/play the game.

Try out Mana Khemia.. makes me feel like a kid again and the OST is absolutely magical.

I have recently fallen back in love with jrpg's. I used to love them back on gamecube, xbox and ps3 era. I have not played much in the past decade to other committments but I picked up persona 5 royal and suddenly my reignition of the jrpg genre has happened and I am picking up a ton of JRPG's at cheap prices on switch and PS5 (PS4 BC too). The qulaity of games now is amazing and I am set for the next year hahaha

I finished baten kaitos vanilla as a kid. I remember almost nothing to it except a hard boss 🙈 Monster hunter stories 2 was my best game from its year i can hardly wait for the first one to release so i get to play them both all over again! Tokyo x xanadu was such a pleasant surprise, especially not knowing it was kinda like trails. I want to go back to it cuz i rushed it unfortunatly.

Suikoden V, I didn't complete it when it launched, replayed it using HD mod and the story totally blew my expectation, one of the best JRPG story

Honestly, Monster Hunter Stories 2 blew me away. I had played Monster hunters world but it didn't really click with me like stories did. I got maybe 10 hours on World but 60+ in stories.

I'm waiting for the Tokyo Xanadu release on switch and seeing it made me want it more

Baten kaitos is really good but i think "Baten kaitos origins" was better, faster combat, better voice acting and a more likeable cast, also Lydie and Suelle is so much fun, didn't expect to see it here!!

Xanadu Next was a pleasant surprise for me, got in with 0 expectations and loved it.

Alzara is so exciting for me. I'm a VERY big fan of Golden Sun and the primary influence is that game.

I rage quit EO: Millenium girl on my 3DS because it wasn’t a straight up remake of the first game which is what I think I wanted back then. Restarted it recently and I’m still not sure, I loved the original so much that I’m not sure anything else will ever compare. Luckily I have the Switch remaster of 1-3 and am replaying there. Such a good game, very glad I imported a physical copy.

Gosh you make me want to pick baten kaitos. thanks for the heads up, it looks ace.

Thanks for showing slightly off the charts yet playable by mainstream lads like me games. What's that racing one at 6:00 ?... ow sh*t that's reality......

Also played it on the GameCube, it is a great game still have it in original box.

Game that i have no good expectations but then really suprised me after finishing it is Shining Resonance Refrain

A JRPG that I had no idea nor expectation that surprised me the most was Suikoden 2. I bought the game without knowing what it was (I haven't played Suikoden 1 when I played it), turned out, it is the best JRPG that I have played... and I played a lot of JRPG's up to this date...

i really need to get back to etrian odyssey. game's got the most interesting classes choice when i played it in nds

whoa whoa whoa, bro, you never played Tokyo Xanadu? it was practically my 2nd Falcom game after i finished Cold Steel 1 and was waiting for Cold Steel 2 localization before trying Sky, in short though loved it and glad its finally getting a sequel. Funny thing is the Magical Alisa and Demon Rean is an anime there and then the minigame Magical Alisa in Reverie is taking place in Xanadu world. For me its old school game, Legend of Legaia and Legend of Dragoon in PS1 (my 1st JRPGs), more modern ones were God Eater, Monster Hunter Break and Digimon Survive.

Despite Square Enix's new strategy, I maintain my hope that they will look at Star Ocean differently after 2R, it was one of the only games in their 2023 report that was praised, that met expectations. I really hope that they see the potential that the franchise has and give a good budget for a next game, as happened with Trials of Mana, which was the great starting point for SE to have faith in the future of the franchise and create Visions.

I always wanted to try Tokyo Xanadu but unfortunately it never came to the Switch over here in America.

I checked out Tachikawa last time I was in Japan too. Quaint little city.

Monster Hunter Stories is such a fun series especially if you like monster hunter but even if you dont its easy to love. Baten Kaitos also very cool choice

Awesome video man! And for me, it was definitely Xenoblade Chronicles, I had no idea what I was getting into, and that game absolutely blew my mind. Honestly one of the best experiences I've ever had with a JRPG.

Tokyo Xanadu Ex surprised me and blew me away, I loved every moment of it and never wanted it to end. It has no English dub and the PC port is weak compared to other Falcom titles (wasn't ported by the same people) but that hasn't stopped me considering it among my favourite games ever

Really loved Crystal Chronicles on GameCube. We played with 3 people all connected with GBA’s and it was amazing. I was really hopeful they would do something unique on WiiU for one person with the screen and rest weren’t but nope. I couldn’t get into it again on Switch.

Baten Kaitos might be my favorite game of all time. Absolutely phenomenal game

If i put my list except Trails,Ys,Tokyo Xanadu ex+. -Valkyria Chronicles. I almost know nothing of the game, surprisingly good game, nice story and the gameplay kinda weird for the first time. After i played the game i watch the Anime. -Tales of Berseria. I buy the game because the cover looks cool and i expect the game not good because of short gap from Zestiria, and the game become one of my favorite in the series.

I remember playing ffcc the entire summer with my cousin those memories 💙

Crystal Chronicles is awesome, everything from the Music to the Gameplay is absolutely impeccable.

I'm really super glad that I have the game called star ocean divine force because I love that game soo much!! My mom last year for my birthday had gotten me divine force by accident because of her bad eye sight but I'm really glad that she had accidentally had gotten me the wrong star ocean game for my birthday!! The star ocean games will always be one of my absolute favorite rpg games!!

For me Ys woul be on that list, I got a little bored of turn-based RPGs, I wanted to play something different so I started Ys Origin which I bought years ago on my PS4. I found it decent but not something extraordinary until I reached the Silent Sands area, the track and story sequence really did it for me. Afterwards 8 which I found phenomenal. I didn't think Falcom could do it again to me, then I played Trails in the Sky. I shouldn't be surprised for having no expectations for games I bought on the fly without knowing much or even anything about them. But who blew me away, like Nier Gestalt, Tales of Berseria, Radiant Historia, Bravely Default, Super Paper Mario, FF7, The Witvher. I think my music taste was influenced by RPGs.

I have Divine Force but haven't played it yet. Kinda want to give it a go now

oh i just saw pamela in atelier lydie and suelle..its same pamela from mana khemia series?..now its make me want to try atelier lydie and suelle

What was that motorcycle game at 6:00

There's more and more indie french studios doing JRPG collab with big japanese legends, I think the future will be good You know, France is 2nd manga consumer after Japan after all, very big fans of jp medias

Yeah BK does not get the respect that it deserves. Absolutely an amazing story that all JRPG fans should experience. I even imported the soundtrack from Japan.

seeing as you like Etrian Odyssey Untold, i defo recommending checking out Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold. It's even more polished and the story is even better.

A recent JRPG that blews my expectations was Baldur's Gate 3.

Gintama reference. Nice

Eases my heart to see more Baten Kaitos love. ❤ =^×^=

Lots of great titles. I played Xanadu on the Vita and had a great time. Not sure what + adds but if it's more of the same, you cannot go wrong with that. Monster Hunter Stories is great. And I 100% agree with you on Etrian. I do not care for dungeon crawlers but Atlus and those devs have the magic formula that makes the genre super fun. Right as you feel like it's starting to get just a TINY bit boring, the game switches things up a bit, giving you a fun refresh. I do wish the story was a bit better but the fact that your team is customizable means that it kind of limits character development. So, if you have to sacrifice story for gameplay, at least they did it competently.

I loved Crystal Chronicles on the Game Cube I am disappointed with the remaster because I really wanted to play it with my wife.

Baten kaitos and atelier are great games I can confirm.

Great games! For Monster Hunter Stories, I found Navirou more toned down in 2. In the first game, I found him even more annoying. It's been a while, but not sure if it was because the 3DS version only has the "Monster Hunter language" which I didn't enjoy listening to.

Sir, you have good taste.

jRPG genre deserves a lot of love from us - fans :)

Waiting for the Switch release of Tokyo Xanadu ex+.

totally in agreement with Tokyo Xanadu ex+, divine force, and ESPECIALLY Etrian Odyseey Untold,

Not to be that guy, but I think the tutorials being tied to speaking with NPCs isn't novel at all. I mean, it's how it was done in the first ever JRPGs!

Baten Kaitos looks a lot like Chrono Cross

Neat.

I will never forget playing Tokyo Xanadu for the first time, I’m having fun exploring then go into one of the stores and see a massive advertisement for Cold Steel 3 which hadn’t been localised yet, it was a slight blip on what was amazing game

Saw Crystal Chronicles and had to click on the video!

I second FFCC (awesome to play with friends on the NGC, still fun but not as much solo on NSW -mostly nostalgia making it good) and MHS2. For the latter in particular I had little expectations and, as a MH player, mostly got it out of curiosity. And it was one of the best JRPG experiences I ever had. SODF, however, was a disappointment. The artistic side of it was fine (music, characters, story...) and I still enjoyed the game, but combat became boring when I realised some skills were just flat out better than others and the best way to play was spamming 1 button (and overall combat didn't feel good past the novelty of its core mechanic). The crafting system is not only the worst I've ever seen (all "standard" crafting systems suck after playing Atelier, but still), and completely useless throughout the game (I've only used it to complete sidequests, and begrudgingly at that; I could get better equipment at MERCHANTS), but also required at high mastery level to unlock the post-endgame content (which, as a result, I didn't do). The final disappointment was the lack of NG+ despite having two routes to explore; I didn't enjoy the gameplay enough to grind everything again just to see a few different sequences, so I dropped the game after the first playthrough. So yeah, I liked it until the end where it all came crashing down, which is why it left such a bad aftertaste. But I didn't play the previous games, so I never had low expectations and I can understand why you put it in this list. Games often covered by this channel that surprised me in a good way: Atelier Ryza. I'd never touched the series before, and I hated crafting... Playing it felt like when you taste fresh, well-cooked spinach for the first time and realise the green stuff called "spinach" they serve at school that you hate so much is probably just the grass they mowed the day before. Ryza 2 was even better (with enjoyable combat, unlike the first), but I hear people were disappointed in 3 so I'm hesitant to pick it up. Might try other Atelier games if the combat is good, too. No, I said "games", not "scams". Get this phone away from me! Ys 8. A friend of mine nagged me to play it for a long time, and I eventually gave in... I've had Dana in my wallpaper rotation since. All three forms of her. I also use "milliDana" as a measurement unit for how much I want to hug and comfort a character. I didn't enjoy 9 as much but I knew I would not (no Dana) so I was not disappointed. Looking forward to 10 (still no Dana, but I've made my peace with it).

Etrian Odyssey is a great series

where was that bookoff? :D

can we get ps vita recommendations?

Star Ocean The Divine Force, Atelier Lydie & Suelle and Tokyo Xanadua are really brilliant games, I agree with you. I didn't try others properly, especially Baten Kaitos, 'cos I don't like deckbuilding or card-based games, they're not my cup of tea. Etrian Odyssey irritates me too much with its map-drawing mechanics. I don't want to draw the map. Do it for me, like in Moero, Mary Skelter or any other dungeon-crawling game.

Glad to see star ocean divine force on the list. Personally inenjoyed this much more then ff16. Ff16 good story the rest bored me to death. It was basic and barely felt like an rpg let alone a jrpg.

I have played all the games on this list (minus the dungeon crawler). I have come to really love Atelier games and Lydie and Suelle is one I couldnt finish. I don't remember why though. Either burned out on the series or it was just boring to me. Tokyo Xanedu I also didn’t finish due to the combat. It felt like a worse version of Ys, and really just made me want to play Ys... so i did and stopped Xanedu. Star Ocean i also stopped due to the graphics, I couldn't gwt past the character models just looking like Dolls and being stiff. Gameplay was amazing though, mostly.

I never got into xanadu At the time, it was kinda bs that ex + had content that u payed for and the one of the few games that taught me, alway or look for the LE and don't rush the game 2nd Student council prez #1

divine force had an alright story but they had absolutely no quality of life features at all in a massive empty world, empty towns and side quests that werent even side quests but just a fetching quests that have no rewards even worth bothering with.

Bar Ten Kai Toss

When i found Suikoden in my local game shop for $2 I had 0 knowledge of the game i just thought the cover art was cool but it completely blew away my expectations. Most recently Unicorn Overlord.

"Monster Hunter Stories 2 is under-rated". Boy then you haven't played the ORIGINAL *Monster Hunter Stories 1 (3DS).* That game is *10 TIMES BETTER than MHS2* simply because of the *'Monstie element change'* feature (which they sadly REMOVED from MHS2 for no good reason and that KILLED my interest in MHS2 after finishing the main story unfortunately). I CAN'T WAIT for MHS1 Remastered next month! :D

I wanted to back the game, but $40 to ship a game?! :/

for me, yakuza series

Why is the background music so sad 😢

I agree with many of these, but personally i'd swap a few out. Games i'd definitely want to add (seems to be mostly newer stuff, guess that's what stuck more to my memory): Blue Reflection: I can't even say what it is about that game, but i liked it way more than it has any right to... Harvestella: Another one I can't really put my finger on. On thing i want to say though is, that the marketing was all wrong. It's not a farming sim with some JRPG stuff like Rune Factory, it's a JRPG with some farming sim stuff. And the soundtrack is amazing, Go Shiina delivered once again. Triangle Strategy: I expected a decent game here, but I wasn't prepared for a story THAT good. The characters are great too and in contrary to most other SRPGs every unit really is unique in gameplay, and usually they are not just a little different, but have completely different movesets. Trials of Mana (the remake): I have always loved Secret of Mana, but the sequel (which we used to call Secret of Mana 2 since there was no english name) never really captured me, mostly because the battle system feels extremely slow and sluggish. So I didn't expect too much of the remake, but the gameplay was SOOO fun, i ened up making 4 playthroughs, and i hardly do more than one nowadays But first and foremost: Utawarerumono Mask of Deception. I bought it on a whim, thinking i'd buy a SRPG with some visual novel elements but had no expectations for it at all. Well, turns out it's a VN with some SRPG battles for a change of pace, but damn, the characters and the story are absolutely amazing. PS: It's such a shame Baten Kaitos Origins is such a terrible game. I waited 20 years for an European release for THAT? It does pretty much everything the first game did right wrong.

why you say PS4 it priemered on the gamecube

Alzara has me skeptical. There have been many projects where old greats banded together to make a new game but they weren't always that great. What was good back then isn't necessarily good now and some old developers don't always get that. More often than not it's new creators rather than old who can look at games of the past and figure out what worked and what didn't without getting bogged down in outdated mechanics and other such elements.

Still thinking if I should still play the first MH Stories or just go straight for MH Stories 2

I miss the old rpgs... 3D rpgs are not for me