Suikoden 1 was the first old school JRPG I ever played and I loved it. It really doesn't show its age in many regards. The game is beautiful, the gameplay is fun and there is very little grinding.
Personally, I never felt it even compared to Suikoden 2. Most of the story felt too simple. The story felt rather weak by comparison. Minus the ending.
I have heard people said it was inspired by Water Margin, the Chinese bandit epic. Is the plot in any way related or is it more of a "collect great warriors" game?
It's my personal favorite, it just stacks up so well against any other jrpg, music wise it is godly, storywise, game play, characters,.NPC's (it might have the best NPCs of any game)
It was a bit too braindead easy past the ruins where Zweig and Lorelai show up, and extremely obtuse with the character recruitment. That said, I'd say it was great and definitely the _second_ best Suikoden game. >__>
Everybody maybe still pissed that Konami F'ed up Metal Gear. I'm still pissed that Suikoden got axed and got no re-releases. I demand a Suikoden collection on Switch!
By the time you posted thst I am sure that at least Suikoden 1 and 2 were in the PS3 already. Eventually 3 and 4 came too, a shame they didn't re release SuikoV.
I recently stumbled on your channel a few weeks ago and I gotta say, you are the best JRPG focused channel I've seen. These daily uploads rock man, it really shows how much passion you have for our favorite video game genre.
Me too! I'd also like Zero and Ao to at some point, but fan translations are probably the way to go for those. At least the team doing the one for Zero is almost done, I think. I already played them, because I couldn't resist, and Ao in particular is probably my favorite in the entire series.
@@joeyisabsb1 CS1 has a massive cliffhanger, where CS2 is somewhere in between, in that it sets things up for CS3, but it still manages to have somewhat of an ending of its own. Basically: Either play both CS1 and CS2 and hope the two later games get localized, or don't play either of them, because stopping after CS1 would be the absolute worst thing to do. I can even imagine for people who waited in between the releases of the first two, it must have been crazy hard, due to how CS1 ends. Where CS2 is a pretty good stopping point, but obviously I do still want to see how it all ends.
Travis Green I'm picking cold steel 1 and 2 up when they are released for the ps4 early next year. Already have them preordered! I played trails in the sky fc and never played sc but fc felt like a visual novel to me, which I dont mind but I want to play a game where it isnt super dialogue heavy with no voice acting so I'll play sc sometime down the road.
@@joeyisabsb1 Yeah, all Trails games are very dialogue heavy, even compared to most JRPG's. Cold Steel really isn't any different in that regard, just so you're aware. I personally love it, but I know it's not for everyone.
Xenogears sadly seems to be dead and its remains held hostage by Bandai Namco, but its legacy is still strong and Takahashi seems to have no plans to completely abandon Perfect Works. That includes a new alternate version of Episode 5, which was first released as Xenogears, in the form of Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
I was really surprised when he said that. Even though Trails of Cold Steel has some high school tropes (only the first one, the second already leaves the school setting) i wouldn´t call it a Persona clone at all, It is a completely different videogame. I strongly believe that the Trails franchise has the best "over-the-time" developed game world ever presented in a game series.
@@shashix6551 By definition a clone is a duplicate or a copy. So at best it is equal to the original while at worst it's a pale imitation. Either way, the original is always better. As someone who plays both series I can tell you that the two are nothing alike. People only say that because of the Bonding events being similar to the Confidant system. That is selling the Trails series short. That line of thinking keeps you from appreciating the series.
@@ReallyNotTrix1 Same here. I think I may have winced when he said that. The Trails series was something that I discovered recently (a few years ago) and it quickly became my number 1. Above Square Enix... and I've been faithful to them since I was born.
why i cant give more than 1 like :( think of a remake of that game omg... medieval setting with cool mechs with many endings... i was amazed with that game had animations for every single attack command for every different mech at ps1 tech...
Yet another fantastic list, Erick! Solid recommendations as usual. Except you, like many others, have left out and ALL TIME epic/classic JRPG...RADIATA STORIES! I feel like I'm on an island when it comes to this game. I've never met another person who has played it and very few who have even heard if it. With its expansive story, "Tales" series like combat and plethora of characters it is truly a fantastic game. If you haven't played it then you should. Feliz Navidad mi amigo!
I couldn't agree with you more on Radiata being an AWESOME RPG. I LOVE IT. But I don't know, I don't think it's a game for everybody; some of its mechanics are somewhat niche, in my opinion.
@@RythymBeast I've always been curious about that game, but living in Europe and trying to avoid emulation, I've never gotten the chance to play it sadly
@@TrulySilentLie Well, it is an epic game on all fronts in my opinion. I understand avoiding emulation, but I also have no problem playing games that are near impossible to get otherwise unless you are well funded. It's sad because barring a re-release or "HD remaster" on the modern consoles MANY of these classic games Erick talks about will be lost on the newer generations. Enjoy it however you can, brutha!
@@RythymBeast I see, well since I have a lot of games to play, I often lose out on games I would need to emulate simply because I don't really feel a need to turn to such games I can only emulate. Kinda wanna stick with games I bought, you know? Not saying no one can, just I don't, but when I manage to get ahold of one these big games to play legit, it sorta feels even more satisfying
I recently finished Trails in the Sky 1 & 2 and the story of the series is the so good. The moment i finished the first game i bought the next one instantly just to continue the experience. I would recommend the PC version to anyone out there. It's a really good port and there are some extra features like turbo mode if you want to finish the game a little faster.
As for my own list it'd be: 10. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. My favorite FF title (and not even a main game lol...actually i don't like the main series that much). Not particularly hard and not even that much story from what i remember but i always liked the game and feel it's an easy pick up for most people. With that said back in the GC era the multiplayer was unplayable for me since i needed the gameboy adv adaptor and something else to get multiplayer but now they're remastering the game and i plan to drag my bro into the game regardless of his wishes lol. Also loved the narration. 9. Radiata Stories. Was one of my favorite games for the ps2 and can be best described as a arpg Suikoden series since you can gather tons (think over 60 to 100) characters for the party and recruiting each character required one or more sidequests (other than main story characters of course). However you could only play as the main character but he had about 5+ different weapons which lead to various playstyles. Also it has 2 main story routes at about the 2/3rd point through the game where the last third is quite different depending on the route (almost half of the roster is cut based off which route you go) so it does have replayability there as well and changes which parties you can set up for each run. 8. Ni no Kuni (1 and 2). Both are great games that are easy to get into and take a viewpoint that you generally don't see in video games that much (young child's rather than a teen or adult). The biggest draw however is the locations (mainly dungeons and towns) that you visit that all look unique and incredibly fun to visit. 1's battle system is a bit more unique than 2's but 2's is fairly solid as well (granted release version of the game was a bit too easy before patches released that created harder difficulty levels). The story's are a bit blander (especially 2's) but mostly decent. 7. Rogue Galaxy. Another great game from the ps2 era (is available on ps4 through psn) with a fairly basic battle system but exciting space adventure story that is told better than the Star Ocean series imo (SO either doesn't visit multiple planets or the games are just meh (4 and 5) while Rogue Galaxy visits about 10 and each are fairly interesting in their visual designs). The cast is also entertaining and quite diverse in the strangest of ways lol. 6. A Tales game, personal pick is Symphonia though. The Tales series has been a series that has put out games of consistent quality over the years (granted it has declined in some aspects, mainly dungeon design) and has (for better or worse) refined their core combat system into what is imo the best battle systems a jrpg has to date (granted i dislike the arte trees used in Graces, Zestiria, and Berseria). Symphonia is my personal pick for the series since i feel it is the most solid game in the entire series in all its aspects (nowadays it'd probably be very dated and either Berseria or Hearts R would be more beginner friendly), it doesn't exceed in anything however it has no real faults either (besides maybe being cheesy at times but i personal find the cheese to be charming lol). Also to note even though i rank this as 6 Tales is my favorite game series and Symphonia my favorite game of all time...i just don't rank it as 1 because i feel the following games have aspects that exceed Tales to make them more notable. 5. Odin Sphere L. Probably one of the most interesting games with an awesome battle system and arte style and charming story that allows you to play through 5 different character routes to tell the story. It's also one of the best uses of Nordic mythology references that i've come across in games outside of Valkyie Profile. Along with Vanillaware's other games i find it to be the 2nd best art style in gaming at the moment. 4. Valkyria Chronicles. One of the most interesting stategy games that combines turn based with some action and third person shooter elements to tell awesome war stories in a Fantasy world that's engulfed in a war similar to WW2. Also the game has my favorite art style of all time where the cutscenes almost look like they were painted. The music is also a highpoint of the series as well. Granted while the game isn't especially hard they are famous for having a handful of difficulty spikes that make people want to chuck their controller, especially when you're trying too keep all the characters from being KO'd to avoid Permadeath (not instant like in other games but one mistake and you can easily lose characters you like...so save often lol). 3. Lunar: Silver Star Harmony. This is pretty much my retro pick for the list since i don't hold the classics (granted i played the psp remake so i guess it's not as retro as the original lol) in as high esteem as many other people but this one was quite frankly brilliant. The combat is mostly decent (seen better but seen far worse as well) but the story is, pardon my language, fucking brilliant with it's comedy. Many of its cutscenes makes it feel like i'm watching one of those old 80 to 90s fantasy anime (like say Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai) or comedy anime (early Detective Conan). Hell i still haven't even beaten the game yet (bought it recently on the psp store on my Vita) and it easily became a top 10 game for me. 2. Tokyo Xanadu EX+. My favorite game of 2017 and tells a fantasy school story similar to Persona or Cold Steel and was made by Falcom so the setup for the main story's chapters and side quests is very similar to Cold Steel's as well. The writing is excellent as always and all the characters are awesome but the biggest draw is the combination of Falcom's near Trails level storytelling with a combat system similar to the YS system (in particular older games like YS Oath in Felghana or Origins) and the fact that unlike many of it's contemporary rivals the dungeons actually have traps and puzzles in them (even though the dungeons appearance could've used a bit more work, they start to look kinda the same as you go through the game with only the colors changing and addition of more intricate traps). Quite frankly it probably would've replaced Symphonia as my favorite game of all time if it wasn't for 1 fact....Aksys royally fucked the translation (for the Vita version anyway, completed that one while i'm still in the middle of the ps4's run (other games got in the way) which has made some improvements to the most grievous errors i noticed)...the story was awesome but it could've been a whole lot better if it had competent localizers like Xseed (they probably would've gotten the game if it wasn't for the fact they were swamped with too many projects and falcom wanted to get the game out since it was already out in Japan for a few years at the time) or Atlus. 1. Legend of Heroes Trails series. It's no contest really....imo the biggest draw to jrpgs is well written stories and when it comes to it Falcom is probably at the top of the industry (both in west and east) when it comes to proper story telling and writing....let me point out I'm not saying making the best stories, I'm talking about the way they structure their stories. With Trails they have created one of if not the most intricate video game worlds over the course of 3 sub arcs (Sky, Crossbell, and Cold Steel) which all tell one aspect of a much larger story with hundreds of characters, places, terms, concepts, etc. Honestly when i first played jrpgs starting with Symphonia i was drawn to it because it felt like i was Playing a book, or that was the impression i got at the time, and when it comes to that concept the Trails series takes that to the max...almost every aspect of its structure is similar to how a book is made. Each first game is used to set up a conflict while the second (or in Cold Steels case multiple) resolve the arcs conflict spectacularly and it's obvious that each of these smaller arcs are leading up to something huge at the end of the Trails series. As for the battle system it is quite frankly a secondary concern to me when it comes to the series but i will say it is my favorite purely turn based battle system (not hybrid system like say Eternal Sonata or FF's ATB) at the moment. with that said i feel the Sky series was the high point of the story so far since i haven't played Crossbell since it's not localized and when it comes to Cold Steel i feel that tying romance to the bond mechanic has hurt the writing when it comes to potential relationships that the characters could develop between each other, especially when it comes to romance since all the girls essentially are after Rean due to said mechanic and the few story cutscenes that are given to Rean's current best girl is not as well written as if they were a canon romance (like with Estelle and Joshua), hell they can't even make a convincing romantic rivalry either with this setup imo (personally i hope they drop this romance mechanic in future arcs or at least limit the romance choices to 2 or 3 girls/guys (depending on the gender of the MC...and i guess sexuality since they can always make them prefer the same gender if they wanted to lol) max).
I feel trails is great at developing characters naturally than using a game mechanic, it's a reason why fans see cold steel as a weak arc, but not entirely bad one since it still has great moments and characters.
Radiata Stories & Rogue Galaxy are amazing. Still got them boxed away somewhere. I used to play crystal chronicles too but never did make it very far in that game.
Same here, though I dunno if eternal blue is much better. I liked the magic experience system, as well as most of the cast I suppose, but Ghaleon (hence the name) is like the most memorable villain ever IMO, and while he was in 2, it wouldn't have been the same if it wasn't based on what 1 built up for him. I think part of it is that I actually played the originals when they were new, so the first impression of voice acting and cd quality music on 1 absolutely blew me away, and while it was great in 2, it didn't have that HOLY @%@#% WOW reaction for seeing something for the very first time.
Really nice selection of games. From SNES I would 100% add Terranigma. That game is a real masterpiece, I can't believe how complete it is for a SNES game. Anyway, I hoped to hear you recommend Fire emblem: The Sword of seals rather than the Sacred Stones (Just because I'm biased, the sword of seals is my favorite one for now), but I totally agree with you, the Sacred Stones is a good one to get people into the franchise. The Blazing Sword might be a little slow at first for a newcomer and might get them bored. Sword of Seals is definitely too hard for a first timer. I haven't tried the GC ones yet, I'm going through the GBA ones once more before moving to GC. Anyway, that's my opinion, I haven't played that many games due to a combination of me taking too long for beating games (I usually take my time, explore everything I can and try a lot of combinations) and that I've been working + studying since I was 14yo so I haven't had that much time to play. Ps: If you haven't tried Y's chronicles I recommend you do it. It has an unusual battle system, but once you get used to it the game becomes really great.
I've just discovering Sen No Kiseki series and it seems really awesome. I'm a huge fan of Ys series and clearly Falcom is too much underrated but the modern times will change this. A little note for Suikoden I and II which are part of my favorites Rpg ever. Fantastic plot, soundtrack, characters (the 108 Stars quest is amazing). Just unforgettable moments with those games. The IV is well the black sheep of the family but it had his charms even with poor graphics. Suiko V is excellent. I really miss this great franchise.
Nice video, was glad to see you start it with Lufia 2, my #1 favorite game. From the intelligent things you said about the games I did know, you have convinced me to take a look at a couple others.
I've only played the first part of Trails in the Sky and the demo to Trails of Cold Steel III, and I already love that series. It's actually taking over my top-spot when it comes to JRPGs from Final Fantasy, simply because of the storytelling, the worldbuilding and the combat system (which doesn't really seem to change much, but rather just gets more fleshed out from Sky to Cold Steel 3).
you make me regret selling my Eternal Sonata... I really want to play Suikoden 5, I wish they would remaster it for PS3. I love Suikoden 1,2,3 and The DS one so much!
You should definitely try OPOONA for the Nintendo Wii. It is almost a current Earthbound successor with gorgeous cell shaded rpg goodness. Your a kid on vacation when your ship crashes, parents and bro/sister are hospitalized. You take jobs, get licenses, go to school and embark on all sorts of sci-fi adventures across different parts of the planet.
Lufia 2 was my childhood as with FF3/6. I sank so much hours in this game. I love it.. the characters are great, the story is great and the level up system with the pets are great! I highly recommend this game if you love old school rpgs.
Besides FF and Persona, you got Bravely Default and Bravely Second, Pokemon, Yokai Watch 1 to 3 and blasters, Digimon Hacker Sleuth, Inazuma Eleven games, The Sims.
I've been a JRPG fan my entire life, but have only recently gotten into the Legend of Heroes franchise. Let me just say the flow of the Liberl arc (Trails in The Sky series) has such a wonderful pace. It's a slow burn that has fantastic world building and payoffs. I haven't gotten to the Erebonia arc yet (Trails of Cold Steel series) but knowing what I do of the callbacks and interwoven story, I'd really recommend playing the Trails series in order and not just starting with Cold Steel.
your background poster, chrono cross, it's the first jrpg i ever played on ps1. and still the best of all untill this day. i love whole element in the game, from characters to storyline. is perfect beyond perfect.
actually to inform you better, the trails in the sky series and trails of cold steel series are part of a three part arc. the final arc will be under production some time in 2021. all of these game have characters and events that intertwine with each other. so there you have it.
So glad to hear about more people playing Trails of Cold Steel. I've played 1-3 so far. You convinced me to give Tales of Hearts a try. I also loved Radiant Historia.
It's just not fair to say Cold steel is a clone of Persona. I just finished Cold Steel 4 and it's just a Wonderful saga, it's easily my top one JRPG series of all time. No other game will give you that much emotions from a story, the lore and the Characters. everything is so well put together. Now i'm feeling sad because no other games series will give me that for a long time...
Yes and i uploaded my playtrought 'walktrought' of the games on my channel, and seeing the amount of text those games it's gonna take quite a while for the localization...
I remember Lufia series when it was Unobtainium got Genesis owners. While Phantasy Star 2 was probably my hook to get into JRPG, we always looked at the colorful grass on the other side that were SNES : Lufia, Mana, Trigger
For everyone who's watching in 2020 I got another obscure recommendation from the SNES era. "Treasure of the Rudras" 1996 by Square can be played as a rom with translation patch. Great story, great music and a unique magic system where you learn and enter words of a spell effect and can recombine them. You also learn them when the enemy casts them as the spell attack will be spelled out.
By trails of cold steel 3 they move away from most of the school stuff because, the characters eventually grew up. By trails of cold steel 4, is when the world building come together. All the characters from the past legend of hero games come back. So you will see Ellie, Joshua and Tita since you played trails of sky. You will have 39 party members. And a lot of those characters are from past games.
Holy fuck. And they just released trails 5 in japan. How DARE they keep the rest of this amazing series from us. Such a cock block thing of falcom to do
i love the growlanser games. Although you should've mentioned that heritage of war is actually the 5th game. Start with the first one, you won't be dissapointed.
Great to see Cold Steel Sky getting more recognition. The Trails Series is by far one of the golden gems of RPGs out there. Hope you enjoy the ride! Overall great recommendations bro, some amazingly underrated games out there. Might pick up Growlanser!
@@ErickLandonRPG cold steel is not that interesting if you haven't played the previous games. (Liberl and Crossbell) Literally the very first scene cliffhanger is specifically targeted towards those who have played ao no kiseki (West Zemurian Trade Conference in Crossbell takes place in chapter 2 of ao no kiseki) If you played ao no kiseki, you would know that the railguns did not actually fire.
@@d3ly746 I have never played the others as of yet and I jumped in at Cold Steel 1... so I beg to differ as I found them interesting. Also [Ao No Kiseki...... SPOILER] Ao No Kiseki...... SPOILER] Ao No Kiseki...... SPOILER] The opening sequence is different from the actual Fortress scene. Clothes, characters, etc. In Ao No Kiseki, I believe that the guns actually do fire. But then there's the S....T.... incident. Ao No Kiseki...... SPOILER] Ao No Kiseki...... SPOILER] Ao No Kiseki...... SPOILER] Ao No Kiseki...... SPOILER]
I played the PS3 version a long time ago. Viola is bae (and reasonably OP if you get consistent headshots). I wasn't sure what Erick meant about PS3 being the hard version while 360 being easier, b/c I only played PS3, and while the PS3 one does have a harder difficult called Encore Mode as a NG+ kind of thing, you don't start off a brand new file on Encore. Was he referring to that, or is the normal balance actually harder on PS3? I don't know. I did quit Encore mode pretty early on though--didn't want the frustration, and couldn't get past Tuba.
Happy to see you like the Cold Steel games, though I wouldn't recommend people to play them without playing the Trails in the Sky trilogy first, as all the Trails games are very focused on story-focused. The story are actually complex but it's presented in a very simple way, so only those lore-obssesed people (like me) would dig in more. PD: There are patches to bring the jp voices to these games on PC (GOG versions).
I have played cold steel 1 and 2 and I am working on the sky trilogy as we speak. Im kinda sad i cant play zero or azure though. Also, these games aren't persona clones, they are differences although both series are awesome :).
Trails of Cold Steel 3 is one of my top 5 favorite games of the last decade. The 4th and final game in the Cold Steel saga can't come fast enough to complete this masterpiece.
Well, it does have 'social links' and school based rewards. But that is only a small part of it. The COMBAT instantly reminded me of the Grandia series. Once they got rid of the school in 2, it just seems much more like a combination of Xenogears and Grandia.
Yeah, I wouldn't say it's a Persona clone either. Only the first game has a school setting anyway and it's a military school. I personally wouldn't agree about the stereotypes and cliched characters either. A couple might have some light stereotypes but each character has much more depth than that.
I never heard of Legend of Heros til Cold Steel. Played all 4 and understood everything going on. Just didn't get a few Easter eggs or a small connection. If you can play Sky and Crossbell series first, do so, but if you can't, feel free to jump right into Cold Steel.
Just picked up the Growlanser Heritage of War Limited Edtion for PS2. The intro looks great. Going to start it hopefully before the end of the year. Working on Ys VII right now.
Have you played Encore Mode yet? The optional stuff in there will probably change your mind, but I already cried at all the one-shots from Burning Spindle and Mega Mash. Maybe you have better reaction times than me, though.
Great video again, Erick! I absolutely love Radiant Historia! The only problem I find in it is about the grind mid-game. But it isn't a tough grind, so whatever. Radiant Historia is a masterpiece!
Glad Phantasy Star IV made the list. The original Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System was my 1st rpg game ever. I was only 5, and could only read half of what they were talking about, but I loved it anyway. It got me into the genre and I'm thankful. I was 11 when part IV came out and I remember saving up for that $99 price which was way over the average back in 1993. I was not disappointed though.
XBC is in another league compared to most Jrpgs. Fantastic world, one of the best storylines, unique and fun combat, deep lore and some of the best characters in gaming period.
Nice video. Nice to see some trails love ... though I think it's a bit weird to compare Sen no Kiseki to a Persona game, lol. And thank you for the growlancer recommendation. I actually came across that series a few days ago by chance by watching the start of a let's play for one of the games. At the time, it seemed promising. But hearing about it from you, I'll now emulate it myself to see if I really enjoy it. Thank you very much for the recommendation.
The best part of your lists is that I don't see The Witcher 3 inside, I know they are JRPG lists but God I am so sick and tired of seeing this game in every RPG list that exists.
Phantasy star 4? I see you are a man of culture. PS used to be one of the most epic sagas ever and definetive should've become more than all those MMORPG later on. And yeah, cold steel is incredibly good. It uses the school setting infinitely better than persona, and there's much more going there for each character than there was in persona as well. Growlanser is pretty good too. I personally loved the second game when i played it long ago. I personally would've mentioned wild arms as well. Every single one of them is very accesible, great and stylish. The gameplay changes with 4 and 5 or XF might turn down some people, but i believe each of them is pretty solid albeit with some flaws
A lot of people say to play the Trails series in order, but I'm gonna jump in on Cold Steel. That series is what drew me to Trails games in the first place.
You can play them CS1/CS2 then go back to Trails in the Sky/Crossbell duology then CS3/4. CS3 assumes you know everything that has happened in the other games.
Wild Arms was good but not that good :D. I haven't played the remake but on ps1 it was very cheesy. It had interesting stuff in it, but when it came out it felt really like a poor man FF7 on a lot of aspects.
The difficulty isn't the only thing that's different between the versions. I own both, but the ps3 version has new story content, extra characters that can join your party and even some costumes. It feels more... complete with the story. The 360 version, while it would make sense storywise (sort of a spoiler) but with how things often felt, it kind of had a fever dream feel. Discussed it with a friend, and he thought that it would make sense that way. For me, however, I just like the story more on the ps3. Also on another note, I don't know if the translation of Tales of Hearts was dumbed down to make it PG instead of PG13, but the way the character's talked, it felt overly censored, and the Tales series never relied on foul language to begin with. Oh well. I wish Tales of Innocence R had been translated. Played the DS translation and absolutely loved it enough that I imported the Vita version and happily willing to flounder through the menus to play it.
