Top 10 JRPGs I LOVED but NEVER FINISHED 

Dragon Quest 8 on 3ds has a save anywhere feature, you should give it a go! I loved it more than I should have

For me it’s Star Ocean: Second story with the difficulty spikes and Octopath Traveler with bosses that have too much HP.

I am sorry to put it into these words but you will regret not finishing Tokyo Xanadu. It's such a fantastic game especially in the end of the Idol Arc and afterwards up until the End. And no I dont even like this Idol stuff at all but it was okay. Its an important buildup for a main Char so yeah.

I didn't expect Jeanne D'Arc to be on this list. To me, it's one of the best RPGs ever

Loved this countdown (as I enjoy your channel)! Glad to see I’m not alone in sometimes being unable to finish RPGs

Persona 5 is one of those for me. Back when my wife and I were just dating, we had two separate save files. One for me and one for both of us to play together. I got so burnt out doing the same missions and palaces over and over. We're finally just now getting to playing the joint one again while mine is abandoned.

I remember getting stuck in FFT by saving right before a boss fight. I had to replay the boss fight over and over and over because it was a 1v1 fight between the main character and a monster demon. My main was so low leveled that the only way I could win was if he missed 2 of his attacks out of 3 or something like. I replayed until it happened lol. I love that game.

Hey Erick, great Video, really digging your Top-10 Lists. Here's an idea for another: Top-10 distinctly "unepic" RPGs, where you're not a Chosen One saving the world. Conflict doesn't have to be trivial or cutesy, though, maybe a more realistic setting or resolving a local conflict, whatever ... Anyway, keep up the good work!

Loved this video! You should make a part 2!

te recomiendo la versión de 3ds de DQ8, no hay encuentros aleatorios, así que es más fácil elegir a tus enemigos y farmear xp gp o lo que quieras, es mi segundo juego favorito después de Chrono Trigger

I'd strongly recommend trying Dragon Quest VIII again, but the 3DS version. Not only can you save almost anywhere, but it also has that fast forward feature that you can use to grind faster. And this is especially easy once you find a decent place to grind battles against Metal Slimes.

Great video, made me dowmload Jeanne d'Arc on my PSP emulator, had no idea it existed, definitely excited to try it out :)

you can use holy bottle to avoid random encounter in Eternia

OMG Jeanne DArc may be in my top 5 SRPGs ever.. Maybe top 3.. And it’s probably one of the few of this genre I did finish hahaha Its beyond tragic we never got a sequel or spiritual successor by Level 5..

every rpg you listed i have played from start to finish XD

Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X, Tales of Eternia, and some others.... Mostly because I was a bit completionist but I couldn't beat the optional contents.....

RPGs are really really long games. One of the main reasons why some people never finished some of them.

I also loved Shining force 2 but never finished it. That music is great. I did beat Tokyo Xanadu though. That’s one of my favorite Ps4 games.

I love the Dragon Quest (Warrior) Games from back in my teens I’m greatful for having played those archaic RPGs like DQ and Phantasy Star to appreciate newer RPGs with more save options and RPGs with save states...

I forced myself to finally finish Xenosaga episode 2. Every battle was like a boss fight because all of them took forever at the end. It’s so bad the battle system. It’s like they forgot to add an appropriate battle system and wanted you to focus on the story. I got to the last 3 bosses and quit for a long time. Went back last year and finished it somehow.

The funny thing about Tales of Eternia (Tales of Destiny II) is that I played it multiplayer with my best friend for most of the game (PS1), but for some reason we dropped it more than halfway through the game when you got to the alternate dimension. I continued until almost the final battle then suddenly we get bored and play that last dungeon together. LMAO

Interesting video. If I think about which jrpg's that I really liked but still did not finish the list might include Final Fantasy X and XII, Arc the Lad 2, Dragon Quest VII, Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army, Nier, and Tactics Ogre.

Shining force is where my love for jrpgs started. Fantastic game

I feel you on DQ8, I got stuck at the 2-part boss battle against Dhoulmagus and had to do some MAJOR grinding to get past him. All the battles after that were like cake compared to it and I finished it. Both Final Fantasy IV and IX were games I loved but didn’t complete for years for various reasons. Right now the RPG I’ve enjoyed the most but haven’t completed is probably Lunar 2 on PS1. I’m planning on getting back to it eventually.

I love the Disgaea games, but the only game I beat all postgame content in was Disgaea 1.

Not sure if anyone else is having this problem, but this is the 4th time I have had to re-subscribe this year 2022. RU-vid, wtf. Love the video!!!

Dragon Star Varnir, Final Fantasy X, God eater 2 and Demon souls are rpgs I loved but never finished. With god eater 2 I thought I beat the game when I stopped the devouring apocalypse but apparently that’s only half the game and there’s a lot more stronger Aragami to kill.

The only reason I never finish games is because they are released too close to something better and I never find time to go back to the game I missed eventually sitting on shelf for years collecting dust, so sad.

Not sure if this counts, but for me it was Tales Of Legendia. Once you finish the main quest you're meant to complete these character quests that come afterward. But you were mainly just retreading old dungeons and for some reason this part of the game had no voice acting, which really stifled my enjoyment of it. I checked out after the weird resolution of Chloe's quest and never looked back.

I loved this video, one of your best!

as a fan of rpg's during ps1 and ps2 era and wanting to play again, what RPG would you recommend to play on Nintendo Switch?

Torna literally has one of the best endings of any game or JRPG. Also the characters are basically the same from the base game which ties with the events of this one. Please, give it a try and finish it first and you will have a very different opinion. I do agree with the required side quests not being the best part of the game.

I'm surprised I've finished most games of this list. Tales of Eternia has such a great plot and endearing characters. And I don't know if I was brave or crazy enough to maximize all Mantras for all characters in Digital Devil Saga...I was glad I did though, so I could abuse invincibility skills during the last bosses 😂 Plus, you can carry special Mantras over to Digital Devil 2!

Only just recently played folklore. Loved the twist at the end. Great game.

Have you every done a video on the Mother (1/2/3) series? Playing Mother 3 now and impressed so far.

You really should go back to Shining Force 2. Probably my favorite SRPG ever made.

I loved Yggdra Union. You had to pay close attention to the tutorials, but once you had a firm grasp of the mechanics, it wasn't horrendously difficult. Whenever I play Sting games however, I'm secretly terrified that I will get stuck somewhere.

The Last Remnant was one I have not been able to beat because of some artificial difficulty constraints. Here's looking at you Hawks Nest! *glares intensely!

Wait, going back to Mexico? It would be a pleasure to meet you one day here :)

Did you ever try Romancing saga 2? ,I just remember this game name and my first play is almost 10 years ago and i'm not finish it that time due to can't find a way to go next. you will love this game man, the story is really good.

Digital devil saga needs to be revisited even if it's like nocturne because I just loved everything about it.

I never beat DQ8 despite using munchie as pfp, and DQ8 leading me to my favorite in DQ5 I've never beat it. My first playthru I messed up I was leveling up every weapon instead of 1 or 2. It left me sooo weak. When I restarted and did it right it was so much easier

You have to make another JRPG Rage Quit video sometime soon! 😂

I feel ya on DQ VIII, yet i am so glad and also sad i finished it.... I dont have a 3DS and my PS2 is fried , but gosh, the memories of this game will never leave me, i remember leaving it on some time just idle in the world map, that melody. Not only did i love the music, but also how it changed from day to night and how well it looked! (To me at least back then!) That and the .Hack/GU trilogy were my most precious game memories of my PS2 era (sorry Persona, you too but just to a point.)

Playing dragon quest 8 now, one of the greatest classical music Iv heard in a while, its also the best one I feel, I used to play it alot back in the day but sometimes I just stop and listen to the music in the town and stuff, almost mozart level at times

Oh man, it took me YEARS to get around to completing Digital Devil Saga. I first got it when I was a lot younger and had never successfully played any other SMT/Persona games, so I didn't really understand how they worked and found it extra difficult! I also had Nocturne at the time and kept getting lost and didn't know where to go (yep, before I had access to online game guides!) but years later completed P3 FES, P4 Golden, P5, and P5 Royal, then with the PS4 release of Nocturne I completed it in a week, and decided to go back to DDS. I LOVED IT. It was so nostalgic for me since I had played the beginning of the game so many times as a kid, but never got past maybe the second area because it was so hard. I'm now onto DDS2, but really wish I could have carried my save over from DDS1 because it would make it so much easier - A- (can't transfer save files on PS3 version... ugh). Other games I enjoyed, but never finished are FF9, FF10, FF12, FF15... ahh I think there's a pattern here lmao also I loved and never completed Digimon World 2003 in part because the game crashed a lot, and in part because I lost it and have no idea where it went ; A; it also took me around 20 years to get around to completing Alundra because of the difficulty when I was a kid ^^;

Oh man, you have to finish Xenosaga Episode II. The story and characters are fantastic. I may be biased though because it's in the Top 5 of my favorite JRPGs. I love that game and I actually enjoyed the battle system quite a bit, especially being able to finish an attack in an Up or Down state so the next character can continue attacking the opponent in the air for a chain attack and more damage, or just more damage if they are in Down state.

I'm proud to say I've beaten 6 out of these 10 games and the other 4 I just haven't played yet. Even torna I finished but that one is a short addition yet I also found it fun.

i gone back to tales of the abyess and finished it a tales game i stop playing half way finaly cleared it of my tales list and did tales of arise stright after.

Mine includes Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Destiny, Final Fantasy VII(classic), Final Fantasy VIII. All of them right at the end too. Oh...and Jeanne D'Arc too! But somehow I get distracted by sidequests like collecting ultimate weapons or I'm deterred by the final dungeon.

hey Erick, dou you played Koudelka?? I wanted a remake of this game for many years, and of course, Remake of Xenogears too!

I never finished Dragon Quest 8 either. I played it on an emulator and made it most of the way through. Late in the game when you are tracking down the game's method of aerial travel there's a part where you are supposed to follow the shadow of a giant bird to ultimately finds its location so as to ride on it. On the emulator I played the game with, the shadow of the bird never showed up due to one of the background graphic layers not working and thus I was unable to track it. I was unable to beat the game since you need to fly to progress past that part, which was a damn shame as I was enjoying the game quite a bit up to that point.

"Fuck this game." hahahaah i laughed so hard when you said that.

I haven't played loads of JRPGs, so currently I don't have any that I've given up on. I always like to try and beat whatever JRPG I've started. Currently I'm playing Phantasy Star II, the things that have made it harder for me to keep playing are its dated combat mechanics, not knowing who is going to attack then instead of your character focusing on a weakened character they'll attack another charcter sometimes, which can be annoying. It's quite grindfest too but the worse thing of all is the dungeons, I just wish it had at least a mini map of the dungeon, so you could at least know where you've been. But I'm determined to try and get through it, I've no idea how far I am into the game, I'm currently through all the dams and have access to a spaceship that takes you to another area.

A tip for DQ8: exploit the casino and get the best weapons, ez.

Final Fantasy 13. I actually didn't mind the game. I got to the last area, but then I dropped out of college as I got very sick. My college program at the time was Game Design, so playing FF13 was part of class work (its a lot more boring than it sounds, trust me). My save was on their system and I didn't pick it up again afterwards. I'm sure I'll go back to it eventually. Also, Skies of Arcadia. I loved that game so much, but couldn't get past the final ship battle. I can probably finish it this time around, I just have too much on the go right now to go back to it. Oh.... and Dragon Quest 7. The grinding in that game is really bad. I know I'm at the turning point where it gets a lot easier, its just grinding to get past that point.

To be fair, the optimal weapons to go through DQ 8 didn't come from the weapon shops, they came from using the alchemy pot and mixing ingredients. Armor on the other hand though 😕 but like others have said, DQ 8 on the 3DS has a save anywhere feature and speeds up the alchemy pot mixing to instant completion instead of having to wait 20-30 minutes of in-game (outside of battle) time for the mixing to complete

Savestates in emulation are your best friend for games like dragon quest 8. When I was a kid or teenager it was fine to spend hours playing and lose progress if I died, being an adult with responsabilities I simply can´t do it, don´t have the time even if I can stomach the frustation. Savestates are so nice.

I haven't finish Jeanne arc either 😭 I definitely needs to finish it during my free time

Valkyrie profile 2 didn't feel like grinding and tales of xillia 2 my hdd got corrupted close to end of game

This title alone makes me wanna confess something Although I love JRPGs, I have never finished most of the JRPGs I have started. Most of them are just so long and I would need several weeks to finish one of them...but by that time I find new games I wanna play...I hate myself for that

Optional quests are optional. Side quest means the quest itself is not narratively connected to the story and plot.

I just got back in to Trails of cold steel 2 after 9 months away, I spent 83 hours on the first game jumped right in to CS2 and stopped around 15 hours in. I plan on going through 3 and 4 as well just got to find a way of playing without getting burned out.

damn Tokyo Xanadu was one of my all time faves because of all the extra stuff...I thought the combat was weak. Shining Force 2 is a damn masterpiece.

I never had an issue at all finishing XC2 Torna but that’s probably because I loved the game so much that I didn’t mind doing all the side quests lol.

Shining Force 2 can be tricky. If you promote each character at level 20 the difficulty spike will kick your ass. Take everyone to level 30ish before you promote. The exception being the main character since he has to be a hero to use the sword against the Talos to get the caravan.

You know, you got me thinking not about Games I haven't beaten but Games that I have only beaten once and then tried to beat again years later but still haven't. Some games I can beat easier now than before but other games I have tried to beat for a second time and it baffles me how I ever beat those games the first time around. Like Breath of Fire III I have only beaten once now I don't remember how I did that. Grandia I have only beaten once and I have tried on a few occasions to do that again but I still haven't.

I also loved Shining Force II, but couldn't finish it! For me, I borrowed it from a friend, but didn't get around to playing it for quite a while. I think at the time I was much more into PS1 RPGs. But I finally did start playing it, and I really loved it! This was way before I ever even heard of Fire Emblem. And just as I was really getting into it, my friend wanted the game back. And the save file was on the cart so I lost it and never got my own copy or ever played it again.

Dragon quest 8 on the ps2 is one of the most difficult rpgs I've played because leveling almost means nothing.

3:40 ahhh, I had always wondered about your accent - that explains it, it’s Canadian!! 😅

I don't understand the hate for Xenosaga episode 2, I'm currently playing it and I love it. I think the battle system has been way better than the one in Episode 1 so far(I think I'm in the middle of the penultimate dungeon). I was brainlessly spaming the same techs over and over in the last three dungeons in episode 1, if not for being able to fast-fordward on the emulator, I would have dropped the game. I also like the simplicity in xenosaga ep 2 characters customization.

Dragon Quest 8 on the 3DS is such an amazing game and the addition of new story and new characters make the game the definitive edition of the game.

I still haven't finish Lunar 2 on ps1. Last boss been kickin my tail for years 😭

Same experience with Yggra union for me. Such a cool game but so convoluted... I have started it and dropped it 3 times. Next time, that it, I´m using a guide and completing it.

Yggdra union would be an better game if you could do more than one battle per turn and maybe an training mode would be neat but overall an good game.

Looking back i never finished Dragon Quest VIII journey of the Cursed king on PS2. I think i've put 40+ hours on it. Brought the game again on 3DS too but for some reason got buried in my backlog lot. Same thing with Star Ocean 2 on PS1 then on PSP.

One of my main reasons to engage on gaming is actually finishing the adventure, so my list of games I loved but didn't finish is pretty small, maybe only the Mario Party series is there cuz most of them don't even have proper story modes. Altough I never fought Red in Soul Silver, lost my totally legit copy and save file before I could, altough I did reached Lance. Maybe Kid Icarus Uprising, I stopped it right on the fake out chapter. Donkey Kong Country 3, I was liking it more than 2 but for some reason I never went beyond a factory level. Altough there is one RPG I loved but never finished: Digimom World 2, and yes, it's because I lost my 73+ save file. And maybe Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker, but I'm currently playing trough ir so I won't count it. Now in rpgs that I began but haven't progressed that much (but still went beyond than the tutorial): Atelier Meruru, Trails in the Sky 1, Ys II, Kingdom Hearts 1, FE The Sacred Stones, Dragon Quest V, and a mario rpg inspired Touhou fangame.

I didn't finish Legend of the Dragoon until after high school since I was stuck on disc 4.

I understand Xenosaga 2. I did beat the story on that one but I was clueless on the battle system through all of disc one and was able to get to disk two while still not knowing how it worked. It was in the second disc that I realized that I needed to educate myself more so I did some online research to figure it out. After that I was able to progress and beat the main story. I also took advantage of a loophole of stealing a skill item over and over again from the same enemy then running away and repeating the process so that I could build up skills for all my characters. The game for me was at best ok but the side quests of it honestly annoyed me more then anything else. Didn’t even attempt the post game optional battles when I finished the main story. Just had no desire at all to do so. 1 and 3 were way better games.

Part2 would ne awesome

The thing I hated about Tokyo Xanadu was if you even took a single point of damage you couldn't get a 3-star rating. I can understand Dragon Quest 8. The best equipment you really only need to focus with Jessica because of how squishy she is.

I am in the same boat. Love Final Fantasy 4 and 6, but both never finished due a dead internal battery. In 4 I only had to beat the final boss, but it never happened. 6 happened somewhere. Didn't finish Shining Force2, because I couldn't make up my mind with promotions... currently stuck on FF12 with an overpowered party.

I have a backlog for Dragon Quest IX that I still can't finish for years since I've only played it on my phone through emulation...

En dq 8 para 3ds tiene quick save bro, tal vez la experiencia ahi sea mejor.

Love the shirt

For me it's Valkyria Chronicles 2. I played VC 1 and VC 3 and I really loved the story and characters, in which I don't find in VC2. I don't like the school setting, one dimensional characters and generic plot it offer. And the grind of certificates and diplomas really killed it to me.

I looooove Jeanne darc. I plan on replaying it because am playing triangle strat and am fixing for more strategy rpg.

I didn’t grind at all in smt digital devil 1 and pull up to the final boss with mild magic attacks I don’t know if this makes me really tunnel visioned or really good at games maybe it was the side content

We have 2 games in common : yggdra union and folklore, but never finished them. For Yggdra, the game was so hard and battles soooo unfair (those who played it know what I mean) and for Folklore, never had the time to finish it, too much games to play ! Btw, tales of eternia, tokyo xanadu, jeanne d’arc on this list are really excellent games that I finished and recommend !

Never beat Chrono trigger. Must have started it a dozen different times, but something always comes up, or some new game comes out and steals my attention away. Most recently I made it to what I imagine is the final area, where you enter the lavos shell after going through the semi-boss gauntlet. Then Ghostwire Tokyo came out, and that's my current obsession.

Jeanne D’arc is on top of my list of games I hope get a rerelease on the ps4

yeah last few hours of tokyo xanadu i was on zoned out auto pilot it get slogish. some games need to trim the fat abit smooth it out kill a few hours to give it a better paace.

This is me for every game lol xenoblade 2 and fire emblem three houses are my most recents that I have 100+ hours in each and just kinda stopped playing or took a break. Idk why I do that

For me it's quite a few games from the PS2 era and a few Gust/Idea Factory like games on the PS3. Most notable for modern day relevance being the Star Ocean games which were all games I'd get to the 2/3rd point before dropping for another game that just came out or to replay one of the Tales games (Symphonia, Abyss, and Vesperia in particular as i got about 15, 12, and 8 playthroughs respectively each)...now as for modern day relevance it'd be I started going back to SO 1 (beat in early February) and plan to play the rest of the games (on 2 now) before SO6 comes out...good thing about the series is it has Tales style combat, bad thing though it's definitely a poor man's version of Tales combat due to not allowing you to combo nearly as well as you can in Tales...Akiba's Beat is far closer to Tales combat than SO has ever gotten. Now I also got to say this...Erick your complaints about Tokyo Xanadu, mainly the Idol complaints, is a BS reason to dislike the game since even the Idol BS is barely 5% of that chapter, ya the one Idol in the group if focused on but outside of her background for wanting to be one that's as far as the Idol aspect is explored. On top of that there are barely any slice of life aspects that aren't in your average jrpg, especially no more than what the Trails series (which you have no problem praising) give and far less than games like Persona (which you once again praise) give...on top of that trying to go the whole Romance system route for an argument is also an outright fallacy as you do NOT get a romantic ending for each gril towards Kou (outside of maybe 1 character) for this game and it's more along the line of just a platonic ending with the bonding events existing solely to give background info on each character. It's doubly a pathetic complaint against the game since the game's best aspects of the plot and dungeon trap design come after the chapter you focused your idol complaints on. Hell if you were playing the Vita version (hell even the PS4 version, though they fixed it to a degree there) i could understand if you were complaining about the translation, especially after chapter 4 or 5 as the translation nosedives on the Vita version (i'm talking about improper grammar, lines that make no sense, lines that don't seem complete, etc on the Vita version...PS4 fixed these for the most part...could've done with better vocabulary here and there though)...if someone was interested in the game and have yet to play/buy it then get it on PS4/PC with the EX+ version as the translations better and you get an extra after story on top of that and a few additional chapters in between existing chapters. Ya you can have your reasons for doing whatever but don't be surprised that I'm calling you petty for this particular reason to dislike (?)/not finish a game...hell the Idol aspect is basically no longer than Cold Steel 1's plot point in the final chapter/Epilogue chapter with what Class VII did for the School Festival. Throw in the fact this complaint is fairly hypocritical of you given Sakura Wars 2020 was in your list of top 2020 games from a video a year ago and, quite frankly, they characters could be described as an Idol group almost as much as any pop Idol group and they have the whole Idol aspect for about 50% of the game while in TX it's about 5% of the game at most (probably less tbh). And as for complaints about being spoiled for Xenoblade 2's Torna dlc...this one i find strange as, assuming you played Xenoblade 2 first (if you didn't play it then ya i guess you got a point), you'd know the plot point you were complaining about due to the XBC2's late game events. Granted...you should know to avoid comments about a game you're playing if you don't want spoilers...at least the ones that are obviously long enough that they go into plot details.

Yah, the 3ds version have save anytime you want feature and as far as i remember its not a ramdom encounter you see the monsters in worldmap in the 3ds..

Sorry das your game break das is bad THANKS for the video I Love video

10:00 loooolll

There are some games I still play but I never got a chance to finish. Xenosaga episode 2 was one of them and I couldn't beat level 4 inside MOMO's domain

I'm ashamed to say I have a few on my list. I never finished Star Ocean the Second Story (stopped playing when I got Chrono Cross), Final Fantasy 12 (just too boring), Suikoden 2 (memory card crashed), and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (too overwhelming). I'm sure there are more, but those are the biggest ones. Of those 4, Suikoden 2 is the one I really want to finish. I was just so close to the end that I ended up reading a plot summary and accepting it.

Dragon Quest 8. Love it but some bad stuff happened, I got depressed and stopped playing games for awhile but now I can't find the memory card I had the save on and don't want to start over from a 100+ hour save (yes I'm serious). Technically Persona 4 Vanilla but only because Golden exists. A lot of PS3 JRPGs because my PS3 died. RIP Currently trying to play through Dragon Age Inquisition (though that's not a JRPG) it's kinda hard to play through because of how buggy it is.