Top 10 JRPGs That Aged Really Well 

I haven't played Valkyrie Profile in almost 20 years and I still remember her special attack, Nibelung Valesti. It just sounded so badass! it's crazy that it's been stuck in my head this long. lol

@@allthatishere I remember a generic archer attack "pulvarishing Storm" still has me get excited each time haha

Definitely!

Damn straight

What about BOF5? Nah I’m just kiddin’! 😂

@@JMrealgamer dragon quarter was a good game but it wasn’t really a good breath of fire game. And six never happened or at least we all wish it didn’t

Has it? I grew up played BoF3 on ps1 but never continued the series.

Seems kinda funny that I'm often brought into RPGs on 2, Wild Arms 2nd ignition , Suikoden 2, Shadow Hearts 2 Covenant, Legia 2,

Loved it a lot as well. Finished it legit the 1st time & next ones, I started messing around w/ codes for extra fun. Ever tried playing the game with Sword Jowy with you & never losing the best buds combination attack? Had impossible to equip Runes in all available Slots? Activate the 1st Suikoden hero sidequest w/o a save from S1? Literally push the Border Gate to a harder Area way earlier than you should be able to for easier leveling? (This one is a no-hack legit in-game exploit)

I need to play the Suikoden series at some points.

@@jaretco6423 do it sooner than later. You won't be disapointed. Too lots of fans surprise but suikoden 3 was my least favourite, in terms of battle mechanics anyways. Story and characters were great as normal, just didn't like the random placement when your characters move in battle and if they end up in the AoE for any attack spells you cast then they're taking major damage too, if not dying. I liked 4 too most people surprise, it was a bit different and I did find the characters to be a little bland and generic compared to the previous 3 games. Tierkries for the DS is fine game as well, a bit different again but mixes in a lot of the good from the first 2 games in with its ideas. Sorry, I could go on about the series, its hard to write only short things about it.

@@kylekostamo1880 OK. What about 5?

I miss playing that game, it was so fun. MA mixed with Mech combat. It's hard to find a half decent Mech RPG now.

No, it isn't. None of that is happening. Do not play with my heart like that.

Xenogears was and still is my favorite jRPG of that era. A couple of years ago I got a handheld emulator so I could play it again. I still have my original disks one of the few I actually kept from any system over the years!

@@rimjobledouche5201 It absolutely is happening. Never underestimate what fans of a game will do when they have the necessary skills.

@@tek512 What's the name of the project?

Agree! I loved the Shining Force series, especially 2.

Totally Agreed. And the 'Remake' of the first for the GBA also works well. Only bad thing about The Shining Force 2 is the weird 'love' interest with the princess. XD She has like 6 lines that are actually words and not a scream...

I love Terra's theme, but the Celes' Theme and Aria di Mezzo are what get me.

It's my favorite videogame soundtrack of all time.

Had "some" of the best music? Incorrect, my good man. FF6 had "the best" music. 😈

I would have placed ff6 as #1. Everything was just perfect.

Decisive Battle (boss theme) is, hands down, the best boss theme music ever created.

Literally just played it again on an emulator for the 4th time (I never play games more than once). Top 3 game of all time. Period

The PSP remake was a lot better.

Psp remake loses a lot of the charm of the ps1 version imo

@@Fingerknee the PSP version was a remaster of the PS1 version.

It's almost like all (most) the modern indie RPGs copied it... hmm... the meme is real

@@Coconattsuu but even then, you'd expect that indie RPGs would modernize the feel of Mother 3. Turns out, that feel still feels modern 20 years later. Either that, or the amount of indie RPGs has retroactively made otherwise dated parts of Mother 3 feel modern because they're still used in popular RPGs today.

it's not 20 years old, though, it was released in 2006, and the fan translation even later.

Mother 3 is a great call out! That game has aged very well.

And just think they originally wanted to put it on the Sega CD. It would have been magnificent if they had done that.

I think I've played in about 5-6 times in my lifetime. I'm a fan of a protag essentially being the sidekick character. The tech and skill system was nice and added unique flavor to every character, though your party is pretty much the same characters afterwards. The old alien cleric was amazing and could restore TP to everybody, but never could stay alive in the final battle. The pure melee alien sucked. I think 1 one choice you get is either Kyra due to nice combos with others, or your favorite robot like Demi. The human tech user is awful. Honestly, there are characters that hit hard enough and still have good abilities. Wo wants to spam attack or use spells that aren't any better? I really wish they fleshed out the machines more, and let you fly in space with one. The way sprites looked in it put me off at first while moving out of battle, but I quickly adjusted. In the end, very linear stuff with 1 or 2 areas that are optional, with pretty clear end game eq everyone uses. The lack of variety sucked some, but that is a way to make the difficulty just right by the designers. I felt like I actaully accomplished something. Games like FF6, 7 and 8 forgot how unique characters with a certain skillset is better. Everyone spamming the same spells from the same list really wore on me by 8 I was so sick of only sprites and limits being the only was characters differed in battle. 9 got back to it in style, everyone had flexable but clear roles. 10 was real strange, and again everyone could be everything. And you had to hold back "leveling" until you got items to fill empty stat slots or you went crazy skipping them. 12, again, curaga spam. The Zodiac system release was better imo. The story sucked ass in the end, I beat the boss it thought he was just another one along the way. Anticlimatic AF. I think FF5 and FF4 were skill systems done right. Either set roles, or a limitt to what you can do so you end up specializing roles. Its what I loved about FF Tactics. I miss that they'll never make another one that isn't online BS and its such a huge waste. I think they all held up.

@@thenuclearsandwich wait really?? I'd never heard that but it totally makes sense. Always wished Sega put more rpgs on the CD. Shining Force CD, Lunar, and Popful Mail are 3 of the consoles best. Damn shame to think what Phantasy Star CD coulda been.

Although BOF4 felt slower because of the battle scenes compared to BOF3. They both had excellent story lines.

I think 3 is better 4, better characters!

@@debbyolivier5122 Ryu, Garr, and Peco? aha

FFX is my favorite FF game and probably my favorite JRPG. I replay it every couple of years and always glean something new out of it.

Starocean 2 is slept in my dude

100% with so much content and tons of different endings 😀

Breath of Fire is amazing

@@aidankhaos7687 yep! Did you enjoy part 3 or 4?

Is star ocean 6 actually gonna be good this time i wonder

I was enjoying the dragonquest movie until the twist at the end

BOF IV aged like Tom Cruise rsrsrsrs

This is when I feel obligated to mention that there are… less than legal ways to play it whenever you’d want as long as you have a half decent PC.

@@Zakemaster I don’t have a pc that’s the sad part😭 maybe in the future

The only reason Shadow Hearts wasn't talk about that much was because it came out the same time as Final Fantasy 10 did and well, u know how popular that game was when it was released on the early PS2.

@@Zakemaster honestly, I'm almost tempted to do that anymore. In so desperate to play those games. The perfect mix of dark and gritty, but light and charming. Serious and intense then hilarious and goofy. I never realized how much i missed the game until I couldn't play it anymore.

@@hellfrozenphoenix13 look, I’m not a big fan of pirating games and software, but I do take exception when it’s a game that requires a serious amount of effort or a large financial investment to be able to play again. Playing shadow hearts requires a working ps2 and a copy of the game, and while it’s far from the most expensive PS2 game to get, you’re still probably gonna be putting down more than a modern release to get it. I would 100% rebuy the shadow hearts games if they were rereleased, but until then, I emulate. Is that legal? No. But it’s also not hurting the devs, so I don’t feel bad about it. So I’d personally recommend it.

Yes. As much as that game got flak for its comparisons to FF, I loved it. I thoroughly enjoyed the combo system. It made combat feel active for a JRPG, which traditionally has static-feeling combat. And I loved the limitations for the human and dragoon forms. It made it so you had to decide which to be in tactically, so the dragoon form wasn't just all-out superior.

Definitely a hidden gem, and it's getting a remake!

Phantasy Star 2 is still an amazing game and much deeper than PS4. Graphically PStar 3 was terrible but the generational mechanism (first RPG to use this) makes this still interesting and challenging RPG. Both are hidden gems. The Genesis had quite a few decent to great RPG's no one talks about.

I’m playing Phantasy Star II Improvement mod and I do think it’s a better game than IV even - which is a truly excellent rpg.

@@cpthurme High five! PS 4 is too easy and seemed to be aimed at RPG "new players". PS 2 is hardcore. I had to draw my own maps, etc etc. PS3 is even tougher. P.S: What are the improvement mods ? I have never heard of that before. I beat it 25 years ago or so.

I kept waiting to see Lunar as number 1 and then see its not on the list is highly disappointing.

Have not played the first Lunar on PS1, but with the second game I found myself WAY MORE entertained with the original Sega CD release. Those awesome animated sprite art cutscenes beat the the compressed anime cutscenes any time of the day. But Lunar 1 is just a good time, so yeah, PS1 should be fine, too :)

You need to play it my jaw dropped at one point from the changes

Sorry, but the PSP version is bad. It's pretty, but that's it. Much simpler, easier and way too much cut content. Takes out too much of the RPG in JRPG.

@@acerimmer8338 Smoke me a kipper ill be back for breakfast.

FF9 is even better with the Moguri Mod it looks and sounds amazing

@@petea8501 i really hope a full modern remake for FF VI and IX someday but as long as nomura is in charge of square it will never happen. square is gonna keep milking overrated 7

@@Rizky-Gumilar after 7 remakes are done, I would say 6 is the next natural step. It had a ton of room they can fill as well, has a lot of unique elements they can flesh out a lot, and is simply set up for it. 6 and 4 are the most likely for remakes, although I'll always hope for 9 to get one. But 9 doesn't have the same potential for fleshing out as those 2.

@@hellfrozenphoenix13 ff7 remake will never end. square will keep milking it until the end of time sadly.

I love Skies of Arcadia Legends! I think the encounter rate was a bit high and the battles dragged a bit but I still love it! I would love a modern remake especially those ship battles.

I want that game upscale ported Legends with og Dreamcast bitrate of the music/sounds so I can sell my GameCube & Dreamcast discs. That game looks a lot better on Dolphin with all the settings cranked up so they actually wouldn't need to do much. I would also like it to be re translated. Have option for original, and accurate. If you play fan translations you can see the story only just barely captured what the original game was saying

Skies of Arcadia fails the "quality of life check" IMO. Really go back and look at how long basic battles took. You had massive loading times on top of very slow to load attack animations. Even a small random battle could take 30-60s to do where you two shot little enemies.

@@Fa1nTy that stuff can be easily altered. It's still an amazing game, and if those are the only complaints its great. Only problem I had is frequency of battles which can easily be altered, if it isn't I would still buy and play it again because it perfectly captures the promise many RPGs fail at- the feeling of adventure. FF12 released after, and they said it would have sky pirates. I mistakenly thought "SoA with FF paint" but nope, no sky piracy to be had, just words on a box as usual

Really loved that game

Tales of Phantasia rather

Phantasia is better, even though Eternia has much better graphics. But Phantasia graphics are very good.

I love PSII, grindy as hell and the original genesis version is probably the most difficult JRPG there is. PSIV is much more polished and easy to get into it, but I think II will always be my favorite.

Was looking for this comment! Technically The Lost Age doesn't qualify for this list but if Fire Emblem's on here I think it's fair to include it.

@@GrimoireM if we take in account that both games were intended to be one, but were separated in two due to gameboy constraints, i think it's fair to assume that they're both one. Also they released in the span of two years

Loved Wild Arms! It had awesome music too, I still listen to the soundtrack occasionally.

Not enough comments for this masterpiece

Same except the gameplay is considered to be clunky by a lot of people. I remember struggling with it at first too, but once you get the hang of it it's super fun.

Can't agree. I finally played it last year. The texture on Chibi models weren't appealing to look at, and the gameplay is not only clunky, but how you play 2d on a plane where can roam 3d was not fun. I can respect the game for a good first try in 3d, but man did the later games really fix the issues Symohonia had for me.

SO2 is still pretty good, that's for sure. I think most of the early Tales games are still very nice. Tales of Phantasia on snes is still very good. Also, Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen. It's really sad that we never had a good, real or spiritual, successor for it.

Hey, Devil survivor overlocked isnt that old, don't make me feel old.

There's a lot of other games from the mid 2000s that will add to your stack too.

@@vxicepickxv I have all the rpgs released in the 2000s that I want as well haha 😄

Radiata Stories was an extremely underrated game. Only waiting for a time when all these tri-ace games get remastered and ported to newer consoles.

Spread needle spam ftw

Spread needle spam ftw

Hhhhmmm, I don't know bud Like, these are JRPGs with RIDICULOUSLY - and in some points clearly unnecessary - complicated mechanics, which audience of nowadays will fairly drop them at the first hours of gameplay. Now talking about Riviera and Spectral Souls, maybe these two - the other two titles of Department Heaven saga - games would have a nice better reception by newcomers. Don't you think 💁🏽‍♂️???!

@@danteroberto7412 so its all about new players and not the intricate charms? I guess Riviera would register. Maybe Hexyz Force but Spectral Souls?? I dont know.

No, bro. Not EVERYTHING is about new players. That's not (by far) what I meant. Though, think about the time we live in today. It's 2022, bud. Videogames are in a VERY different stage as they were at the turn of the millennium. Like, place yourself on the company's shoes; you want to be the maximum sure that a "relaunch" of these games will hit the tops, are you not???! And when you look from the surface and you see more criticism than appraisal, you... Hold back your coins, isn't???! That's exactly the case of these two games you cited and that's the current videogame industry mindset. No matter as much as we - the 35-40 years old JRPG gamers - are aware of how GOOD these games we're talking about are, WE are PLAYERS and they are CEOs, and they will never look to videogames as we do. And Y-E-S my man, these current executives take into account new audiences more than you imagine. I don't like it, you don't like it, but that's the reality 🤷🏽‍♂️ Now, let me ask you: have you played and beaten these FOUR Department Heaven saga games???! Did you REALLY find Spectral Souls more convoluted than Knights in The Nightmare????? Well, ok then... If you say so 🤷🏽‍♂️ About Hexyz Force, it's a good one 👍🏽 candidate for a successful "resurrection" to nowadays "general tastes", I guess. Sorry the extensive text 🙏🏽 and thnx for the discussion.

@@danteroberto7412 well I am not done with Gungnir so I legitmately just beat 3 Dept Heaven(Gungnir is definitely the hardest in terms of strategizing). I honestly didn't play any Spectral Soul game since I've been warned that is a grindfest. About Knights in the Nightmare, it all changes to me when I actually look at the wisp and what it was doing, it became clear to me on how to play it at that point. And about Dept Heaven, they are trying to crawl back and I hope someday that they manage to make a Episode ix part 2. Last thing, why did you apologize and why the long essay?

@@danteroberto7412 a question I truly wanted to ask, do you think Yggdra Union would be good if you remove the card, mvp system, and Gulcasa?

If I had the resources to, I'd hire a team and fund the remaster for the trilogy. Cannot express enough how much I love those games

Dude, what are you talking about? Vagrant Story is one of the most horrible (visually) jrpgs on the PS1. The game is rightly known to have aged so badly. And the game's story wasn't ahead of its time. There were already countless superior stories written before.

@@lucasrinaldi9909 Everyone has their own tastes, and Vagrant Story isn't for everyone. That is understandable. What is absolutely indisputable is the technical and artistic achievements made by the team that created it, and what a marvel this game was on the PS1 -- it pushed the hardware to its absolute limits. Here is a Twitter thread well worth reading, that gives great insight on the creation of this masterpiece: twitter.com/Dreamboum/status/1226610123000467457?s=20&t=sDSvScn5OsDwhnvVAYaPcg

@@Enharmony1625 Don't get me wrong, I love Vagrant, but the visuals of the game aged really bad.

@@lucasrinaldi9909 I can't say I totally agree with that, given how technically impressive it was on PS1, and how unique it is. But, it does need a proper remake! :) The potential there is just huge. I really hope Square gives it what it deserves.

@@Enharmony1625 A Remake would be really nice. I love the Yasumi Matsuno's work in general.

I really loved BoF 4. Yhe transformation in it was great for ps1

Back when 3D was a "new thing" it got so much hype even though it objectively looked like shit. Looking back it's no surprise that the pinnacle of 2D sprite gaming aged reasonably well, especially contrasting to the shit-tier 3D that directly followed.

@@easymodex9400 yeah very few early 3d games stood the test of time. Thinking about it, i think FF7 aged imo better then FF8/9 due it it veing less detailed :)

Sega classics, I think. I forgot what its called but all I know is that Sega released a collection of games of Genesis Classic, I think

@@soratheorangejuicemascot5809 thx, mate. Gonna look this one up 👍

Damn. I'm sorry to hear that. It's one of my top 10 JRPGs l.

Use that money to get a pc and emulate it. I guarantee with shaders and texture pack it will look better than remaster. Most devs dont put much effort into remasters, just look at chrono cross it runs worse than the ps1 version.

I emulate them but I would still absolutely support a remaster or even simply an HD-upscaled widescreen release.

me too. i never played them back in the day but they look like my type of games. i also really want a xenosaga trilogy, i did play the first 2 but never got around to playing the 3rd. i still remember how amazing the first game was for it's time and can't understand why it wasn't more successful.

Me too, I'm replaying it on my phone now though

Funny, because it costs an insane amount of money to buy even one game in the series online.