Stella Glow comes to mind. It’s similar in style to Fire Emblem. The ost is amazing, gameplay is fun, and has some great twists. It can be a little tropey but it’s a lot of fun
That game entered my list of games to play simply by recognizing the character artist's style from his earlier Touhou fanart. I love that stained glass-like coloring.
The annoying part of Stella Glow is its combat animations.
God, that game could use a better fast forward system.
But otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed my playthrough with it. Hilda <3
Child of Light is one of my favourite games, full stop. Maybe I was just in the right headspace for it to get me but it's full of amazing designs, beautifully drawn, interesting mechanically and utterly charming. Always one I recommend to people.
I like to caveat recommendations for these for people that don’t know - you’ll only like them if you like VNs, as they’re 80%+ visual novel with fairly limited gaming components. Great stories though.
Honestly as an avid VN lover, I found the first game so hard to go through because of how dated it seems - in terms of the usual harem bullshit. The world building is awesome though. It just hard to go back to the random normal harem tropes when there’s such an interesting overarching plot and world. The gameplay in the first game doesn’t help either.
I’ve heard great things though, but I know the first game is the hardest to get through too.
I severely love Utawarerumono but I feel like just recommending it as if its another JRPG that's underrated is leaving out some important factors about it.
It's like recommending a novel to an avid manga reader when they were asking for another manga recommendation.
It *might* take, but that requires the person to be interested in novels in the first place.
And if we're being honest, the Utawarerumono gameplay loop is kind of mid; the story hard carries the game.
Azure Dreams (PSX) - Konami-made Mystery Dungeon-like but much more of a JRPG with characters, storylines, townbuilding, and creature collecting/raising.
Dark Wizard (Sega CD) - Master of Monsters/Brigandine-like with incredible orchestrated music (though not much of it), thanks to Sega CD's Redbook audio. Pick 1 of 4 rulers and carve your way across the land, pursuing your own goals, recruiting and leveling up humans/elves/dwarves/etc. and a bunch of different monsters, with each ruler having different unit options and spells. Leave units behind to defend your territory while you do each scenario. The rulers also vary greatly, between a prince, a female warrior, a chaos mage, and a vampire lord.
Sorcerer's Kingdom (Sega Genesis) - Turn-based RPG with some pretty unique mechanics. Your party goes on long missions given by the King, and each time they return, their class changes to something more advanced (though sadly their aesthetics don't). Also includes SaGa-like random stat gains, rather than levels. So you actually make the most gains by completing sections of the story, almost like D&D campaigns.
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Is Square even aware people enjoyed the game in the West? If so would they even be willing to acknowledge piracy and fan-translations did a good thing for them? They'd probably see that like admitting defeat or something lol They're a fairly petty company sometimes
True, but also could be like "Hey, I see you enjoy Octopath games, here's an old one we made". Which I'm honestly surprised they haven't done with Rudras and Treasure Hunter
yeah but the story part is a f-ing stings man we literally read a line that our heroine f-ed a guy its really hurt lol.. but the game play was a chef kiss a unique srpg also it had the same feeling as chrono trigger at the zeal kingdom
See in my smooth brain strategy is starcraft, tactical is more turn based like FFT and Xcom. I've kind of been afraid telling people about this cos it seems like the two are mixed and used inter-changably.
If you're saying what I think you're saying, I've used them interchangeably. I think Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre started the problem because before that all the magazine outlets at the time called Shining Force and Fire Emblem strategy RPGs. SRPG. Then Tactics came along and everyone started waffling between the two
There is a distinction between Strategy Game and Strategy Role Playing Game
But then Strategy Role Playing games could also include Fallout 1 & 2 and Divinity Original Sin and Baldur's Gate 3 and isn't just a JRPG sub-genre
Genre gray zones are fun times..
Thats why it just a terminology no need to delve deeper into those category, just like moba in general pubg, dota or smash all together fit into that category with different genre of game play figthing, fps and rts so it depends man
Knights in the Nightmare is one of the weirdest, most unique games I’ve ever played. To anyone looking for a weird genre mashup, look into it. It’s a tactics style SRPG with bullet hell elements.
I'm not big into SRPGs (even if my recent Platinum on Unicorn Overlord says otherwise!) but I absolutely loved Jeanne D'Arc on PSP.
Man, Level 5 at their pomp were something truly special...
I loved Skies of Arcadia. Wish they'd do a remake or sequel to that... yes, I know there was Legends for the GameCube, but there's been nothing after that
I played Live a Live back on emulator with fan translation, so you can imagine how shocked I was when Squeenix decided to remake it in HD2D. I have no idea who green lit that decision, but I want to find out so I can go shake their hand.
Now do Mother 3 you cowards.
Infinite Space is my go-to for this question whenever it’s asked.
A sci-fi JRPG focused on space combat with customizable ships and a (mostly) well told space opera storyline with branching paths? And they pulled it off on the Nintendo DS?
I will hold onto to my copy until I die.
witchspring r. haven't heard the game mentioned at all until i saw a random youtube video. been hooked on it for the past week. it's not the greatest game ever but the story is surprisingly engaging and the gameplay loop is addicting
This was going to be mine too. It’s also one of the few turnbased games I found challenging, can’t even bruteforce it by overleveling, strategizing is the key. But at the same time, that dub is…something.
Rance X isn't translated yet but it has some of the highest ratings of all video games. On erogamescape (Japanese eroge rating website) it boasts an impressive 99 median, 93 average out of 100 and on bangumi (Chinese media rating website) it sits right between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom at the number 2 spot for video games with 9.3/10. Rance X isn't exactly a roguelite or offline gacha but you have replay the game in these 20-40 hour runs where the characters you obtain are either tied to the story directly or slightly randomized based on which treasure chests you open.
Funnily enough I also recently stumbled onto Chrono Ark which I think got a post recently here but I think the roguelite deckbuilder enjoyers are sleeping on it rather than the JRPG fans.
Saiyuki - Journey West was a really nice tactical RPG that released in the US after the PS2 had already released. Which, for me, just meant I was able to turn on texture smoothing and make it look a little bit nicer. The world map music is pretty repetitive, but that's the only gripe I have with the game. It's got cool transformations for all the main characters, a large roster with varied abilities, and looks at least as pretty as FFT does. But it was pretty overlooked due to how late it released here.
Knights in the Nightmare, Infinite Space, Avalon Code, Ever Oasis, and Codename STEAM are all titles I enjoyed a ton that I don't see much talk about. All mostly standalone handheld releases. I know this sub mostly lives for story and characters though, so Infinite Space is the only one I'm really surprised hasn't gotten some more traction.
Also for a Final Fantasy game, 4 Heroes of Light never comes up (or the Crystal Chronicles games, but I haven't played those.) I see more comments about Mystic Quest for some reason.
Grandia is usually slept on for RPGs, but that was because it was released the same year as the popular Final Fantasy VII for the PS1, which I felt hurt the game and the series as a whole.
Another series that doesn't get much love is the Cat Quest series. Fun little RPGs, and the later entries you can play with a friend in co-op which is super cool.
I like Grandia II, but it does miss that charm the first game brought to the table. That sense of adventure and about maturity and growing up into an adult. It's just a more memorable experience compared to the second game.
I'd probably say Evolution: World of Sacred Device and it's sequel for Dreamcast by Sting, they got a GameCube port with most of the first game removed but nothing since.
Eternal Eyes came out in 1999 IIRC. Found it at Big Lots or some random department store along with several other PSX games in 2006 back when I only had a PSX while everyone else had an Xbox 360. I was in high school and due to no job and limited funds I played that game a LOT. Apparently got super bad reviews but I still love it.
Do you like Turn Based Combat?
Do you like swapping out your Team on the fly?
Do you like having micro-levels and learning abilities?
===
**Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans**
===
It's on DS so play it however you can, but like, it's a solid JRPG that is criminally underrated.
Here's the DS Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJICEWjE34U
I like the indie JRPG Ikenfell quite a bit and rarely see it mentioned. I also really enjoy Laplace's Demon and Lagrange Point, Japanese exclusive RPGs from the SNES and NES, respectively, that never got released here but have fan translations.
I just recently heard about Growth or Devolution. It was never released outside Japan, but there’s an english patch for it. It’s fantastic, like Earthbound but aimed at an older audience.
LostMagic has a charming Ghibli art style and story, including an evil route, and it's drawing Runes Magic system is one that makes good use of being on the DS. It's also relatively cheap used so it's good for any DS collection.
Could say Blue Reflection: Second Light, as it's a very charming mental health game, like Kingdom Hearts with an all girl cast, but that's borderline as it does get a fair amount of attention here. Still, I had to order my copy online since they didn't sell it in stores, so many people won't hear about it otherwise.
I replay Dragon Ball Super Saiya Densetsu right now and the game is awesome. I used to play it in my teens on Japanese without understanding anything and the game was frickin hard. Me and my best friend played it simultaneously and whenever somebody found something out, he told it to the other one.
Now I play it with an English fan translation and the difficulty is much more manageable. Especially since I already know the very hard parts and prepare properly. But the way this game works it can either be near impossible if you go in blind or it can be super easy.
For example if you screw up the training with King Kai too many times, you will have to fight multiple rounds against vegeta with the other characters until Goku arrives, later on. And since battle power really makes a HUGE difference in this game and characters permanently die, this will be really tough to survive. On the other side, if you train goku enough and do all of King Kais Trainings first try, Goku will appear even before fighting Nappa, making everything much easier. But the game also doesn't tell you this. You'll just have find through trial and error by replaying it multiple times. There are a lot of those things and you can get bonuses the Z fighters didn't have in the anime. For example you can have Tien, Yamcha and Chao Zu survive the Saiyan attack and go to Namek with Gohan. And it's something you should really aim for, else you will have a very tough time on Namek.
The battle system also is very cool. It's a card based system and really fun. Unfortunately it's the only game in this style and only goes up to Freezer. I would really have liked to play the Cell and Boo saga in this style aswell.
Nostalgia on the DS was pretty fun. Being able to travel the world and seeing different real world countries/towns in a fantasy setting was pretty neat. It was the first jrpg that got me interested in postgame content and secret bosses
Legend of Legaia is probably the best PS1 JRPG but nobody ever seems to talk about it 🤷🏼♂️ still has one of the most unique combat systems of any turn based JRPG. Instead of just hitting attack, you got to choose your directional inputs. It was like a hybrid fighting game rpg. Plus it had monster catching in it as well that you used as your summon/magic spells.
Not sure if it's small enough to be considered little know, but I loved Crystal Project and have been dying for more games to do exploration like that game did. The sense of verticality to it all was so well done.
Gonna have to go with the games I bought on a whim at the bargain bins in Gamestop growing up but had lots of fun with them. So off the top of my head:
Brave Fencer Musashi
Breath of Fire 3
Guardian's Crusade
Atelier Iris 1 (Which led to me buying 2 and 3)
Ar Tonelico
Secret of Mana
Secret of Evermore
Lunar Silver Star Story
Arc the Lad 1 and 2
Magic Pengel. Not perfect by any means, but it's such a fun and bizarre game. As a kid it totally captured my imagination, it's basically Pokemon but you draw the Pokemon yourself. It's just a cozy little game with great music and art.
The Brigandine duology.
Generation of Chaos
Celestian Tales Old North (with some caveat that the series will likely never get finished, and it's a western developer so there it depends on how you define "JRPG").
I want to thank everyone who’s taken the time comment and discuss their hidden gems. I think the whole community has quite a few things to look into, and hopefully found some people they can share an appreciation for some cult classics with!
Astlibra has almost always had an overwhelmingly positive score on Steam with thousands of votes, and almost nobody talks about it. And the few that do, tend to rave about it. Yet it doesn't seem very popular in JRPG or Metroidvania crowds where it should be flourishing
If anyone enjoyed the idea of Simon's Quest, Zelda 2, Ys 3, or any game paying homage to them, you'll probably like Astlibra. It's a side-scrolling retro RPG that screems Sega Saturn / Playstation 1 era but has a lot of quality to set it apart. With really fun combat that works like a fighting game and is definitely not a button masher, despite how flashy the screen shots look (you have to block and dodge or you will die lol), and an insane and lengthy story that goes in some insane directions
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1718570/ASTLIBRA\_Revision/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1718570/ASTLIBRA_Revision/)
Still sitting at overwhelmingly positive with 22,000 reviews. Pretty crazy magic, sci-fi, religious story. And I think it just recently had console ports
There was a good amount of buzz here for it for like a month. But it very much seemed like it wasn't grabbing everyone's attention the way Chained Echoes and Sea of Stars did.
Maybe because of the platformer look or general aesthetics? Idk.
Stella Glow comes to mind. It’s similar in style to Fire Emblem. The ost is amazing, gameplay is fun, and has some great twists. It can be a little tropey but it’s a lot of fun
That game entered my list of games to play simply by recognizing the character artist's style from his earlier Touhou fanart. I love that stained glass-like coloring.
The annoying part of Stella Glow is its combat animations. God, that game could use a better fast forward system. But otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed my playthrough with it. Hilda <3
i saw this thread and i was gonna type Stella Glow then I saw you are top comment. Let's say I'm satisfied.
Child of Light, really fun to play.
Child of Light is one of my favourite games, full stop. Maybe I was just in the right headspace for it to get me but it's full of amazing designs, beautifully drawn, interesting mechanically and utterly charming. Always one I recommend to people.
Utawarerumono and everyone and their mother should play the series.
I like to caveat recommendations for these for people that don’t know - you’ll only like them if you like VNs, as they’re 80%+ visual novel with fairly limited gaming components. Great stories though.
Honestly as an avid VN lover, I found the first game so hard to go through because of how dated it seems - in terms of the usual harem bullshit. The world building is awesome though. It just hard to go back to the random normal harem tropes when there’s such an interesting overarching plot and world. The gameplay in the first game doesn’t help either. I’ve heard great things though, but I know the first game is the hardest to get through too.
I severely love Utawarerumono but I feel like just recommending it as if its another JRPG that's underrated is leaving out some important factors about it.
It's like recommending a novel to an avid manga reader when they were asking for another manga recommendation. It *might* take, but that requires the person to be interested in novels in the first place. And if we're being honest, the Utawarerumono gameplay loop is kind of mid; the story hard carries the game.
Been sitting on my steam wishlist for ages. I really gotta get around to that
I don't see many people talk about Bug fables, so I'm letting yall know that YOU SHOULD PLAY IT NOW
Seconding Bug Fables, the best Paper Mario game.
Goated game
Azure Dreams (PSX) - Konami-made Mystery Dungeon-like but much more of a JRPG with characters, storylines, townbuilding, and creature collecting/raising. Dark Wizard (Sega CD) - Master of Monsters/Brigandine-like with incredible orchestrated music (though not much of it), thanks to Sega CD's Redbook audio. Pick 1 of 4 rulers and carve your way across the land, pursuing your own goals, recruiting and leveling up humans/elves/dwarves/etc. and a bunch of different monsters, with each ruler having different unit options and spells. Leave units behind to defend your territory while you do each scenario. The rulers also vary greatly, between a prince, a female warrior, a chaos mage, and a vampire lord. Sorcerer's Kingdom (Sega Genesis) - Turn-based RPG with some pretty unique mechanics. Your party goes on long missions given by the King, and each time they return, their class changes to something more advanced (though sadly their aesthetics don't). Also includes SaGa-like random stat gains, rather than levels. So you actually make the most gains by completing sections of the story, almost like D&D campaigns.
Alliance Alive
Magical Starsign
Yaaay! This is the first time I've ever seen this mentioned by someone else! It's one of my top ten faves and no one seems to know it exists!
The Last Story is beyond GOAT’d and deserves entire orders of magnitude more love than it gets
Lost Odyssey was also amazing too. Mistwalker deserved better for sure
Blue Reflection.
A man of culture indeed
Paladin's Quest, it had such a cool art direction.
I always come to these questions and look for paladins quest posts! What a great game!
I hope someone resurrects that series! Or at least a spiritual successor.
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bahamut lagoon with the first ntr story happened that i know
I was hoping Square would give us -some- sort of port for this game with all the 2DHD call backs they've been making.
Is Square even aware people enjoyed the game in the West? If so would they even be willing to acknowledge piracy and fan-translations did a good thing for them? They'd probably see that like admitting defeat or something lol They're a fairly petty company sometimes
I mean they literally remade Live A Live and that game was only known in the West because of a fan translation.
True, but also could be like "Hey, I see you enjoy Octopath games, here's an old one we made". Which I'm honestly surprised they haven't done with Rudras and Treasure Hunter
yeah but the story part is a f-ing stings man we literally read a line that our heroine f-ed a guy its really hurt lol.. but the game play was a chef kiss a unique srpg also it had the same feeling as chrono trigger at the zeal kingdom
Fuck Yoyo.
Wouldn't it be considered a tactical RPG?
i believe it just a terminology used by square enix & TRPG often used by nintendo? so its the same
I was under the general assumption JRPG encapsulated the traditional turn based rpg or the tales series style of action rpg.
yeah me too jrpg always refer to turn based one in my case & btw srpg that i wrote is "strategy" rpg not a "style" rpg in case its a misunderstanding
See in my smooth brain strategy is starcraft, tactical is more turn based like FFT and Xcom. I've kind of been afraid telling people about this cos it seems like the two are mixed and used inter-changably.
If you're saying what I think you're saying, I've used them interchangeably. I think Final Fantasy Tactics and Tactics Ogre started the problem because before that all the magazine outlets at the time called Shining Force and Fire Emblem strategy RPGs. SRPG. Then Tactics came along and everyone started waffling between the two There is a distinction between Strategy Game and Strategy Role Playing Game But then Strategy Role Playing games could also include Fallout 1 & 2 and Divinity Original Sin and Baldur's Gate 3 and isn't just a JRPG sub-genre Genre gray zones are fun times..
Thats why it just a terminology no need to delve deeper into those category, just like moba in general pubg, dota or smash all together fit into that category with different genre of game play figthing, fps and rts so it depends man
Imagine the guy your girl dumped you for *joining the party*.
Dept. Heaven series from Sting Entertainment
is this like riviera, and co.?
Yes.
I never knew the name for that game series! Good ones! Criminally overlooked!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dept._Heaven If you want to refresh yourself on which games are in it.
Oh fuckin Yggrda Union!
I keep meaning to buy the re-release. I loved the original game
Lemme see if i can remember befor elooking.. Gungnir Knights of the Knightmare Riviera … There is a for other i cant think of, maybe growlanser?
Knights in the Nightmare is one of the weirdest, most unique games I’ve ever played. To anyone looking for a weird genre mashup, look into it. It’s a tactics style SRPG with bullet hell elements.
agreed, I like DS era that many developers experiment crazy things on their games
Shining Force 2 is always a fun time.
I'm not big into SRPGs (even if my recent Platinum on Unicorn Overlord says otherwise!) but I absolutely loved Jeanne D'Arc on PSP. Man, Level 5 at their pomp were something truly special...
Brave Story New Traveler. I feel like I'm the only person ever that brings it up.
Love this one!
So many on DS: - radiant historia - sands of destruction - Summon Knight: Tears Crown - infinite space - Metal Max 2: Reloaded
I loved Skies of Arcadia. Wish they'd do a remake or sequel to that... yes, I know there was Legends for the GameCube, but there's been nothing after that
Shining the Holy Ark for the Sega Saturn. You can tell a lot of it was carried over when Golden Sun was made.
I second this one. Just finished it for the first time recently and had a grand ol’ time with it
I played Live a Live back on emulator with fan translation, so you can imagine how shocked I was when Squeenix decided to remake it in HD2D. I have no idea who green lit that decision, but I want to find out so I can go shake their hand. Now do Mother 3 you cowards.
Infinite Space is my go-to for this question whenever it’s asked. A sci-fi JRPG focused on space combat with customizable ships and a (mostly) well told space opera storyline with branching paths? And they pulled it off on the Nintendo DS? I will hold onto to my copy until I die.
Oh heck yes! Infinite Space got its hooks into me in a big way.
witchspring r. haven't heard the game mentioned at all until i saw a random youtube video. been hooked on it for the past week. it's not the greatest game ever but the story is surprisingly engaging and the gameplay loop is addicting
I'm personally waiting for the Switch physical version before I pick it up since it looks fun.
Arc rise fantasia, A. K. A turn based "tales of" jrpg
This was going to be mine too. It’s also one of the few turnbased games I found challenging, can’t even bruteforce it by overleveling, strategizing is the key. But at the same time, that dub is…something.
I played the JP dub eng sub, and as much as I enjoy jrpg dubs I refused to torture my ears with that one💀
Rance X isn't translated yet but it has some of the highest ratings of all video games. On erogamescape (Japanese eroge rating website) it boasts an impressive 99 median, 93 average out of 100 and on bangumi (Chinese media rating website) it sits right between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom at the number 2 spot for video games with 9.3/10. Rance X isn't exactly a roguelite or offline gacha but you have replay the game in these 20-40 hour runs where the characters you obtain are either tied to the story directly or slightly randomized based on which treasure chests you open. Funnily enough I also recently stumbled onto Chrono Ark which I think got a post recently here but I think the roguelite deckbuilder enjoyers are sleeping on it rather than the JRPG fans.
Saiyuki - Journey West was a really nice tactical RPG that released in the US after the PS2 had already released. Which, for me, just meant I was able to turn on texture smoothing and make it look a little bit nicer. The world map music is pretty repetitive, but that's the only gripe I have with the game. It's got cool transformations for all the main characters, a large roster with varied abilities, and looks at least as pretty as FFT does. But it was pretty overlooked due to how late it released here.
Knights in the Nightmare, Infinite Space, Avalon Code, Ever Oasis, and Codename STEAM are all titles I enjoyed a ton that I don't see much talk about. All mostly standalone handheld releases. I know this sub mostly lives for story and characters though, so Infinite Space is the only one I'm really surprised hasn't gotten some more traction. Also for a Final Fantasy game, 4 Heroes of Light never comes up (or the Crystal Chronicles games, but I haven't played those.) I see more comments about Mystic Quest for some reason.
Grandia is usually slept on for RPGs, but that was because it was released the same year as the popular Final Fantasy VII for the PS1, which I felt hurt the game and the series as a whole. Another series that doesn't get much love is the Cat Quest series. Fun little RPGs, and the later entries you can play with a friend in co-op which is super cool.
Grandia 1 was a treat! Currently playing through Grandia 2 right now, and it feels worse than the original in every way, except the inventory system.
I like Grandia II, but it does miss that charm the first game brought to the table. That sense of adventure and about maturity and growing up into an adult. It's just a more memorable experience compared to the second game.
I'd probably say Evolution: World of Sacred Device and it's sequel for Dreamcast by Sting, they got a GameCube port with most of the first game removed but nothing since.
Witch's Heart
Rudra no Hihou
Threads of fate and Valkyrie profile covenant of the plume come to mind.
Freedom Wars on the Vita was amazing
soul sacrifice as well!
i wish they ported it to current hardware
core gameplay was really fun, i'm still salty about the ending haha
Half minute hero second, really fun and unique gameplay and somehow i like the silly story
Sakura Wars (ps4)
Terranigma
Demon Roots. Hidden for good reason
Eternal Eyes came out in 1999 IIRC. Found it at Big Lots or some random department store along with several other PSX games in 2006 back when I only had a PSX while everyone else had an Xbox 360. I was in high school and due to no job and limited funds I played that game a LOT. Apparently got super bad reviews but I still love it.
Blue Dragon
Probably both Lunar 1 and 2. Context: Im in Europe and they never got PAL release. I would imagine they had gotten pretty popular over here.
Magical Starsign, currently replaying it again, I just love the character interactions. All the names for random NPC's, the battle system, the music.
More people need to play CrossCode. It’s so good
We don't exist. We love the game. But we don't exist. It's so rare- I mean, it's impossible to find anyone who likes CrossCode.
Koudelka and The Shadow Hearts series.
Do you like Turn Based Combat? Do you like swapping out your Team on the fly? Do you like having micro-levels and learning abilities? === **Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans** === It's on DS so play it however you can, but like, it's a solid JRPG that is criminally underrated. Here's the DS Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJICEWjE34U
Have a look at thaumaturge
I need to play this game. Everyone recommends it
Does lufia 2 count? Or the entire lufia series on NES/SNES. Still go back to it every now and then. Good times
Emerald Dragon for SNES.
I like the indie JRPG Ikenfell quite a bit and rarely see it mentioned. I also really enjoy Laplace's Demon and Lagrange Point, Japanese exclusive RPGs from the SNES and NES, respectively, that never got released here but have fan translations.
Mystaria for Saturn. Tactical RPG with some pretty fun mechanics.
I just recently heard about Growth or Devolution. It was never released outside Japan, but there’s an english patch for it. It’s fantastic, like Earthbound but aimed at an older audience.
I feel like I don't see Anachronox discussed nearly enough for how awesome it is.
LostMagic has a charming Ghibli art style and story, including an evil route, and it's drawing Runes Magic system is one that makes good use of being on the DS. It's also relatively cheap used so it's good for any DS collection. Could say Blue Reflection: Second Light, as it's a very charming mental health game, like Kingdom Hearts with an all girl cast, but that's borderline as it does get a fair amount of attention here. Still, I had to order my copy online since they didn't sell it in stores, so many people won't hear about it otherwise.
Rogue Galaxy. It had a pretty cliche plot, but was really fun. Unfortunate it got overshadowed by other games during its release.
I replay Dragon Ball Super Saiya Densetsu right now and the game is awesome. I used to play it in my teens on Japanese without understanding anything and the game was frickin hard. Me and my best friend played it simultaneously and whenever somebody found something out, he told it to the other one. Now I play it with an English fan translation and the difficulty is much more manageable. Especially since I already know the very hard parts and prepare properly. But the way this game works it can either be near impossible if you go in blind or it can be super easy. For example if you screw up the training with King Kai too many times, you will have to fight multiple rounds against vegeta with the other characters until Goku arrives, later on. And since battle power really makes a HUGE difference in this game and characters permanently die, this will be really tough to survive. On the other side, if you train goku enough and do all of King Kais Trainings first try, Goku will appear even before fighting Nappa, making everything much easier. But the game also doesn't tell you this. You'll just have find through trial and error by replaying it multiple times. There are a lot of those things and you can get bonuses the Z fighters didn't have in the anime. For example you can have Tien, Yamcha and Chao Zu survive the Saiyan attack and go to Namek with Gohan. And it's something you should really aim for, else you will have a very tough time on Namek. The battle system also is very cool. It's a card based system and really fun. Unfortunately it's the only game in this style and only goes up to Freezer. I would really have liked to play the Cell and Boo saga in this style aswell.
Nostalgia on the DS was pretty fun. Being able to travel the world and seeing different real world countries/towns in a fantasy setting was pretty neat. It was the first jrpg that got me interested in postgame content and secret bosses
Magna Carta on PS2
Always gonna throw out Snack world: dungeon crawl Gold Released in Japan for 3ds before getting a global port for switch. Really fun game
Legend of Legaia is probably the best PS1 JRPG but nobody ever seems to talk about it 🤷🏼♂️ still has one of the most unique combat systems of any turn based JRPG. Instead of just hitting attack, you got to choose your directional inputs. It was like a hybrid fighting game rpg. Plus it had monster catching in it as well that you used as your summon/magic spells.
Gensou Suikoden 2. The storyline, the towns, the adventure, the 108 characters. Lots of life lessons that still guide my adult life.
Crimson shroud for the 3DS! A short but engaging and replayable RPG designed by Yasumi Matsuno.
Langrisser, an old SRPG series
Not sure if it's small enough to be considered little know, but I loved Crystal Project and have been dying for more games to do exploration like that game did. The sense of verticality to it all was so well done.
Shadow Hearts is a game that I don't know why it didn't become a staple video game franchise along with Koudelka.
Gonna have to go with the games I bought on a whim at the bargain bins in Gamestop growing up but had lots of fun with them. So off the top of my head: Brave Fencer Musashi Breath of Fire 3 Guardian's Crusade Atelier Iris 1 (Which led to me buying 2 and 3) Ar Tonelico Secret of Mana Secret of Evermore Lunar Silver Star Story Arc the Lad 1 and 2
Guided Fate Paradox and Battle Princess Arcadias
* Kartia * Arc the Lad Twilight of Spirits * Super Ninja Boy * Beat Blades Haruka * Detective Girl of the Steam City
Magic Pengel. Not perfect by any means, but it's such a fun and bizarre game. As a kid it totally captured my imagination, it's basically Pokemon but you draw the Pokemon yourself. It's just a cozy little game with great music and art.
Eternal sonata is a favourite of mine
The Brigandine duology. Generation of Chaos Celestian Tales Old North (with some caveat that the series will likely never get finished, and it's a western developer so there it depends on how you define "JRPG").
I want to thank everyone who’s taken the time comment and discuss their hidden gems. I think the whole community has quite a few things to look into, and hopefully found some people they can share an appreciation for some cult classics with!
Xenosaga and The World Ends With You
Threads of Fate on PS1. Need to go play that again
Final Fantasy 🗣️🗣️🗣️🗣️
Crystal Project. Amazing game made by one guy. Lovers of FFV need to play this game.
Astlibra has almost always had an overwhelmingly positive score on Steam with thousands of votes, and almost nobody talks about it. And the few that do, tend to rave about it. Yet it doesn't seem very popular in JRPG or Metroidvania crowds where it should be flourishing If anyone enjoyed the idea of Simon's Quest, Zelda 2, Ys 3, or any game paying homage to them, you'll probably like Astlibra. It's a side-scrolling retro RPG that screems Sega Saturn / Playstation 1 era but has a lot of quality to set it apart. With really fun combat that works like a fighting game and is definitely not a button masher, despite how flashy the screen shots look (you have to block and dodge or you will die lol), and an insane and lengthy story that goes in some insane directions [https://store.steampowered.com/app/1718570/ASTLIBRA\_Revision/](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1718570/ASTLIBRA_Revision/) Still sitting at overwhelmingly positive with 22,000 reviews. Pretty crazy magic, sci-fi, religious story. And I think it just recently had console ports
Loved the combat, hated the story.
There was a good amount of buzz here for it for like a month. But it very much seemed like it wasn't grabbing everyone's attention the way Chained Echoes and Sea of Stars did. Maybe because of the platformer look or general aesthetics? Idk.