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Out of the major JRPG franchises, which one do you like the most?

Which JRPG franchise do you prefer?


  • Total voters
    264

Harkonnen

Neo Member
Cannot vote, so:
1 FF
2 Xeno (Xenosaga was awesome)
3 Dragon Quest

I'd just begun the Trails serie (nearly finished FC), I love it for now.
 
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IFireflyl

Gold Member
Cross is hot garbage to me. It’s like 8 in Final Fantasy speak lol

Season 2 Shut Up GIF by The Lonely Island
 
Tough one. I loved FF7 Remake and Rebirth, but really haven't cared for the series otherwise since FFX - so that's been over 20 years. Fire Emblem is great but not my favorite JRPG. Xenoblade great but not to that level. Mario RPGs would be my choice if we are talking the first 2 Paper Mario games and the first few Mario & Luigis (up through Bowser's Inside Story).

I guess I'm going to say other since NieR has been the only one that has really wowed me.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Man that poll is missing too much. Nier, Star Ocean, Tales of, Ni No Kuni, Dark Cloud, etc.

Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy are great too though (and Chrono).
Lol yeah, I forgot about a bunch. Dunno how I forgot about Tales of, since I loved Symphonia on the cube.

Also forgot about Grandia. Never played them (want to grab a Saturn first so to play the first one there) but I heard that they are pretty good, or at least the two first titles are.
 
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CosmicComet

Member
I'll say Ys since it's been around just about as long as Final Fantasy and yet has had the same main character pretty much every time except for the Origins prequel.

Adol is like if Link was on cosmic steroids and didn't have to constantly reincarnate because he deals with a huge armageddon level crisis seemingly every year, ever since he was 16 years old, as opposed to every hundred of years like the various Link incarnations.
 
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ReBurn

Gold Member
The main ones I have experience with are Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and Y's so those I guess. I enjoyed JRPGs a lot in the 8/16 bit days but outside of Final Fantasy I haven't really played JRPG's since the PS2 days. Just too big of a time commitment these days.
 
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Sojiro

Member
Voted Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and Xenoblade.

My order these days would probably go DQ > FF > Xeno. Even though the recent FF games haven't really excited me (more so 15 and 16 than the remakes), the older titles I cherish so much that I still couldn't put Xeno over that series. DQ however I have, I used to love the FF series over any other series, but these days I just enjoy the simplicity, light hearted stories and adventures, and just overall incredibly tight design of DQ, its peak JRPG imo.
 
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It was a tough choice picking one.

I am new to the jrpg genre. While Dragon Quest 11 S is one of my favorite games. I'll have to give my number one to Xenoblade.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was my first entry to the series. I absolutely fell in love. Over 500 hours. 3 playthroughs. I think the music, and especially the ending theme. Along with the characters. Had such an emotional effect on me. I remember playing so much that the end credits froze.

I spent so long with the game. I felt like Mythra / Pyra was singing One Last You to me / rex. I felt sad that our journey was over and that Pyra was gone. I cared about the characters so much.

I love JRPGS for this reason. They pull on your heartstrings and make you emotional and even teary eyed. It feels good to cry, so these type of games make me feel good.

I have since went on to play Xenoblade Chronicles 1, and 3. While i love those, nothing will come close to XC2. Except for maybe Lost Odyssey. But that isnt a franchise.

 
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Loomy

Thinks Microaggressions are Real
I would have split SMT and Persona. Final Fantasy for me. For better or worse lol.

Also, how dare you leave Grandia off this list!
 

sigmaZ

Member
Though I love JRPGs, createra have a real sel-editing problem and I feel like almost no JRPG reaches its full potential.
That said out of the series listed, FF is still the one I look forward no matter how mediocre the last one was because I like the basic systems and lore but the aeries clearly peaked in high school and is now going through a mid-life crisis.
They're still new to the JRPG scene, but I'm finding myself really liking the Like a Dragon games these days.
 

wizaga

Neo Member
Final fantasy and YS from that list. But also star ocean and the tales of series. But i would put Final fantasy at the top spot
 

Griffon

Member
Pretty new to JRPGs. Definitely going to use this as a recommendation thread. Cool to see dragon quest taking a pretty strong start. I've played 11 and loved it. But how the hell do you even play any of the others on a modern machine?
The entire series up to 8 has excellent iphone/android versions.
 

Sophist

Member
I couldn't cast a vote; i am unsure between Final Fantasy, Pokemon and Grandia. To be honest, i think the past glory of those three is long gone. Final Fantasy is almost completely different now. Pokemon, once you grow up, it's not the same thing anymore. And grandia... i don't want to be grim but the franchise died with the creator fifteen years ago.
 
It was a tough choice picking one.

I am new to the jrpg genre. While Dragon Quest 11 S is one of my favorite games. I'll have to give my number one to Xenoblade.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was my first entry to the series. I absolutely fell in love. Over 500 hours. 3 playthroughs. I think the music, and especially the ending theme. Along with the characters. Had such an emotional effect on me. I remember playing so much that the end credits froze.

I spent so long with the game. I felt like Mythra / Pyra was singing One Last You to me / rex. I felt sad that our journey was over and that Pyra was gone. I cared about the characters so much.

I love JRPGS for this reason. They pull on your heartstrings and make you emotional and even teary eyed. It feels good to cry, so these type of games make me feel good.

I have since went on to play Xenoblade Chronicles 1, and 3. While i love those, nothing will come close to XC2. Except for maybe Lost Odyssey. But that isnt a franchise.



someone everyone GIF


animedanceexe get GIF


Still my favorite Xenoblade
 

Paltheos

Member
As franchises? I don't think any franchise still being made today has a sterling reputation in my mind.

Final Fantasy's kinda off doing its own thing these days and I'm generally not as interested.
Trails was/is my most anticipated these days but some sloppy writing esp. in the last three English releases (CS3 through Reverie) and especially neglect of their once famous sound team has dented my eagerness a bit. I heard Daybreak's written better so we'll see.
Atlus was my favorite before them but Atlus has also taken a few hits. SMT4 is such a big step back from SMT3 in so many ways, and P5 is just P4 again... but worse. I did really enjoy P3R and I'm getting SMT5 on PC (and Persona Q is mad underrated; what a fun game), but in general for new properties I expect more of the same but kinda tedious? I want to say my faith's restored a little by how much the designers of P3R didn't screw up, but I'm still trepidatious about future Atlus games.
Which segues neatly into Tales which is the same but different enough to not feel tedious (Tales embraces its campiness unabashedly). The sticking point is that the franchise hasn't had a grand slam hit in a decade+. Berseria has a really neat concept but still felt cheap in allot of places. Arise is very pretty but poorly cooked in too many other places. Everyone hated Zestiria except for me and I admit it's a very flawed game.
For Xeno, Takahashi's gotten worse with every new iteration. Saga is worse than Gears, and Blade is wooboy. Tbf I only played Blade 1 and 2 for a dozen hours or so each but man that second one in particular is not good.
Ys doesn't count since it's an action franchise but it's been doing alright for itself, sans the same sound team problems as for Trails and the general worseness of party-combat vs. the classic single character titles.

I guess, by studio, I'd say:
1) Falcom
2) Bandai-Namco
3) Atlus
Again, going by franchise. There have been some neat one-offs in recent years. Chained Echoes is pretty cool, man.
 

TwiztidElf

Member
I would have voted for Persona if it was in the poll.
That's my point. It is in the poll. SMT.
If you liked Persona enough to vote for it, wouldn't you know that?
:unsure:

Other peeps have said it should be separate (and maybe it should), but I feel like most SMT and/or Persona fans probably would have voted for both anyhow.
 
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Kataploom

Gold Member
Xenoblade is my favorite RPG ever, it's just so good and polished it looks unreal, specially the art/graphics and music, but the gameplay tends to be so good and complex that once you master it feels so satisfactory to fight difficult enemies.

Dark Souls should count, the game is was made in Japan and follows a very Japanese design philosophy, maybe some should put a mod that replaces faces with anime moe characters do they don't feel it's out of place lol.

Final Fantasy is also great, I don't get the criticism for newer entries, I feel I like them more than older ones, except for 13 which I couldn't finish.

Fire Emblem and Tales of are amazing, IDK, even the mid entries to me have been at least pretty enjoyable.

Persona 5 and smt4 were games I deeply enjoyed too.

Hell I only know what's the first place but not the others, it's just my favorite genre by far 🥲
 

ChoosableOne

ChoosableAll
I haven't played many of them but I enjoyed playing Final Fantasy 12(best story/setting, decent gameplay)(also liked 9 but couldn't continue), Tales of Xillia(arpg but it counts, right? best gameplay, mid story- a little bit childish), Pokémon Red/Gold(most addictive), and SMT 5/Persona 4(fusion is so cool but both of them start to become boring after a while). If only one were to continue, I would choose Pokémon(first generation).
 

Hudo

Member
Nothing like a friendly Saturday videogame-related thread.

Which JRPG franchise is your favorite? Make sure to tell us why!
Finally a good thread!

As for my "favorite" JRPG IPs (favorite in the sense of liking many games of that franchise):

1. Final Fantasy
2. Dragon Quest
3. Xeno

Honorable mention: Shin Megami Tensei (if we include Persona) and Like A Dragon (+ Infinite Wealth)
 
Pokemon isn't the best RPG series but it's the one I'm the most passionate about and like to replay the most. Only Gens 3-5. Anything before or after isn't really very good and I say this as someone who started with Gen 1.

Final Fantasy I grew up with but it's been mixed in quality since Sakaguchi's departure. FF IX is still my favourite game ever.

There's others listed here that I like and some that aren't listed but I gotta give respect to Suikoden.
 

kunonabi

Member
It comes down to Final Fantasy and shin Megami Tensei for me but the overall quality has to go SMT, Revelations: Persona is still my favorite game of all time and I still consider P2: Eternal Punishment the greatest RPG ever made. Mainline SMT can be a little story wise but the gameplay and atmosphere almost always makes up for it.

With FF I absolutely love IV, VI, and the X duology but the rest of the series ranges from mediocre to out right awful.
 
Except....IT IS


71Gx3aRMDdL.jpg






The deep lolz, fuck you going to tell me? You going to contact Atlus to let them know to fix this based on your high authority or?

lol trying to say its not based on 1 to many of is completely irrelevant. That is like saying if they ever come out with a Digital Devil Saga Part 3 and it doesn't show SMT, we are to see it as not part of that universe or something, its like....too fucking late bruv

Assassins Creed making some game and then DROPPING the Assassins' Creed title 18 games in is not going to have is give a shit, we will see it as AC based on what they've originally established as its sorta too late bud.

So grouping Persona into SMT, shiiiiiiiiiiiit might as well, they already did this for too long to now act as if that isn't a thing.

So OP did a good job, idgaf really lol
He actually wasn't wrong. Persona is in fact not SMT, but they're all MegaTen(the original that was based on a book) though. The original Persona started as an unrelated spin-off to SMT IF, but Atlus never actually labeled them as Shin Megami Tensei at all. That's something that Atlus USA started with Persona 3's western release to connect it to SMTIII Nocturne for marketing purposes. Go look at the original japanese releases, "Shin Megami Tensei" isn't present on those at all. Furthermore Atlus USA had finally corrected the mislabeling with Persona 5's release.
 

Madjaba

Member
Trails, Xeno and DQ based on latest releases.

Much prefer Octopath Traveler as a "regular" FF than the recent FF outputs.
 
Phantasy Star (the old ones, not Online/Zero/whatever). The original on the Master System was my first JRPG. It was super hard at the time because I wasn't even 10 and couldn't read a word of English... and having playing it again more recently I realized it was because the entire game is pretty obscure and doesn't hold your hand at all lol

Xeno. I still consider Xenogears to be one of the best games ever made, and (super hot take) much better than any Final Fantasy, and the Xenoblade trilogy 'haven't played X, and at this point I doubt I ever will) is pure magic.

Other: Tales. I've played all of the "old ones", stopped at Graces f because that one is honestly boring, Eternia is one of my all-time favourites. Again, I'll never get the praise FF7 got when you had this one or Xenogears on the same console.

If I could pick a fourth one that would be Mana, I only really played Secret and Trials but both are classics, the Trials remake is absolutely great. Cant wait for Visions.
 
Got some good options but missing some classics...
Breath of Fire (1-4) - the first two on the SNES started my love for rpgs
Shining force series - love the strategy elements
Souls series - this is current passion!!
 

Shifty1897

Member
I'm still blown away by people who claim FF as their favorite franchise, but I guess I shouldn't be. There are people who still love Star Wars even though only 1/3rd of the movies are great.
 
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TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
About the split between SMT and Persona, I'd rather have them groupped in the poll since social aspects aside, the rest of the gameplay is pretty similar. (Combat system, fusion system, dungeon crawling etc). Besides if I split those I probably should split DQ between mainline and spinoffs, and the same with FF... the poll could have ended having 100 options lol.

Btw, for those that have voted the mana games, I recommend checking out Secret of Evermore, think it's my favorite game in that series.

Breath of Fire
Ah shit, forgot about those. Only played 3 for a bit but I remember it being pretty cool, and I think 4 must have some of the prettiest pixelart ever put on a game.

Should have put it in place of SaGa, since looking at the poll it seems that nobody gives a fuck about those. :goog_relieved:
 
Voted SMT, but that's mainly for those on PS2/PSP/DS/3DS like Strange Journey, Digital Devil Saga, Soul Hackers, Devil Survivor etc as Atlus have been a disappointing of late. As a fan of Soul Hackers on 3DS, Soul Hackers 2 still cuts deep.

Also put a vote on 'Other' for the little guy. The likes of Gust, Nippon Ichi, Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Experience INC etc who wouldn't usually get a place with the big companies on a list like this
 
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