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The JRPG

Despite falling out of fashion in recent years the JRPG is still going strong and will never truly die. No matter how many ATB's or moe lolis developers add.

JRPGs cover a wide variety of systems and everything from the classic turn-based to medieval strategy, so something here is bound to tickle your fancy.

Consoles

NES

Title	Style	Description
Destiny of an Emperor	Tactics/Strategy	Based on a graphic novel of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Mixes Dragon Quest and Dynasty Warriors. Journey across the vast land of China, go through towns, caves, and tunnels, and fight enemy warlords in open areas, forts, and castles. You can also recruit over 100 generals to your side, through show of force and/or bribery. There's quite a bit to see, do, and even miss out on. Has a japan-only sequel below, however it does have a full translation patch. Both are badass and worth playing.
Dragon Warrior IV/Dragon Quest IV	Traditional Turn-Based	This one's pretty nice. You don't have to play any other DQ game before this. Has pretty nice pacing, and the chapter system is a means to help you learn the ropes while still giving a bit of challenge before the fifth and final chapter, which is longer than all past chapters combined. The twist there is that you only take control of the Hero character, and your other allies act on their own accord based on tactics you give them. The AI is surprisingly decent with the right tactics, though it does make some dumb mistakes from time to time. There's a revamp on the DS that's just as good as this, if not better, but this one is still worth playing due to its curious quirks. If you want to learn a bit more about the series and its games, just click the title on the left to go to a semi-incomplete page that some jackass made.
Final Fantasy	Traditional Turn-Based	The classic JRPG by Square. Make a party of 4 characters from 6 different jobs. Mix and match these six choices, even choosing more than one of the same job. If that wasn't enough, at a certain story point, ALL of your 4 allies promote to better classes. This has a rather epic storyline that to this day, still requires a long window of time to beat. FF1 got remade and ported to a number of systems, said remakes added, fixed, and altered several things to be more in line with later FF games. The GBA and PSP versions are the easiest. The GBA version may not look or sound as pretty as the PSP version, but the action flows faster and also comes with Final Fantasy II's remake. This was the game that made Square into a household name long before Final Fantasy VII.
The Magic of Scheherazade	Action-RPG/Adventure/Turn-Based	A diamond in the rough. Incredibly ambitious and, for the most part, actually follows through on it. Mixes action battles and exploration along with turn-based event battles. The ideas and puzzles are fairly well-executed, but it does have a few odd design choices, such as having "lives" and passwords. Still, you should give it a shot. Many would call it Culture Brain's masterpiece, and it's definitely not a bad game in its own right. There's quite a few resources and fan-pages for this, should you bump into trouble. Like this one

SNES

Title	Style	Description
Arcana	First-Person Dungeon Crawler	An RPG developed by HAL, creators of Kirby and Super Smash Bros. Arcana is a great little JRPG with a lot of heart. Grab some loot in town and head out into whatever dungeon is next on your list. You explore dungeons from a first-person, Phantasy Star-esque perspective, but this game features a VERY helpful map. Battles are standard turn-based fare with random encounters. Even though monsters and characters are displayed on cards, nothing about the game is really card-based. Other characters will come and go in the story, but you always have one space in your party for different elemental beings that travel and fight alongside you. You collect more of these beings as the game progresses. This game's soundtrack is composed by the guy who scores the Kirby games. Kirby music. In an RPG. This game features a lot of polish and is truly a hidden gem. No Virtual Console release yet, but it's not a hard game to find.
Breath of Fire	Traditional Turn-Based	A JRPG by Capcom. Your hometown's destroyed, your sister's kidnapped, and an evil empire is running amok. What next, a dragon? Unlike other RPGs, You ARE the Dragon! As a dragon-man, you can transform into a dragon to kick some evil ass. Later on, certain party members can fuse together. Despite the setup being rather dull, the story fleshes itself out in very unique and touching ways, with a number of unexpected twists. It also has great music. It was ported to the GBA with a few additions, most notably the 'run' button and added EXP. The GBA version is recommended to make the game less tedious.
Breath of Fire II	Traditional Turn-Based	You are still the dragon, but not the same one, as this takes place centuries later. You can now power up party members with elemental shamans you find, and build/run your own town later on. This game features a pretty twisted story as well. It was also ported to the GBA with a few additions, similar to Breath of Fire I (EXP gain and the run button, mostly). The localization for both is horrendous though, and there's a superior translation patch for this (with a run button!). Also has great music like the first. The series continues on Playstation 1 with BoF III.
Chrono Trigger	Active Time Battle	A classic time-traveling JRPG by Square. Great visuals, fantastic music, an imaginative story, and gameplay that best utilizes the classic ATB system out of any game that has it. Considered to be one of the best RPGs of all time.
Earthbound	Traditional Turn-Based	A quirky, humorous, deep and emotional RPG, parodying the JRPG style with western pop culture. Some may love it for its 'deep' story but even if you don't go for that kinda thing you'll still love the fuck outta this!
Final Fantasy IV	Active Time Battle	A classic by Square. This was one of the first games to have a more complex storyline, and it introduced the ATB system used in many of its successors. Regarded by some as probably the best intro to the series for beginners.
Final Fantasy VI	Active Time Battle	AAnother classic JRPG by Square. It has a large and varied cast of characters that can be customized by equipping Magicite on them. Translation is a lot better than FF2us. Great music, widely contested to be the best in the series. The SNES version is noted for having LOADSAEXPLOITS, many of which can be used by the player to become overpowered, especially Vanish+Doom.
Illusion of Gaia	Action RPG	The second game in Quintet's Heaven and Earth/Soul Blazer series. A young boy with psychic powers named Will beats up monsters with a flute. He also obtains the ability to transform into powerful warriors with their own abilities. This game is noteworthy for having you travel around places that strongly resemble cultural and historical sites in our own reality and also its rather dark, but VERY well done, story and soundtrack.
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals	Traditional Turn-Based Dungeon Crawler	This game is a through-and-through traditional JRPG. Still, it pulls it off with GREAT music and writing. It also features Zelda-like puzzle dungeons.
Metal Max Returns	Traditional Turn-Based	Although the Style category says otherwise, this game is hardly "traditional" in many ways. Starts out a bit weak with only a few options for equipment and very few places to go. Then you get your first tank (yes, there's more), then you unlock the region gate, and soon you realize there's much more to the world and many dangerous areas and foes await. Thankfully, there's many more weapons and items to find as well, along with new vehicles and equipment to customize said vehicles with. The best part is that the game doesn't hold your hand at all. Good luck! Only released in Japan, but has a fan-translation patch. Has a spiritual successor released in US/English called Metal Saga on PS2.
Secret of Mana	Action RPG	Another widely-loved Action RPG by Square. Up to three people can play simultaneously. It expands on the weapon and magic abilities of Final Fantasy Adventure for Game Boy, the first Mana title. Magic is aligned to various spirits and each has their own sets of spells. This really setup the Mana series and the various mythos, along with elements and characteristics that it is so well known for today: weapon skills, tough bosses, pleasant visuals, great gameplay, and incredible soundtracks.
Soul Blazer	Action RPG	The first game in Quintet's Heaven and Earth/Soul Blazer series. In this spiritual successor to Actraiser, God/The Master sends down a hero to save the world from Deathtoll, the big bad that the stupid king struck a deal with. The music is awesome (and strangely groovy for this sort of world it takes place in), and the game itself is a lot of fun, but kinda hard at times. As an early title, it's a little stiff control-wise, but the later games in the series improved this, so fear not.
Super Mario RPG	Traditional Turn-Based	Timed hits, saving the princess, Geno, Mallow, and one of the most fun RPGs made by Square. Has an awesome soundtrack. As well as incredible characters and bosses with many colorful and awesome environments. Dear god, play this now. Has a spiritual successor in the Paper Mario series, which has a spiritual successor in the Mario and Luigi series.
Terranigma	Action RPG	The third game in Quintet's Heaven and Earth/Soul Blazer series. Ark, a boy from the underworld village of Crysta, is tasked with the creation and resurrection of the overworld. Considered by some as the best non-Ninendo release of the SNES due to its awesome soundtrack and gameplay, complex storyline and mind blowing graphics.
Uncharted Waters: New Horizons	Class-based Simulation	A game about nautical adventures with an awesome soundtrack and good plot. You can choose role of merchant, adventurer, combater by choosing different characters as protagonist.

Sega Genesis

Title	Style	Description
King Colossus	Action RPG	A game in the vein of Startropics, Ys, and Zelda, with elements of each (platforming, multiple weapons, and hidden passages). Starts a bit slow, but picks up fast. The action's a little stiff, but still enjoyable. The bosses start small, but some TAKE UP MORE THAN THE SCREEN CAN SHOW. The story has some neat twists that'll keep you playing and the action only gets better. Japan-only, use the translation patch.
Langrisser II	Tactics RPG	a.k.a. "Langrisser Hikari" Sequel to Warsong. Story and dialog are a bit better and the massive ass fields full of foes are just as impressive. Although Der Langrisser is preferable, this version is still great, and has some of the best non-CD-based music of the series (especially compared to the SNES version's music, which is just bad). Japan-only, use the translation patch.
Phantasy Star II	Traditional Turn-Based	The first 16-bit Phantasy Star. A number of things have been removed or added since the original, but for the most part, everything has been improved. Although a bit old, it is an RPG with some strongly emotional scenes, which makes up for the difficulty. For a very early title, this game has some pretty impressive visuals.
Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom	Traditional Turn-Based	The "black sheep" of the Phantasy Star series. Several things here work unlike any other entry. One interesting aspect is that at end of the first two "generations" of heroes, you'll choose who to marry. This affects your child's stats and abilities, alters what adventures they go on, and adds replayability as well. Sadly, previous generations do NOT help their kids (due to plot restrictions), but your two robot pals are always ready to help any generation combo.
Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium	Traditional Turn-Based	The most refined of the classic PS series, adding in-party talks, macros, spell/skill combos, faster-moving everything, and more. You don't need to play the past games to enjoy this, though it may dull the impact of some connections if you don't at least read up on them first. This team would later make Skies of Arcadia on Dreamcast, which is also great. Beware level 99 without a patch or cheat device to fix the bug.
Shining Force	Turn-Based Tactics	Arguably, Sega's answer to Fire Emblem. Both have units with different stats, classes, abilities, and promotions. However, Shining Force has out-of-battle exploration of towns and battlefields to stock up and meet new allies, instead of everything done mid-battle. This has harder odds at times, but is more forgiving as there's no perma-death. The Shining series has great music, decent visuals, and a unique flair that's been spun-off into other games and genres under the its name.
Shining Force II	Turn-Based Tactics	This is even longer than the first! Exploration has a stronger role with some more freedom. Some classes have alternate promotion options as well. The soundtrack variety is not as strong as the first, and some of the more chatty characters are a little annoying, but the gameplay is much improved, including the difficulty. Not to mention the visuals are vastly superior to the previous games and are some of the best on the whole system.
Shining in the Darkness	Turn-Based Dungeon Crawler	Dungeon crawler that started 'Shining' franchise. Visuals really aren't the series best, though they display the well-known whimsical fantasy in character and monster designs. Not so hard for a crawler, but the mazes are somehow complicated, challenging, and have a number of secrets to find. Has some really cool music as well, though the normal battle theme can get annoying.
Warsong	Tactics RPG	The first in the Langrisser series. Great tactics game, with deep gameplay, epic battles, and lots of unit-types. Mechanics are based around commanders and their armies, like a fusion of Fire Emblem and Famicon Wars. Commanders are stronger and level up, but your grunts are generic fodder, meant for protection (they get slight buffs when near their commanders) and taking out other grunts. It's kinda basic in story and dialog, but great in terms of strategy and colossal battlefields filled with troops. Hidden gem as the series wasn't otherwise released in US and Europe.

Sega Saturn

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Sega Dreamcast

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Sony Playstation

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Playstation 2

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Gamecube

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Xbox

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Playstation 3

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Wii

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Xbox 360

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Handhelds

Gameboy/Gameboy Color

Title	Style	Description	Screenshot

Gameboy Advance

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Nintendo DS

Title	Style	Description	Screenshot

Nintendo 3DS

Title	Style	Description
Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland 3D	Traditional Turn-Based / Monster Collecting	Remake of the first DQ Monsters game on Game Boy. Now uses gameplay akin to the Joker games (day/night cycle, visible monsters instead of random battles, DQ8 style skill trees, etc.) with some added features, like an extra monster slot which allows for up to 4 on 4 battles (as some take up 2 or 3 slots). BUT! There's still Meat and other GBC elements as well, too. Dungeons are randomly generated, like the original, but with more depth, having structures to climb, explore, etc. Has 500 monsters to collect and breed (even every monster from Joker 2 Pro), lots of side quests, and some great online features. Note: Currently Japan only (region lock), so you'll need to import a Japanese 3DS alongside the game in order to play it. Or do some sort of loophole. Cough, cough (Not that there is such a thing.) Ahem.
Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan	First-Person Dungeon Crawler	Newest entry to the niche series. 3D graphics. Great soundtrack(first run comes with a free CD). The easiest game of the series with a new casual mode, but don't expect to breeze through it without some effort.
Fire Emblem: Awakening	Turn-Based Strategy	The newest and biggest FE title borrows elements from JRPGs to create a more expansive world with more to explore, but the option to grind in between missions gels awkwardly with the gameplay and makes the story either too easy or populated with abrupt difficulty spikes. Character and script work have gotten a big boost with the return of detailed Support conversations and an emphasis on coupling and relationships as part of the story, and localization is great. Character and stage design are also wonderful and most everyone in the cast grows on the player. On the gameplay side you can expect the usual, but there's too much dependence on the Pair-up System and missions lack variety. There's tons of side content and DLC, including recruitable characters from all past games, and the game is in general a treat to series fans. If you're looking for a deep and challenging strategy experience this may leave you wanting, but it's full of fun and polish
Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance	Action RPG	Happens after KH2, leads into 3. Play as both Sora and Riku, each now with unique skills, and both are in a dream world, so no Goofy and Donald. Instead you tame dream world enemies, each giving a variety of abilities, but features a pseduo Pokemon petting system to take full advantage of them. Gameplay is similar to Birth by Sleep (minus command fusion), but now with the lovechild of all the Drive form abilities in KH2 being at immediate disposal. Several new Disney worlds and characters. Also, If you care about the story, don't miss this, or KH3 won't make any sense. But, if you're new to KH, you can unlock a sort of recap to fill in any questions you need to ask. An HD collection of the originals is also available on PS3. Sadly, the TWEWY stuff isn't as important as you may have hoped. Also, Baloonga.
Project X Zone	Turn-Based Strategy / Fighting	Fan service at its finest. Not only a crossover of Capcom, Namco Bandai, and Sega; but a crossover of genres too. Combines tactics gameplay with a "Cross active battle system" combo system for the battle scenes. Does get repetitive towards the end but the production values and the ability to use Ulala from Space Channel 5 makes it all worth it.
Shin Megami Tensei IV	Dungeon Crawler / Monster Collecting	The long awaited follow-up to 2009's Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, and the older SMT3: Nocturne. One of the most solidly crafted RPG's on the 3DS, providing the classic and balls-bustingly difficult dungeon crawling and demon negotiating the series has always been known for. It's also the first title in the mainline series not to feature a main cast designed by Kazuma Kaneko, though his classic demons are still here. First run copies include the usual Atlus soundtrack CD as well as a 180 page guidebook covering the first 30-40% of the game. Atlus says it's an artbook, but don't believe their lies, that only covers about eight pages of the book.
Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner - Soul Hackers	First-Person Dungeon Crawler / Monster Collecting	Port of the original JP-only Sega Saturn game. The 3DS version includes fully voiced dialogue, new demons, "Hacks" which allow you to do things like adjust difficulty and a bonus dungeon in which Raidou Kuzunoha from the PS2 Devil Summoner games makes an appearance. Story involves you playing the role of a member of the Hacker group, The Spookies, as they unravel the mystery of the Phantom Society which seeks to steal all the souls of the inhabitants of Amami City via a virtual reality world known as Paradigm X. Since this game is fairly easy it would be a good starting place for individuals interested in getting into the SMT games.

Playstation Portable

Title	Style	Description	Screenshot
Spectral Souls: Resurrection of the Ethereal Empires	Tactical RPG	Known as Shinki Gensou: SSII Unlimited Side in Japan,Spectral Souls immerses you in agreat battle between good and evil. During this role-playing game, you can switch between characters from three opposing kingdoms.
Trails in the Sky	Strategic RPG	The game is the sixth entry in the "Legend of Heroes" series by Falcom, which is like the complete opposite to their other famous series "Ys" focusing on story, strategy, customization, sidequests and all you love in RPG games. Plagued by delays, but massive in scope and worth the wait. We have a detailed page on Trails in the Sky for more info.

Playstation Vita

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Japanese Role Playing Games

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