Five Games that Revitalized the JRPG This Generation

Seeing as how Square was the one to introduce the JRPG to a new generation with the release of Final Fantasy VII, many have have seen their decline as “killing the JRPG.”

Here are five games that say otherwise:

[Relientk77]

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch
Tales of Graces f
Xenoblade Chronicles

[Snookies12]

Uhhh yeah. Why is Persona 3 Portable in there and not something like Ni No, or Graces f? I mean, Persona 3 was an amazing JRPG, but it's technically last-gen.

[miyamoto]

Dragon's Crown revitalizes and redefine's 2D jrpg like Castlevania SOTN and Guardian Heroes did in the 1990's defying the 3D trend

still haven't defeated the White Killer Rabbit though

PS: Demon's Souls also revitalized old school gaming over all. it jump started the whole Dark Soul revolution

[Nate-Dog]

Graces f wasn't anything special. Vesperia on the other hand was amazing, although that was at the start of the generation and is on a console that doesn't really appeal to gamers that like games from Japan so I don't know if I'd really say it "revitalised" the JRPG this gen. But it got me into the Tales series and is probably my most favourite JRPG ever now so I won't complain.

[beakeroo1]

Persona 4 Golden > Persona 3
Dragons Crown is much more of a beat em up than a JRPG (and tbh I'm finding myself playing it for no more than half an hour when I can be bothered switching it on)and hell yeah Ni No Kuni should be in there.

[majiebeast]

What about Valkyrie Chronicles.

[Godmars290]

Not multiplatform/Xbox 360 title. Seems to be the trend despite Dragon's Crown.

Then again maybe the writer just has everything but a PS3.

[wishingW3L]

probably because it's strategy just like Disgaea.

[kreate]

Valkyria chronicles is not a normal strategy game. Its quite unique.

The only problem is that it wasn't a commercial success.

[ZodTheRipper]

Valkyria Chronicles definately is missing, when I bought it I had absolutely no idea what an amazing game is waiting for me. I'm always forgetting it on my "best PS3 games" list but it's even in my Top5 ...in fact I'm playing VC2 on my Vita right now :D

[STK026]

I don't think Tales of Graces F (or the original Wii version for that matter) helped revitalize the JRPGs this generation. While it is a great game, just like Tales of Xillia, it's still a Tales games, like Tales of Vesperia, and pretty much plays like Tales of the Abyss or Tales or Symphonia. It didn't bring much new to the table. If anything, it showed, just like many of the other games I've mentioned, how the Tales series has stalled a bit in the last few years.

[WhyWai88]

I appreciate Tales of games keeping as traditional JRPG. Instead of Final Fantasy 13 that went bananana trying to attract western market.

[Jubez187]

That's the whole point of the Tales games though, to keep it classic JRPG...they seem to be the only ones we can count on nowadays. Xillia did adopt some western elements though with the sidequests (a lot of them had more story than a basic WRPG side quest too).

[3-4-5]

Dragon Quest 9

[NeXXXuS]

Lost Odyssey for me. Amazing game.

[JoySticksFTW]

LO is the my favorite rpg on 360 next to ME1

[RPG1201]

There has't been anything that great to be honest. I'm crossing my fingers for FFXV though looks amazing. But in this gen my fave was Valkyria Chronicles. The Last Story and Xenoblade Chronicles are really good too.

Edit #1: Final Fantasy Type 0 is a must for hardcore jrpg fans.

[chadboban]

Man I wish they would localize Type 0.

[hulk_bash1987]

I would argue Demons Souls>Dark Souls. Simply because of the fact that without the success of the former, the latter would not exist.

[ZodTheRipper]

It's simply a better game because of it's world&character tendencies. I couldn't enjoy DaSo as much as I enjoyed DeSo.

[Inception]

Not just better world / story, but Demon Souls also had better frame rate than Dark Souls. But Dark Souls still an amazing game though (imho).

[AznGaara]

List needs more Ni no Kuni and Valkyria Chronicles.

[Brucis]

I wouldn't really say P3P considering it's a remake of a PS2 game, but otherwise the list is good.

[franwex]

Ni No Kuni does NOT need to be included. It has pretty graphics and that's about it. Gameplay wise is extremely bland.

[dcj0524]

We will have to agree to STRONGLY DISAGREE. I loved the gameplay. A mix of real-time and turn-based gameplay is awesome in my book.

[ritsuka666]

I agree. Ni No Kuni is ok game but nothing special.

[chadboban]

Xenoblade is fantastic ,one of my favorites this gen. Would also like to see Ni No Kuni, Valkyrie Chronicles and The World Ends With You there as well

[Misaka_x_Touma]

For me
Xenoblade Chronicles
Radiant Historia
The World End With You
Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World
The Last Story

[Kyosuke_Sanada]

This list appeared to have lost an odyssey which is a shame because it made my dragon blue from the result.....

[Misaka_x_Touma]

Maybe because it on 360 it not listed

[ritsuka666]

Lost Odyssey is best Jrpg this gen for sure.

[Benjammin25]

Currently playing Dragon's Dogma. Yes, I know it's not strictly a JRPG, but my god this game kicks all kinds of ass.

[DEATHxTHExKIDx]

Was dark souls a JRPG? I thought it was western for some reason. I've never played it tho.

[Benjammin25]

It was a WRPG made by a Japanese development team.

[slinky123456]

Its influence was WRPG, JRPG is any RPG in Japan technically.

[porkChop]

I don't think the author understands what "revitalized" means. While these are all great games, none of these games had any affect on the JRPG industry at all. P3P shouldn't have even been included because it's just a cross gen port from the PS2.

[ApolloTheBoss]

Ni No Kuni
P4G
P3P

These games made me an JRPG fan.

[dcj0524]

Same here. Just replace P3 with P3FES.

[Misaka_x_Touma]

wait so you just started playing jrpg
also P4G would be a 8th gen game not 7th game

[furneri357]

i would put shadow hearts covenant as one of my top jrpg, its unique n the combat ring really make the game different from other jrpg, n the story is great n funny

[Inception]

Nice list but Radiant Historia & P3P from last gen, not this gen. So my list:

Valkyria Chronicles
Demon's Souls
Ni no Kuni
Tales of Graces f / Tales of Xillia
Fire Emblem: Awakening

And i need to play Shin Megaten IV, Bravely Default (next year), Xenoblade Chronicles, and The Last Story.

[vakarian75]

Well Radiant Historia came out a little while before the 3ds so if you count Demon Souls and Valkyria Chronicles which came out before Radiant Historia as this gen you have to count Radiant Historia as this gen too.

[Inception]

'This generation' on my book is for current gen console, which is for PS3, 360, Wii, PSvita, and 3DS. But if you want to count Radiant Historia as a game from 'this gen' than suit yourself.

[TheDivine]

For me it was

Lost Odyssey (first traditional FF jrpg in HD and it was the most epic game ever)

Tales of Vesperia (first HD Tales with a huge world map, airships exc and the best MC in Tales)

Xenoblade (OMG the world was massive and breathtaking and combat was fun, a masterpiece)

The Last Story (this evolved with a fast fluid battle system and little things like cover and climbing from western games, it broke the traditional jrpg mold and was all the better for it)

Ni No Kuni (it brought back inspired whimsical fun and beauty, the world map was to die for)

Resonance of Fate (the battle system was so unique and outside of the box, extremely fun and the antithesis of FF13 which released at the same time)

Radiant Historia (the return of a simple sprite based rpg whose story and characters stole the show, a love letter to snes RPGs)

TWEWY (the most unique inventive story and battle system ever, MC has the best growth of any character ever IMO, this game had heart and soul. It made me smile and tear up)

Fire Emblem Awakening (the best sprg ever made imo, near perfection and revitalized not only the franchise but the genre)

SMT4 (a return of hardcore dungeon crawling, beautiful sprites, and it took some notes from Persona in respect to good characters and a deeper story. Arguably the best SMT game to date.)

That's more than five but some were handheld releases and a few were released this year (FEA and SMT4). Lost Odyssey, The Last Story, and Xenoblade had the most impact and the latter two did actually revitalize the genre which was in a funk. LO proved JRPGs didn't need to evolve and classic structure is as relevant as ever if done right. TLS and Xenoblade showed what's possible when jrpgs don't accept the status quo and take inspiration from al genres and games. They were streamlined to remove frustration and grinding. They had better pacing and were more fun to play. They were the two most epic RPGs in the gen and ran on outdated ds hardware showing the folly of squares attempt to focus on graphics vs gameplay, characters, and story. This gen turned out to be one of my favorites ever and sewed the seeds which the 3ds, WiiU, and hopefully ps4 will reap. Looking forwarded to SMT X Fire Emblem, X, FF15, Kingdom Hearts 3, Etrian Odyssey, Xillia 2, DQ7 Remake, Bravely Default, FFX Remastered and whatever Atlus and Mistwalker have up their sleeves.

[sherimae2413]

see what i was holding?

its P4G ^_^ thats the great rpg for me :)

P3P, ff type 0, YS, and Tales are all great JRPG games too ^_^

[George Sears]

Personally, I prefer the original MegaTen series. With that said, Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne was by far the best MegaTen game I've played.

As far as the list goes, I find it lacking. No Lost Odyssey? FF Type -0? Ni No Kuni? The World Ends with You? The Last Story?

[kiwipunk]

it was Revitalized?

[Bluepowerzz]

white knight chronicles 2

[BlaqMagiq24]

Ni no Kuni
Valkyria Chronicles
Tales of Xillia

[noctis_lumia]

ni no kuni say
tales of xillia say hi

[erikthegman]

Lost Odyssey had a terrible plot don't get me wrong I enjoyed the game but they could have done more story wise, and threw in a few summons for good measure

[kma2k]

Ni No Kuni did the trick for me!

[AndrewLB]

I'm buying a Vita for one game, and one game only. Ys: Memories of Celceta. It's a fantastic series with bar none the greatest music found in video games.

Here is a fine example of Musical brilliance from the masters in Falcom's JDK Band! http://www.youtube.com/watc...