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Pretty good list of choices. The first JRPG I played was one of my dad's games, Phantasy Star, but I was too young to understand much and never got too far. But later on when Breath of Fire released on the SNES, it became the first JRPG I played all the way through and beat. With its sequel and also Chrono Trigger releasing not too long after that, I've been hooked on the genre ever since.

I introduced my wife to jrpgs with Like a Dragon 7. We play together.

It’s funny how you have to avoid the OG’s of some genres but for others you absolutely still want to play them Take Ultima underworld for fps-wrpg’s. That game is amazing, it’s gameplay is sharp, story interesting, it’s intuitive and also rewards players for speaking to characters or experimenting, for instance combining corn and fire makes popcorn. You can be told this or find it out yourself. It provides less nutrition but it’s preserved longer Yea you might need help understanding the controls but when you do you’ll have a blast

For a hottub Baku Stream I think we would need a hottub RPG. And as far as I now, there is no RPG that playes only in a hottub .🙃

give me high budget triple aaa rpg games over indie games everytime

This is a decent game. It's Virtual Hydlide that is the worst

Well, I had to stop half way through to go to work, but now that I have seen the rest, I have opinions! But I'll have to check myself or I'll be writing a doctorate thesis. Western and Japanese RPGs are not all that different in terms of mechanics. Western RPGs originated with the desire to put tabletop D&D on a computer. While JRPGs originated with the desire to put computer RPGs on home consoles. What the game mechanics are is not really the point, but rather how those mechanics serve those goals. Action RPGs have been a Japanese thing since the beginning. Falcom was making action RPGs before the Famicom/NES even existed, and there have been action JRPGs in every console generation since. And lots of JRPGs were first person dungeon crawls in the early days as well. Megami Tensei was almost exclusively first person until the PS2 era. If Etrian Odyssey is a WRPG it is because of its character creation rather than its dungeon crawling mechanics. I think the primary difference between the two styles of RPG now is down to player agency. WRPGs are about giving the player the tools to do whatever they want, while JRPGs are about directing the player to fulfill the character's goals. For WRPGs this almost always comes down to a "silent protagonist" that is really nothing more than a player avatar. (The Ultima series takes this to the extreme. Your main character in that series is literally called The Avatar in universe, who is canonically YOU, the person sitting in front of the computer screen directly interacting with the game world.) JRPGs can go either way. But outside of Atlus, Dragon Quest and the Japanese side of the Wizardry games, most JRPGs rely on a more defined main character. (And it is worth noting that those exeptions are among the oldest JRPGs from a time when the style hadn't fully separated from WRPGs.) A more defined character usually serves the intended player agency of JRPGs better than a player avatar does. On that front, I agree with Baku completely. When done well, a silent protagonist serves the game well, and the same is true of vocal protagonists. And each can be done very poorly to the detriment of the game. SMT Nocturne would not work at all with a vocal protagonist, and Disgaea would never work with a silent protagonist. OK, I don't think I succeeded at keeping myself in check...

SuperDerek! I dont know if you see these comments or not, but if you do! I have two things to say. First! I LOVE your podcasts and content. It's amazing. Focusing on things that are happening and things to come. Glorious. Second: Please do not focus on any doom and gloom "Squaresoft is in trouble" type stuff, because not only does anyone not feel what this type of content your channel about is, but also it's playing into a doom and gloom type mentality that your channel is not about. While these things may, and do, exist, its not what your viewers tune in for. Focus on the positives, as you mostly do, and run with that. I love you for it, and I think most people who have subscribed to this channel do as well. Much Love, 16bit.

You should do part 2 for beginners friendly (Level 2 in terms of RPG) for little more challenge but not too hard.

I bought my 15 year old sister mario rpg remake and she loved it so much that she helped out my mom at work on weekends to make enough money to buy the final fantasy Pixel renasters lol Told her that it originally came out when FF 4 was the newest one and it is a beginner friendly version of these old FF games. We are also looking through old boxes to find my old Gamecube since i found my old copy of tales of symphonia at my house and she already watched the majority of the cutscenes on CZcams.

My favourite western made JRPG has to be Battlechasers: Nightwar.

If you like a variety of different games those subscription services are pretty decent value. I personally wouldn't play 99% of the content offered so the value isn't there for me.

Chained echoes so far has been the best JRPG indie I played

Never played jrpgs before, but recently started Earthbound and loved it instantly. I was never into FF or other fantasy style games in general, but this one was an instant love. Not sure how far am I in the game, Paula just got kidnapped.

Some of my favorite games in recent years have been indies. Hollow Knight, Bug Fables, Chained Echoes, Eiyuden Chronicle, Blasphemous, Sea of Stars. So many amazing indies games! Not just great games, but some of the best jrpg's and metroidvania's I have ever played.

Magna Carta is considered a jrpg despite being made by a Korean studio. It was published here by atlus usa

17:30 you can just play a NEW game plus on your first playthrough and only activate unlimited bonding events. This way you miss out on nothing, have no advantage (besides a small fishing bug but it's VERY small) and you can see all bonding events in 1 playthrough. I would advise AGAINST playing this game 2 times (in a short amount of time). It's a damn drag and you will be bored out of your mind. Just use unlimited bonding and play NG+ from the getgo and see every bit of content without wasting 50-100 hours on a second playthrough.

Thanks for discussing my admittedly broad strokes comment re. subscription services. I totally see your perspective that subscription platforms are a helpful way to give some games exposure. I suppose I worry that while the selection box approach means people are more inclined to try different games, they’re possibly not as invested as they would be had they gone and bought the game outright.

I'd be so stoked for a new NieR game. I started with NieR: Automata then played NieR Replicant, and they are both fantastic. I'd love to see what they could come up with next!

Indie games excite me because I don’t know what I’m getting

Sea of Stars may or may not be better than Chrono Trigger, but I would be amazed if you could find someone who genuinely believes that it is not better thanTecmo Secret of the Stars.

I think I have played three western-made JRPGs. Crosscode, Sea of Stars and Secrets of Grindea. I didn't finish any of them. Closest I got to completing was Secrets of Grindea, but the true end has the most massive difficulty spike I've ever seen, I can't beat it (skill issue I know). The other two I dropped in the middle for different reasons. The story of Crosscode was interesting but it was tedious to play in various ways. Quest structure, world design, puzzle solving, combat. Sea of Stars was pretty to look at, but boring in every other regard. After the first big "twist" in the haunted zone I saw coming a mile away, I couldn't bring myself to continue. I still want to play Chained Echoes eventually, but I worry that it will suffer the same fate. This is all probably a 'me' problem more so than the games tbh. On the whole silent vs. non-silent protagonists... I prefer non-silent. The exception to this is if the MC is a fully customizable avatar, like in Skyrim or Xenoblade X, but if they have a set main character with their own backstory and personality... they shouldn't be silent. The whole self-insert thing does nothing for me, so I'd rather play as an interesting character instead.

Chained Echoes is one of the best indie JRPGs in recent memory

Thank you for mentioning the RPGFan 'Review Card Collection' book, Derek! 😍

I hope to hear a good review on this game soon! (TTYD that is.) Would like a sequel to finish up the villain's backstory (or comeback) but that can wait for another day.

I agree with Baku. Some games are beautiful just the way they are. With a definite ending. Just like an animè that has a conclusive ending, better to leave it like that

Favorite western made Japanese style RPG? The only title i can remember is Sea of Star. Also a question, right now I'm kind of lost interest playing JRPG. Currently i just play game with mostly action game like Stellar Blade and Elden Ring. maybe tired reading all those long text of conversation. Any tips so i can back enjoy playing JRPG?

So...bad ending?

Yay! Week 3 of the best show on the internet

Saying to avoid Mystic Quest when it's an RPG specifically for people who are beginners ot RPGs is just straight up had advice.

This is such a greatly made podcast. I truly appreciate your content, good stuff!

Yuck, indie games, particularly western psuedo JRPGs, are not good.

As a Persona fan, I am clearly OK with some dating sim in my RPG. And first person dungeon crawl, you say? With art vaguely reminiscent of Etrian Odyssey? Yeah, I'll keep an eye on that. I'm don't think that farming game is based on Naoko Takeuchi in particular, but rather the 90s Sailor Moon anime. (blonde title screen girl did immediately remind me of Sailor Venus) If you've never seen the original manga art, it has quite a different style than the anime.

Trails is my favorite series, but Losing when I win is seriously making me grind my teeth sometimes. I don't actually mind the "can't remember" trope though.

RIP Dragon Quest

i NEED RAYNATIS ALREADY!!!!

I'm happy to be able to say Chrono Trigger was the first RPG I ever completed . It's worthy of it's reputation, and responsible for my love of turn based RPGs.

Hey! Thanks for bringing back the weekly update!! I already find neat lil rpgs because of this and i love hearing all the news and stuff!!!

I think Reynatis looks pretty cool. But they really need to increase the font size. The text is so small that I could barely see it during the trailer. Way too small. I hope they fix this, because quite a few games in the last decade had this problem with the text just being way too small. I swear this is a ploy to sell more glasses. I am wearing glasses. I can not see anything without them. I hope Reynatis fixes the font size. And if not, I will just skip it or something.

Skies of Arcadia deserves a mention. Get it via a Emulator. Avoid trying to find the original hardware as it was only released on SEGA Dreamcast and Nintendo GameCube. Both are systems hard and expensive to find, both are Region Locked so you need to get the right copy region.

FFVII PS1 - I recommend it over FFX. Today it's well known, but back in 1997 three discs and the massive world was mind-blowing for the time. I guess FFVII Rebirth is a good candidate too, although I don't like some of the changes. Breath of Fire IV - great game on many aspects with forgiving difficulty. This is a good one to experience a great story, settings, and soundtrack without being forced to grind so much. Chrono Cross - good one if you never played Chrono Trigger, when you don't associate it with the prequel and have no expectation it's a great game on its own

Dude! The “We play what we like!” Brought me back to watching 90s cartoons and cereal commercials. I immediately thought of Corn Pops(which were actually pretty gross lol) “I gotta have my pops!” 😂😂

I am wide awake when you said yuri RPG. going to check that out.

Good luck to Square-Enix in making PC ports ... which are required to run through a large variety of specifications (which is one reason why you've been hearing about poor PC ports in recent years).

Ooo what's the background music track?

Square's problem is that the main games they make and push SUCK and the great smaller rpgs they make they don't. Stop trying to Westernize Final Fantasy Main and pushing to become FromSoftware or Capcom

cant believe its taking this long to get another real nier game on the way

Theres already a 3rd Nier game. The pay to win phone game 😂

Persona 5 is far too long for a beginner IMO. Even I struggled with the length. Not to mention the calendar mechanic puts a time limit on what you can/can’t do.

Breath of Fire 4 has the best combat system. Breath of Fire 3 has the best dragon system