Dude Rogue Galaxy is amazing! I happened to stumble upon it for the PS2 and was taken away because all I knew at the time was FF as far as RPG's go. It's also awesome to replay it periodically now on a PS4/5. Story is really good, and Level 5 did an amazing job of making a memorable experience.
Ive started the game countless times. The farthest ive gotten is this stretch near the end of disc 1 where it is hours of senseless dialogue. The game is there but it didnt age well and the ratio of game to dialogue is too imbalanced
nah, trails is. trails is almost like one gigantic game split into a dozen 100 hour segments. it has the most fleshed out world, story, and characters of any game series by far.
One doesn't need lots of fancy cutscenes etc to have a game that is 90% story 10% gameplay. Now that it is on switch, you should _really_ look into getting your hands on OMORI, a fairly new game to come out (it's been on PC since the end of 2020). The story is way more important than the gameplay and hoo boy is it ever a powerful and emotional one. They stuffed so much raw emotion into that game, that it will twist your moods like a pretzel. Since it is an RPGMaker game (a very well done one!), it does not have any voice acting nor rendered FMV cutscenes, but it does have dialogue. A *LOT* of Dialogue. The characters are very well fleshed out, with great character development for at least one of them. It's also got a huge mystery air about it, as a good portion of the game is spent trying to figure out just what is going on, and then once you find out the what, then you gotta find out the how/why.
When it comes to proportional difference between text and actually playing triangle strategy has to be number 1 by far. Xenosaga would be second for me because of the amount and length of cutscenes.
I think the problem with people about Triangle Strategy is that they believe it's a re-skinned FF Tactics and it's not. It's just a "Tactics" game made by Square. I love it.
Cool Edgelord...I mean Edelgard hoodie. Wish they would port Xenosaga to the Switch physically. Started the Legend of Heroes with the Cold Steel arc on the Vita. Currently playing the third game of the Cold Steel arc on the Switch.
Great video as always! Berseria is one of my favorite played games of all time and is surely a winner in this category. I also think is worth mentioning the Utawarerumono saga of games that came out on the PS4.
liked and subscribed because of berseria it got me laughing crying excited through out it is just love! respect man you sure do got some taste ill take you up on xenosaga and give it a try maybe trails some time too if get time since they be idk 10/15 in total so yea
My own version I guess (aside from Persona series) Suikoden 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Star Ocean 3 Radiata Stories Wild Arms 4 Grandia 3 Legaia 1 & 2 Stella Glow Ar Tonelico 1 Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon Tales of the Abyss Tales of Legendia Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel series Ni no Kuni 2 Dragon Quest VIII Dragon Quest XI Yakuza series But then I haven't play a lot from your list. So many games to play, so little time 😅
I was for sure thinking you'd include either Dot Hacks series due the the sheer amount of cut scenes they have as well as all the email and forum stuff
Rogue Galaxy is such a great game considering it was released in 2007, who would've thought that RPGs were going to only get worse in general, imagine a game like Rogue Galaxy but developed in todays technology.
I'll never stop recommending that game to people. I double dipped on the switch, even. Was so good to Re-experience that mind melting narrative more...personal and up close in hand held mode. SUCH a phenomenal game/story.
With the overwhelming amount of duologue, story and characters I really don't think anything can come close to trails let alone jrpg's also as erick mentioned, do make sure to play the sky trilogy if you're looking forward to zero, renne's story is one of the best parts of that game.
Trails is probably the most ambitious attempt at story driven jrpgs, but its not the best game play experience in alot of people's eyes. (my self included) things do improve though as you progress through the series but that is probably still why alot of people have not played it or find to intimidating to jump into. It has that depth and quality of writing, but lacks the budget of most Triple AAA games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest
I don't find it indimidating, in my case I have played many games with many direct sequels also many MMO.....but with Trails in the Sky FC, it just didn't click with me, I recognize it has great ideas, great lore and all, but I felt there was too much filler points in the story and also (really unpopular in the fandom) I got pretty anoyed everytime Estelle talked and (with the exception of Olivier) I didn't like really much the rest of the party. Maybe I should give it a replay and also continue SC, but maybe I'm the problem, because a lot of things Kiseki fandom loves like every Estelle dialogue, a lot of them were things I hated when I played FC xD
@@Juanperez-yw1nt Also reply to LTB. I think pacing specifically is quite drastically different when your dealing with a video game series spread across multiple arcs and episodes, there is alot of slow buildup and world building that is conveyed over many hrs of play time. Where as like in a traditional JRPG like Final Fantasy VIII or Grandia for example, these games are just a single game experience so they have some crazy high peak moments are more consistently paced to provide that presentation in an appropriate fixed ammount of time that is easier for players to consume. With trails, FC, SC and even TC were all supposed to be at one point an entire game. So with FC, the story is pretty slow going. Its equilivent to like the first act or 2 in a traditional single jrpg game like FF VIII. Or like playing through all of Disk 1 of FF VIII. Some of "trails" extremly high points are not until like the 4th or 5th game in the series. Trails of Azure for example is known to be like the true climax and culmination of all 5 of those games together which results in some amazing set piece moments and thrilling payoff. The apex point of the narative were all the threads come together. So the main thing is I tell people its a SLOW build up but I think because of that slow build up, it has less room for plot inconsistencies and certain characters, stories are fleshsed out alot more Vs a regular PS1 classic RPG that has to be condensed to a 40-50 hr gaming experience. But I think for most, its a matter of how much they can consume for one story and people prefer games that at most a 40-50 hr story. Trails is more like 500+ and still ongoing so its hard for alot of people to get into something like that.
people often say that this kind of games "doesnt respect player time" which I find funny because writters in other media make their content longer by describing stuff, action that games does better because the inmersion is made by your decided interaction not reading alll the text
I want story driven games, but I personally don't like the premise that being story driven means it should have less gameplay. That's why I don't like Visual Novels. If I wanted to watch anime, I would watch anime. You know what I mean? Imagine watching an episode of something, but instead of just enjoying said episode, you have to press B a thousand time lol
You said that you wouldn't include visual novels, yet you included 13 Sentinels. Yes, 13 Sentinels has more gameplay than your average visual novel, but it's still a visual novel.
Xenogears my thoughts as well because the interview of the game developer or design didn't released locally because is JP released. But when it locally released there is a controversy of translation in english and there is the answer of the symbolism like purge and the storytelling. I play that in psp in emulator ps1 2 disks or more and it was rpg turn based game but I didn't finish the game due to hanging or glitches and error reading maybe.
Trails is definitely number one but the mask of trust and mask of deception games from the series that starts with a u and is impossible to pronounce and spell is pretty long too. So is tokyo xanadu and the star ocean games. Just some honorable mentions.
Could go either way imo but will say: -Berseria has the better story, characters, and side quests (most of Arise's fall into fetch quest/hunts rather than world lore building cutscenes like Berseria, Xillia, Xillia 2, Zestiria). -Arise has the better combat system imo, graphics (obviously), and skill/equipment system as almost none of it is random unlike Berseria (skills are random for each piece of equipment in Bersy, Arise your equipment doesn't have skills attached besides the accessories which you make via ores which will tel. you what skills will be attached to the accessory when you make them (granted the skils are random on pickup of course but you can see what skills the ore has before making it so you can avoid wasting money by not using it on ores with skills you don't want)...on top of that you can slot in/overwrite skills on one accessory with 1 skill from another accessory thus making a completely personalized accessory, some with modifiers that can make your characters outright broken (Element ATK 15% up with 4 15% fire attack skills slotted into Alphen for example make him more or less wipe out mobs in 1 hit and large enemies/bosses HP get cut by 1/4th to half in a single blow with the right flame edge arte). Story/character wise it's weaker than Berseria but not by that much (imo Bersy's the second best story while Arise is the 4th or 5th (kinda swaps with Xillia depending on my mood as they're that close imo). Personally I'd rate my top 3 as (in regards to all aspects of the game from story to combat to sub systems): -1st Tales of Symphonia -2nd Tales of Arise -3rd Tales of Berseria
What i disliked about the trails story side is that there is no consequence to anything at all, there are no deaths, no depression, or anything, even though you go trough a war. Its ok if you want a family friendly tier storytelling but, personally it was too much. Not even the bad guys are punished for their "crimes", because they magically survive everything just to get in the good team in the next game, making the final cast the size of the population of India.
Started Trails of the Sky. Ngl, though, I was very bored. I didn't get too far admittedly, but if a story driven game can't nail the opening 2 hours in a way that's in any way interesting, then I'm not confident in the rest of the game. I've only got a limited time on this Earth. I ain't wasting it by slogging through 20 hours of boredom to get to "the good part" when there are plenty of games that are good from the word "go."
You named the exact reasons why I don't like FE Three Houses. Fates did it right in letting you skip the first few chapters, instead of letting you play them over and over again. With a timeskip I would've played and liked 3H better. Now its my least liked FE, if the next instalment is like that, I'll be leaving the series for good.
For me my favorite game after ff is rouge galaxy 😭❤️ one of the best and I can’t stop loving it, triangle strategy is my best game for Nintendo switch and I had it preordered cuz I loved the demo! I enjoyed every second of the story telling and had a blast in the battles 👍🏻 good video buddy
0:20 It's weird to see so much self awareness by a person who run a channel solely dedicated to JRPGS. I know people who barely play any games that will get angry if I mention just how much nonsense comes out of Japan.
People complaining about Triangle Strategy’s focus on story is why we constantly get horribly written games filled with Mary Sues and bad Hollywood plot lines.
FFXIV is the most story heavy rpg I've ever played. It even incorporated it's original demise into the in-games storyline. Every dungeon, raid, job (including crafters), and relic weapon has it's own storyline and they sometimes intersect with each other and will reference events in other quests if you complete them prior. There are multiple side storylines as well, with some getting their own cutscenes. It was 10+ years of storylines that all came together with the most recent expansion that ended the first story arc on a high note. The second arc is starting and they're looking to do another 10 year arc. I would say give the free trial a go, even if you aren't a fan of playing with others. They're making the game more single player friendly by adding in NPCs to take with you into the multiplayer areas so you don't have to group up if you just want to experience the story.
aI love the Xeno series so much. BOTH Gears and Saga. I think they are all phinominal stories, and I have watched/read - if not actually played - them a handful of times each. That Saga is not playable on modern consoles is an absolute tragedy. I don't care that they were mostly all cutscenes. That's why I play games - for there stories. No wonder Metal Gear Solid is one of my favorite serieses also ... except 5, and despite not being RPGS. Also I loved how much story - and VOICED DIALOGUE - was in Tales of Arise and especially Berseria. Easily my top two Tales Games. Though I did enjoy Xillia, Graces and even Zesteria.
Berseria is nothing more than redundant drivel. I just couldn't endure the one dimensional nature of each character. If it's number four on your then I'm going to abstain from the rest the list.
Funny you'd mention it. I'm playing it right now with the patch that makes the battle system a normal one and I'm having a blast. The original battle system isn't that bad actually, but when you have access to savestates, it's very hard not to use it to cheat the AI 100% of the time, because why accept that you took a hit that took half of your HP? In the original you can dodge most attacks if you figure out the AI, but at least you sometimes make mistakes and the difficulty is balanced around that. Bottom line, if people are going to play it, they should use the patch. It's really a great, very addictive game
I want a Xenosaga Remaster so bad. One of my fvorite JRPGs of ALL-time. so expertly crafted with a deep, rich, philosophical story and memorable cast of characters--also SOOOO many badass moments.
Personally I think a full on remake where all the games use the same engine/art assets would be a better ideal than just a remaster as, imo, the drastic change in art style makes each game look disconnected to each other. If Monolithsoft was to get involved with them I think a Xenoblade art style would work perfect for all 3 games. Maybe even attempting to add onto the story with some plot points they dropped in development that would've been in if they kept making as many games as they planned would help as well...at the very least rework some of the weaker plot points/holes that people mention the game has (can't go into detail myself as I never played the games and nowadays it seems near impossible to get them unless you want to sell your kidneys or something lol). As for combat could stay the same or at least change them so all of them follow the same system with only adding in more broken aspects of the system in the later games (kind of like how each Trails games adds in a few new systems to the original base system so they still all feel kinda uniform).
They would not benefit from a remaster, as the graphics is already their strong point. A full remake would be great , bit ot would require Nintendo having the Xenosaga IP.
I just started the Trails series and I’m loving Trails of the Sky. Would’ve loved to have seen the Lunar series though when put up against Trails and Tales, I get it.
Lunar is such a simple, yet very enjoyable story. I wouldn’t say it’s the best story ever told, but I’ll take Lunar’s lighthearted, often campy dialogue and over simplified plot that’s easy to digest and fall in love with over something like Triangle Strategy.
@@vagrantxii well both is correct however when you say trails series it specifically refers to that saga of games. anything before trails in the sky isnt apart of the trails series but the legend of hero series.
@@isaiahjaxon You start with the first, Trails in the Sky. Each of those Trails games are a continuation of the last. Though I've heard the last one can be played alone as it features different characters.
@@ivenstorm If you mean Kuro no Kiseki. It does have new characters, but there are also several characters coming back in important roles from all the preivous series. I don't know how many are coming back, but, I'm sure there are a few from both Sky and Cold Steel. Not sure about the crossbell characters. The best way is to start from Trails in the Sky. Steam version plus voice patch is the best way to play in my opinion. Hopefully Falcom will port them soon to new consoles.
@@isaiahjaxon A potato can run Sky FC,SC and 3rd...start with these if possible then by the time you beat all 3 games Trails from Zero will be out on PS4 in late Sept. Sure you could start with Coldsteel 1 like a lot of people did but trust me the payoff for playing them in order totally worth it.
its just the cliff hanger man. play the first one then they leave you in cliff hanger, tyen you play the 2nd and you learn there a bigger treat out there that need to take down and its need a lot of set up and prepare. arive at 3rd and its leave you at hanging, sure we forcely learn that rean basically still weak. and go on till the hajimari basically conclusion about rean anexity after 4 game before and how he should face his live to moveon
As someone who loves and plays JRPGs solely for the gameplay and sometimes the grind i really hated the slice of life/ dating sims games and i tried a bunch ending up dropping them and trail in the sky/ cold steel included. but when i tried persona it really shifted my perspective. and ended up finishing all the persona games and most of the ones mentioned in this list. so in my opinion persona games might not have the best stories per se but they have the best presentation and thats as important as the story i think
Star ocean the second story is my vote for number 1. Private interactions, optional characters, loads of story that was very well written man that game not being on this list is almost criminal.
@@travislong2176 it's still an action rpg they aren't turn based they fall under a different classification altogether. The "jrpg" Era were all turn based titles. Action rpgs and RTS were games you freely moved around had completely different in game mechanics
@@Citizen_Nappa23 wow you are seriously grasping straws here man he's got action rpgs on this list because they are Japanese companies and rpgs tales series rogue galaxy like did you even watch the video.........
Idk about everyone but for me tales of zestiria has the best story for me with music too especially certain moments in game I enjoyed it more than berseria ( especially rose and sorey and mikleo my favourite characters ) o.o also there is other jrpg like ys series that have a good amount of story xd
I agree. He lost credibility with aries, like he just included the newest tales game. Hell the skits aren't even voiced like past. And where is alliance alive.
When i was young my favorite was the FF series now though as the years go by the FF series seems to be declining in quality well FF7R was still good and FFXIV but Falcom really does well on its trails and ys games the story the narrative the characters they have it all i think they have a good standard of what Jrpgs should be and hope to see them pull out more great things in the future
from what i've just read, there's still much more to come. cold steel 4 is not the end of the saga, there's a game called trails of reverie coming in the near future that takes place after cold steel 4, and then another 4 games after that. basically there are the 4 cold steel games, followed by another 4 game series, and reverie bridges them together. so it'll basically be a 9 part series by the time it's done. and i agree, as much as i loved ff7-9 at the time, it's like the trails series took that formula and perfected it, far surpassing ff with it's world building, story, character development, combat, pretty much everything.
@@Jack_80 there are the 3 trails in the sky games that go into the 2 crossbell games that are currently only in japan but can be fan patched if you know where to look but will be officially released this year and next year. then the cold steel games, followed by reverie and kuro 1 and kuro 2 is the latest game that is coming out n japan this year followed by even more games so as of now including japanese only titles we have 12 by the end of this year
@@kickerbs I've played sky 1 and 2 and the 2 crossbell games with a psp emulator on my phone with a ps4 controller. the 3rd is the only one i couldn't play because there is no translation for it on psp. from everything i've seen and heard though, if you have to miss one game, that's the one to miss, since the other 4 are literally 2 big games split into 2 each and the 3rd is more of a standalone dungeon crawling epilogue, not quite as pertinent as the other 4 games. still annoys me that nobody did a fan translation for sky 3 though, seems kinda weird to just skip that one when all the others got one.
Triangle strategy was alright. Story was okay but I found gameplay lacking. One of my biggest complaints was pure human enemies and no creatures or monsters. I also like having a job class system in my tactics games
I can't seem to get into the Trails series personally. I was interested in the series due to how people talked about it being a big overarching plot over multiple games. Sounds like my kind of jrpg. Granted, maybe it's because I started with Cold Steel 1, but they story just doesn't interest me. Characters, music, and gameplay is all fantastic, but it feels like a quest simulator in my opinion. It has a lot of concepts that I think are trying to set up for the next game but It just feels like a slog playing through the same school trip sequence over and over with no major story beat. I might give it a second try, it just wasn't what I expected.
That's fair. Imo, Trails in the Sky is much better than Cold Steel. There's way more exploration to it and it also has a more diverse cast, in terms of age, which makes more of the characters more relatable. CS is like Persona with the whole slice of life school student feel which I feel is overdone at this point. I don't know about you but I'm way past that point in life, lol. Granted later installments of the series are less like but it'd still be a slog to get through if you're not into it.
@@user-li8sr9zo9l PSP too - but yeah PC is the best way to play it. Note that they will run perfectly on basically any hardware. The game is fairly "slow-paced" at the start, but if you stick with it to the end you won't regret it.
Of course number 2 I need a emulator to play as it was never released in Australia and Sony won’t have it in the ps store I really wanna play it on a tv screen
I got trials of cold steel 1-4 and plan on picking up the next 4 games coming to ps4. Should have a complete set and they be backwards on ps5 if i ever want to play them.
Sadly will likely never happen with Nintendo owning Monolith software and the creator and owner of most of the rights committed to producing games for Nintendo
Trails series will always be #1 for me when it comes to story and world building jrpg game
Dude Rogue Galaxy is amazing! I happened to stumble upon it for the PS2 and was taken away because all I knew at the time was FF as far as RPG's go. It's also awesome to replay it periodically now on a PS4/5. Story is really good, and Level 5 did an amazing job of making a memorable experience.
My first thought was Xenogears. That is probably still the most ambitious storytelling in a JPRG ever.
My first thought too.
You could say too ambitious. 2nd disk was a visual novel for the most part
Ive started the game countless times. The farthest ive gotten is this stretch near the end of disc 1 where it is hours of senseless dialogue. The game is there but it didnt age well and the ratio of game to dialogue is too imbalanced
I wish they would remaster and actually complete Xenogears. But sadly that will likely never happen
nah, trails is. trails is almost like one gigantic game split into a dozen 100 hour segments. it has the most fleshed out world, story, and characters of any game series by far.
I guess this is obscure to many people, but Panzer Dragoon Saga on the Saturn was heavily story driven too (and had a pretty memorable story at that).
When I saw the title, the first game that came to mine was 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim. Very pleased to see it.
One doesn't need lots of fancy cutscenes etc to have a game that is 90% story 10% gameplay. Now that it is on switch, you should _really_ look into getting your hands on OMORI, a fairly new game to come out (it's been on PC since the end of 2020). The story is way more important than the gameplay and hoo boy is it ever a powerful and emotional one. They stuffed so much raw emotion into that game, that it will twist your moods like a pretzel. Since it is an RPGMaker game (a very well done one!), it does not have any voice acting nor rendered FMV cutscenes, but it does have dialogue. A *LOT* of Dialogue. The characters are very well fleshed out, with great character development for at least one of them. It's also got a huge mystery air about it, as a good portion of the game is spent trying to figure out just what is going on, and then once you find out the what, then you gotta find out the how/why.
When it comes to proportional difference between text and actually playing triangle strategy has to be number 1 by far. Xenosaga would be second for me because of the amount and length of cutscenes.
I think the problem with people about Triangle Strategy is that they believe it's a re-skinned FF Tactics and it's not. It's just a "Tactics" game made by Square. I love it.
Yes!!! Rogue galaxy right off the bat! I love that game and it never gets any recognition. Really cool underrated rpg.
Cool Edgelord...I mean Edelgard hoodie.
Wish they would port Xenosaga to the Switch physically.
Started the Legend of Heroes with the Cold Steel arc on the Vita. Currently playing the third game of the Cold Steel arc on the Switch.
Great video as always! Berseria is one of my favorite played games of all time and is surely a winner in this category. I also think is worth mentioning the Utawarerumono saga of games that came out on the PS4.
Triangle Story had an insane, insane amount of story
My copies of the Xenosaga series are one of my favorite collectors items. Got them all, day one.
liked and subscribed because of berseria it got me laughing crying excited through out it is just love! respect man you sure do got some taste ill take you up on xenosaga and give it a try maybe trails some time too if get time since they be idk 10/15 in total so yea
My own version I guess (aside from Persona series)
Suikoden 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Star Ocean 3
Radiata Stories
Wild Arms 4
Grandia 3
Legaia 1 & 2
Stella Glow
Ar Tonelico 1
Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon
Tales of the Abyss
Tales of Legendia
Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel series
Ni no Kuni 2
Dragon Quest VIII
Dragon Quest XI
Yakuza series
But then I haven't play a lot from your list. So many games to play, so little time 😅
im sorry but this is a far more accurate list of JRPG stories then what Erick listed in his video lol
Great episode. Being less dramatic goes a long way!
I was for sure thinking you'd include either Dot Hacks series due the the sheer amount of cut scenes they have as well as all the email and forum stuff
Rogue Galaxy is such a great game considering it was released in 2007, who would've thought that RPGs were going to only get worse in general, imagine a game like Rogue Galaxy but developed in todays technology.
Where is that Edelgard hoodie from? I'd like it
I enjoyed Tales of Arise, glad it made it onto the list!
Doesn't hold a candlestick to tales of Z or B. Or alliance alive.
@@sagepirotess6312 I need to beat Alliance Alive. I’m like 2 hours in and liked where it was going. Forgot what game took its spot
Thirteen sentinels was amazing…the delivery is amazing and the RTS elements are good as well
I'll never stop recommending that game to people. I double dipped on the switch, even.
Was so good to Re-experience that mind melting narrative more...personal and up close in hand held mode. SUCH a phenomenal game/story.
Yeah by far the best experience in a lot time
Was wondering what the he'll was above xenosaga, but Trails was correct I'm in the final chapter of trails in the sky FC
wait till you see what happens in the epilogue
With the overwhelming amount of duologue, story and characters I really don't think anything can come close to trails let alone jrpg's also as erick mentioned, do make sure to play the sky trilogy if you're looking forward to zero, renne's story is one of the best parts of that game.
Trails is probably the most ambitious attempt at story driven jrpgs, but its not the best game play experience in alot of people's eyes. (my self included) things do improve though as you progress through the series but that is probably still why alot of people have not played it or find to intimidating to jump into. It has that depth and quality of writing, but lacks the budget of most Triple AAA games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest
I don't find it indimidating, in my case I have played many games with many direct sequels also many MMO.....but with Trails in the Sky FC, it just didn't click with me, I recognize it has great ideas, great lore and all, but I felt there was too much filler points in the story and also (really unpopular in the fandom) I got pretty anoyed everytime Estelle talked and (with the exception of Olivier) I didn't like really much the rest of the party.
Maybe I should give it a replay and also continue SC, but maybe I'm the problem, because a lot of things Kiseki fandom loves like every Estelle dialogue, a lot of them were things I hated when I played FC xD
@@Artimes. Yeah, I enjoyed Trails in the Sky's story and characters after watching summaries, but the game itself was a slog to try and get through.
@@Juanperez-yw1nt Also reply to LTB.
I think pacing specifically is quite drastically different when your dealing with a video game series spread across multiple arcs and episodes, there is alot of slow buildup and world building that is conveyed over many hrs of play time. Where as like in a traditional JRPG like Final Fantasy VIII or Grandia for example, these games are just a single game experience so they have some crazy high peak moments are more consistently paced to provide that presentation in an appropriate fixed ammount of time that is easier for players to consume. With trails, FC, SC and even TC were all supposed to be at one point an entire game. So with FC, the story is pretty slow going. Its equilivent to like the first act or 2 in a traditional single jrpg game like FF VIII. Or like playing through all of Disk 1 of FF VIII.
Some of "trails" extremly high points are not until like the 4th or 5th game in the series. Trails of Azure for example is known to be like the true climax and culmination of all 5 of those games together which results in some amazing set piece moments and thrilling payoff. The apex point of the narative were all the threads come together. So the main thing is I tell people its a SLOW build up but I think because of that slow build up, it has less room for plot inconsistencies and certain characters, stories are fleshsed out alot more Vs a regular PS1 classic RPG that has to be condensed to a 40-50 hr gaming experience. But I think for most, its a matter of how much they can consume for one story and people prefer games that at most a 40-50 hr story. Trails is more like 500+ and still ongoing so its hard for alot of people to get into something like that.
What emulation do you suggest to play xenosaga 3
people often say that this kind of games "doesnt respect player time" which I find funny because writters in other media make their content longer by describing stuff, action that games does better because the inmersion is made by your decided interaction not reading alll the text
YOU FORGOT FF13 TRILOGY... GODDAMN THAT GAME WAS FUCKIING SNOOZEFEST
OG Final fantasy tactics-10 anything after I personally classify those as action RPGs
Why not Devil Survivor?
I want story driven games, but I personally don't like the premise that being story driven means it should have less gameplay. That's why I don't like Visual Novels. If I wanted to watch anime, I would watch anime. You know what I mean? Imagine watching an episode of something, but instead of just enjoying said episode, you have to press B a thousand time lol
You said that you wouldn't include visual novels, yet you included 13 Sentinels. Yes, 13 Sentinels has more gameplay than your average visual novel, but it's still a visual novel.
Xenogears my thoughts as well because the interview of the game developer or design didn't released locally because is JP released. But when it locally released there is a controversy of translation in english and there is the answer of the symbolism like purge and the storytelling. I play that in psp in emulator ps1 2 disks or more and it was rpg turn based game but I didn't finish the game due to hanging or glitches and error reading maybe.
Man, I'm glad for this video, now I know of which RPGs I have to avoid. Thanks, really.
Most of these all great that I’ve played! I need to get Rogue Galaxy on PS4. And sometime track down Fate Extra and emulate Kartia maybe
Trails is definitely number one but the mask of trust and mask of deception games from the series that starts with a u and is impossible to pronounce and spell is pretty long too. So is tokyo xanadu and the star ocean games. Just some honorable mentions.
I hope berseria gets a switch port.
I've seen the Fate/Stay Night series and movies, so I'd like to try any games for it
I loved Xenosaga episode one. Especially the card game. (Which was my favorite part of the game. 😍)
Argh I only have time to play 1 Tales game, which one between Berseria and Arise should I choose? I'm dying inside please help.
Berseria 100%
Could go either way imo but will say:
-Berseria has the better story, characters, and side quests (most of Arise's fall into fetch quest/hunts rather than world lore building cutscenes like Berseria, Xillia, Xillia 2, Zestiria).
-Arise has the better combat system imo, graphics (obviously), and skill/equipment system as almost none of it is random unlike Berseria (skills are random for each piece of equipment in Bersy, Arise your equipment doesn't have skills attached besides the accessories which you make via ores which will tel. you what skills will be attached to the accessory when you make them (granted the skils are random on pickup of course but you can see what skills the ore has before making it so you can avoid wasting money by not using it on ores with skills you don't want)...on top of that you can slot in/overwrite skills on one accessory with 1 skill from another accessory thus making a completely personalized accessory, some with modifiers that can make your characters outright broken (Element ATK 15% up with 4 15% fire attack skills slotted into Alphen for example make him more or less wipe out mobs in 1 hit and large enemies/bosses HP get cut by 1/4th to half in a single blow with the right flame edge arte). Story/character wise it's weaker than Berseria but not by that much (imo Bersy's the second best story while Arise is the 4th or 5th (kinda swaps with Xillia depending on my mood as they're that close imo).
Personally I'd rate my top 3 as (in regards to all aspects of the game from story to combat to sub systems):
-1st Tales of Symphonia
-2nd Tales of Arise
-3rd Tales of Berseria
@@ifrit1937 wow thanks!
Hopefully trails zero makes the rest of the series come back to switch and other systems
What????
No Utawarerumono in the video?
Because that's a visual Nivel with gameplay, not a JRPG, but an actual JRPG on the Utawarerumono universe Will come out soon, called Monochrome Mobius
Thanks
What is that shirt? What franchiae
Eldegard from fire emblem.
SUIKODEN 5 has way more talking than combat
Come on, where is Utawarerumono. Have you played them? They are SO GOOD.
What i disliked about the trails story side is that there is no consequence to anything at all, there are no deaths, no depression, or anything, even though you go trough a war.
Its ok if you want a family friendly tier storytelling but, personally it was too much. Not even the bad guys are punished for their "crimes", because they magically survive everything just to get in the good team in the next game, making the final cast the size of the population of India.
Started Trails of the Sky. Ngl, though, I was very bored. I didn't get too far admittedly, but if a story driven game can't nail the opening 2 hours in a way that's in any way interesting, then I'm not confident in the rest of the game.
I've only got a limited time on this Earth. I ain't wasting it by slogging through 20 hours of boredom to get to "the good part" when there are plenty of games that are good from the word "go."
ps. u said no visual novels but with 13 sentinels u kinda cheated ;)
Xenogears, THE... END.
my list :
1. PS 1 JRPG
2. PS 1 JRPG
3. PS 1 JRPG
4. PS 1 JRPG
5. PS 1 JRPG
6. PS 1 JRPG
7. PS 1 JRPG
8. PS 1 JRPG
9. PS 1 JRPG
10. PS 1 JRPG
You named the exact reasons why I don't like FE Three Houses. Fates did it right in letting you skip the first few chapters, instead of letting you play them over and over again. With a timeskip I would've played and liked 3H better. Now its my least liked FE, if the next instalment is like that, I'll be leaving the series for good.
For me my favorite game after ff is rouge galaxy 😭❤️ one of the best and I can’t stop loving it, triangle strategy is my best game for Nintendo switch and I had it preordered cuz I loved the demo! I enjoyed every second of the story telling and had a blast in the battles 👍🏻 good video buddy
top 10 games i will never play
0:20 It's weird to see so much self awareness by a person who run a channel solely dedicated to JRPGS. I know people who barely play any games that will get angry if I mention just how much nonsense comes out of Japan.
People complaining about Triangle Strategy’s focus on story is why we constantly get horribly written games filled with Mary Sues and bad Hollywood plot lines.
I am stuck in Xenosaga 1 because the combat is too hard.
FFXIV is the most story heavy rpg I've ever played. It even incorporated it's original demise into the in-games storyline. Every dungeon, raid, job (including crafters), and relic weapon has it's own storyline and they sometimes intersect with each other and will reference events in other quests if you complete them prior. There are multiple side storylines as well, with some getting their own cutscenes. It was 10+ years of storylines that all came together with the most recent expansion that ended the first story arc on a high note. The second arc is starting and they're looking to do another 10 year arc.
I would say give the free trial a go, even if you aren't a fan of playing with others. They're making the game more single player friendly by adding in NPCs to take with you into the multiplayer areas so you don't have to group up if you just want to experience the story.
aI love the Xeno series so much. BOTH Gears and Saga. I think they are all phinominal stories, and I have watched/read - if not actually played - them a handful of times each. That Saga is not playable on modern consoles is an absolute tragedy. I don't care that they were mostly all cutscenes. That's why I play games - for there stories. No wonder Metal Gear Solid is one of my favorite serieses also ... except 5, and despite not being RPGS. Also I loved how much story - and VOICED DIALOGUE - was in Tales of Arise and especially Berseria. Easily my top two Tales Games. Though I did enjoy Xillia, Graces and even Zesteria.
Fire Emblem Three Houses
Xenoblade games should make the list.
I am very dissapointed with Xenoxaga trilogy's ending
Berseria is nothing more than redundant drivel. I just couldn't endure the one dimensional nature of each character. If it's number four on your then I'm going to abstain from the rest the list.
You gotta be kidding me tales of arise story it's so cookie cutter, the story is at best Medicore
Vandal Hearts 2 has the best plot of them all. Too bad the gameplay is drizzling diarrhea.
Funny you'd mention it. I'm playing it right now with the patch that makes the battle system a normal one and I'm having a blast. The original battle system isn't that bad actually, but when you have access to savestates, it's very hard not to use it to cheat the AI 100% of the time, because why accept that you took a hit that took half of your HP? In the original you can dodge most attacks if you figure out the AI, but at least you sometimes make mistakes and the difficulty is balanced around that. Bottom line, if people are going to play it, they should use the patch. It's really a great, very addictive game
Justice for xenosaga!!!
I want a Xenosaga Remaster so bad. One of my fvorite JRPGs of ALL-time. so expertly crafted with a deep, rich, philosophical story and memorable cast of characters--also SOOOO many badass moments.
One can only Hope that it will Happen but i doubt it. Namco/Bandai isnt interested and Monolith hast no rights over Xenosaga.
Personally I think a full on remake where all the games use the same engine/art assets would be a better ideal than just a remaster as, imo, the drastic change in art style makes each game look disconnected to each other. If Monolithsoft was to get involved with them I think a Xenoblade art style would work perfect for all 3 games. Maybe even attempting to add onto the story with some plot points they dropped in development that would've been in if they kept making as many games as they planned would help as well...at the very least rework some of the weaker plot points/holes that people mention the game has (can't go into detail myself as I never played the games and nowadays it seems near impossible to get them unless you want to sell your kidneys or something lol). As for combat could stay the same or at least change them so all of them follow the same system with only adding in more broken aspects of the system in the later games (kind of like how each Trails games adds in a few new systems to the original base system so they still all feel kinda uniform).
Better remaster
Remasters are bad for the brain.
They would not benefit from a remaster, as the graphics is already their strong point.
A full remake would be great , bit ot would require Nintendo having the Xenosaga IP.
I just started the Trails series and I’m loving Trails of the Sky. Would’ve loved to have seen the Lunar series though when put up against Trails and Tales, I get it.
Lunar is such a simple, yet very enjoyable story. I wouldn’t say it’s the best story ever told, but I’ll take Lunar’s lighthearted, often campy dialogue and over simplified plot that’s easy to digest and fall in love with over something like Triangle Strategy.
Trails in the Sky Trilogy some of my favorite jrpgs ever. And estelle is best female lead ever imo. Enjoy!
@@Enidx10 I'm looking forward to playing Lunar.
Trails series? Do you mean The Legend of heroes series?
@@vagrantxii well both is correct however when you say trails series it specifically refers to that saga of games. anything before trails in the sky isnt apart of the trails series but the legend of hero series.
Trails series must be the most story driven game, I’m so glad I finished them all at once
They are that good huh? I'm gonna have to take a plunge in them. Which one should I start with? I have a PS4 and Switch...
@@isaiahjaxon You start with the first, Trails in the Sky. Each of those Trails games are a continuation of the last. Though I've heard the last one can be played alone as it features different characters.
@@ivenstorm If you mean Kuro no Kiseki. It does have new characters, but there are also several characters coming back in important roles from all the preivous series. I don't know how many are coming back, but, I'm sure there are a few from both Sky and Cold Steel. Not sure about the crossbell characters.
The best way is to start from Trails in the Sky. Steam version plus voice patch is the best way to play in my opinion. Hopefully Falcom will port them soon to new consoles.
@@isaiahjaxon A potato can run Sky FC,SC and 3rd...start with these if possible then by the time you beat all 3 games Trails from Zero will be out on PS4 in late Sept. Sure you could start with Coldsteel 1 like a lot of people did but trust me the payoff for playing them in order totally worth it.
its just the cliff hanger man. play the first one then they leave you in cliff hanger, tyen you play the 2nd and you learn there a bigger treat out there that need to take down and its need a lot of set up and prepare. arive at 3rd and its leave you at hanging, sure we forcely learn that rean basically still weak. and go on till the hajimari basically conclusion about rean anexity after 4 game before and how he should face his live to moveon
I was afraid Trails wasn't going to be there. It's one of my favourite series of all time. Not just as a JRPG but of any genre.
As someone who loves and plays JRPGs solely for the gameplay and sometimes the grind i really hated the slice of life/ dating sims games and i tried a bunch ending up dropping them and trail in the sky/ cold steel included. but when i tried persona it really shifted my perspective. and ended up finishing all the persona games and most of the ones mentioned in this list. so in my opinion persona games might not have the best stories per se but they have the best presentation and thats as important as the story i think
Tales of Berseria on the list, yep, checks out!
Star ocean the second story is my vote for number 1. Private interactions, optional characters, loads of story that was very well written man that game not being on this list is almost criminal.
Star Ocean... Period.
Those are action rpgs though great series but isn't a jrpg
@@Citizen_Nappa23 tri ace is Japanese hence jrpg thanks though.
@@travislong2176 it's still an action rpg they aren't turn based they fall under a different classification altogether. The "jrpg" Era were all turn based titles. Action rpgs and RTS were games you freely moved around had completely different in game mechanics
@@Citizen_Nappa23 wow you are seriously grasping straws here man he's got action rpgs on this list because they are Japanese companies and rpgs tales series rogue galaxy like did you even watch the video.........
Idk about everyone but for me tales of zestiria has the best story for me with music too especially certain moments in game I enjoyed it more than berseria ( especially rose and sorey and mikleo my favourite characters ) o.o also there is other jrpg like ys series that have a good amount of story xd
I agree. He lost credibility with aries, like he just included the newest tales game. Hell the skits aren't even voiced like past.
And where is alliance alive.
Where did you get that Edelgard hoodie?
He looks damn fresh in it XDD
I'm surprised DQXI didn't even make the list
Great video as always brother 👊🏾
I want to play Xenosaga. Sadly it's rare and expensive. I wonder why it's not in the PSN or elsewhere.
Its elsewhere
@@hiro6164 Where can I play it? Legally
@@geralt7144 you can wait to see its remastered or something.
@@hiro6164 It is more realistic that we get a new Legacy of Kain game, because Square sold the rights
@@geralt7144 just emulate it, you won't go to he'll i promise.
I think tales of berseria is way more story driven than tales of arise but thats just me. maybe im biased because berseria is my favorite tales game
Much love to Xenosaga series. So underrated. A true masterpiece. And I would never part with my copies.
13 Sentinels is the best of the best by quality of story!
Happy Friday, Erick. Thank you for another great video. Keep up your amazing tributes to JRPGs!!!!
My number one is Suikoden 2, I absolutely love the characters and the story. But great list, too. Thank you.
When i was young my favorite was the FF series now though as the years go by the FF series seems to be declining in quality well FF7R was still good and FFXIV but Falcom really does well on its trails and ys games the story the narrative the characters they have it all i think they have a good standard of what Jrpgs should be and hope to see them pull out more great things in the future
When it came to final fantasy series FF7 and FF8 were my favorites
from what i've just read, there's still much more to come. cold steel 4 is not the end of the saga, there's a game called trails of reverie coming in the near future that takes place after cold steel 4, and then another 4 games after that. basically there are the 4 cold steel games, followed by another 4 game series, and reverie bridges them together. so it'll basically be a 9 part series by the time it's done.
and i agree, as much as i loved ff7-9 at the time, it's like the trails series took that formula and perfected it, far surpassing ff with it's world building, story, character development, combat, pretty much everything.
@@Jack_80 there are the 3 trails in the sky games that go into the 2 crossbell games that are currently only in japan but can be fan patched if you know where to look but will be officially released this year and next year. then the cold steel games, followed by reverie and kuro 1 and kuro 2 is the latest game that is coming out n japan this year followed by even more games so as of now including japanese only titles we have 12 by the end of this year
@@kickerbs I've played sky 1 and 2 and the 2 crossbell games with a psp emulator on my phone with a ps4 controller. the 3rd is the only one i couldn't play because there is no translation for it on psp. from everything i've seen and heard though, if you have to miss one game, that's the one to miss, since the other 4 are literally 2 big games split into 2 each and the 3rd is more of a standalone dungeon crawling epilogue, not quite as pertinent as the other 4 games. still annoys me that nobody did a fan translation for sky 3 though, seems kinda weird to just skip that one when all the others got one.
@@Jack_80 there is an english release on pc that is why it never had a fan translation
Who says that Fire Emblem Awakening's story is bad? I actually really liked it.
I was just gonna start Xenosaga this weekend...
Triangle strategy was alright. Story was okay but I found gameplay lacking. One of my biggest complaints was pure human enemies and no creatures or monsters. I also like having a job class system in my tactics games
I had feeling it was going to be disappointing..
Rogue Galaxy i need to LP some time. i really LOVED Tales Of Arise though! i miss xeno games!
I can't seem to get into the Trails series personally. I was interested in the series due to how people talked about it being a big overarching plot over multiple games. Sounds like my kind of jrpg.
Granted, maybe it's because I started with Cold Steel 1, but they story just doesn't interest me. Characters, music, and gameplay is all fantastic, but it feels like a quest simulator in my opinion. It has a lot of concepts that I think are trying to set up for the next game but It just feels like a slog playing through the same school trip sequence over and over with no major story beat.
I might give it a second try, it just wasn't what I expected.
Same.
That's fair. Imo, Trails in the Sky is much better than Cold Steel. There's way more exploration to it and it also has a more diverse cast, in terms of age, which makes more of the characters more relatable. CS is like Persona with the whole slice of life school student feel which I feel is overdone at this point. I don't know about you but I'm way past that point in life, lol. Granted later installments of the series are less like but it'd still be a slog to get through if you're not into it.
To be fair, Cold Steel 1 and 2 are probably the weakest games in the series. I'd recommend starting with Trails in the Sky FC.
@@imda77 PC is the only place you can get that game, right?
@@user-li8sr9zo9l PSP too - but yeah PC is the best way to play it. Note that they will run perfectly on basically any hardware.
The game is fairly "slow-paced" at the start, but if you stick with it to the end you won't regret it.
Of course number 2 I need a emulator to play as it was never released in Australia and Sony won’t have it in the ps store I really wanna play it on a tv screen
I got trials of cold steel 1-4 and plan on picking up the next 4 games coming to ps4. Should have a complete set and they be backwards on ps5 if i ever want to play them.
I find Three Houses not very story driven. Moslty hours of teaching,training small side missions before the story progress
Tales of Arise is straight up ass. It's probably only included on the list because it's new
pretty sure there is no emulation for trails in the sky part 2 Erick
ive looked everywhere
I love Xenosaga, still have all 3 games in the closet with my original ps2. Hoping one day for a remaster, KOS-MOS is the best.
Sadly will likely never happen with Nintendo owning Monolith software and the creator and owner of most of the rights committed to producing games for Nintendo
TY for being right about LOH Trails in the Sky! So good!
Once I saw the hoodie I already knew this video was going to be based
Dudeee where did you get that edelgard hoodie??? I need to know
Could you do a trail series 101 where to begin?
you should consider trying 'To The Moon' thats the only RPG i finished in one sitting. the story is so good to put down!
LOL while watching the whole video I was thinking "I bet all the trails games is #1"
Once again you show your impeccable taste sir.
Finished Trails in the Sky FC last month, taking a break to go back to the series again later
The little Noi on the shoulder of Rean (love Nayuta no Kiseki game)
Xenosaga is my favorite series!