Alright, guys, please stop with the Pokémon bombs, will you? I admit I completely forgot about it and I know it deserved at least a spot in the honorable mentions. I don't need every single fan out there to point that out. Thank you.
One thing you'll learn as your channel grows is that people will complain no matter what you say. Another thing you'll hopefully learn soon is to ignore them and dont respond to them.
Pokemon and Xenogears on the same list together...ugh..as much as far as the Consumerism of the game industry: YES Pokemon was game changer as now a company could simple make new drawings: and make hundreds of millions of gamers consumerism...in a way the Pokemon Model is what slowly LEAD to the Pre-Order/Games as a Service Market. ALl the while just reskinning and drawing their way to billions overall.
@Weston Meyer I feel like this is an extremely bad take. The continued success of JRPGs is and was never dependent on Pokemon. It was forever a handheld game so I'm not sure how JRPGs would have disappeared without it especially on console which is where the boom for JRPGs in America too place. Obviously it's success propelled that series into the limelight but I wouldn't say pokemon impacted anything outside of it's own brand like a lot of the games listed above. There aren't a ton of pokemon derivatives out there.
@Weston Meyer There was no decline in the demand for JRPGs. That is literally the most overstated thing people say that folks don't want classic style JRPGs and yet we are and have been inundated with them for a long long time, even before pokemon and even after. What I took away from Eric's list was how those RPGs influenced the genre which pokemon has not. I played and loved pokemon but other RPGs don't have elements or influence from it like the classics that we play and enjoy. Pokemon is a series of it's own, a great one for sure but its it's own thing. Game companies aren't making their games or stories based off of frameworks that pokemon built, they just aren't. They are making them based on titles like the ones Eric listed.
Weston Meyer sounds like you read a Kotaku article and declared yourself an expert. That is an incredibly naive belief and clearly thought up by some paid-per-word millennial and believed by others. It’s honestly pretty laughable spouting that trash in a channel filled with JRPG fans that dislike Pokémon.
You just made me relive ages 9 to 15. Thank you. The Suikoden series and Xenogears to this day are in my top 5 games of all time. I do however wish you would hsve dropped front mission 3 and the esrly Persona series into the honourable mentions. I felt more of a JRPG impact in my youth by ATLUS
I've always seen the 90s as the golden age of gaming. So many great games came out that helped to change things. Not to mention the change we saw from awesome 2d art going to 3d. Most of my favorite games of all time came from the 90s.
Thank you for giving Xenogears its due!! The story has haunted me for decades. James Cameron bought the rights and dreamed of making Battle Angel Alita movies for 20+ years and finally succeeded in glorious fashion. That story gives me hope we might someday see Xenogears' story completed. (And better than ever with the graphics tech available now - the floating city in Alita reminded me of Solaris, gear battles could be great etc.) So much to look forward to!
FFVII was the first FF released in Europe. Like many people of my country i discovered JRPG with it , and it will stay my gamer's best memory ever , its the pinacle of JRPG History, no question asked. I did later all the rpg you are talking about and i 200% agree with your video. Only a handful of game can actually compete with Xenogears scenario
I am living in Europe. I've heard very positive things about Xenogears. But nowadays, I will have to import it from the US, right? And are those anime scenes in the US version subtitled with Japanese VA, or with English VA?
Earthbound will always be historically important to me, I realize some people don't like it. But for me and I am sure a lot of others it was one of the few weird JRPGs that broke away from the norms of the genre. With its post modern/sci fi story and all the crazy situations it put you in on your adventure. I would of never got into RPGs if I had not been tricked into playing that weird game haha.
EarthBound was one of my first RPGs ( alongside Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Breath of Fire and RoboTrek ) and to this day remains my favorite game of all time :) I'd certainly call it an important JRPG since aside from being a rare instance of a modern setting in the genre it was also one of the rare examples of a game's story & whatnot feeling very personal.
I've been playing RPGs for longer than earthbound's existence, and when I first played earthbound, my initial re action was 'this is stupid'. Not to shit on a game you like but I'm sure you can at least understand someone who is already familiar with rpgs going into that one expecting another one to be dismayed to say the least. The setting was a bit odd for sure, but there were other ones with unorthodox settings at the time such as Robotrek. The biggest problem with earthbound is it has a huge fanbase of people who claim to be fans just for hipster points who may not even be a fan. Hell I recently saw an article from some 'games journalist' who claims to be the biggest earthbound fan, and wrote in the same article that they never even played the game. wut. It really is some kind of sick 'nerd cred' stick for hipster wannabes. I mean I'm not talking about the legit fans, they're legit, I got no problem with them, but it has an issue where people say it's great and all that, just because they think they'll be cooler for doing so. Kinda like some people want to get into chess, or pretend to be into chess, because they know that if they pass as a chess nerd, people will suddenly think they're smart.
@@Ghalion666 Yep that's why I said I realize some people don't like it, you either are a fan or find it dumb for some reason there doesn't seem to be much in between. I have always been a fan of extremely weird corny stuff and the Earthbound games are full of it. I also liked Robotrek but I never actually beat it, Its a game I should go back and play finish it someday. I have never met a fake fan of RPGs before but I wouldn't doubt it kind of reminds me of one of a girlfriend I had who got me all excited when she said she was a gamer but found out that just meant she played Mario and Zelda when she was a kid lol.
@@newageBoundhippie I feel the same way I loved all those games to but Earthbound being my first RPG it will always be one of my top favorite games. Another one from that era is Lufia 2, I loved the puzzle dungeons from it and really stood out to me also. I think its why when Wild Arms came around I loved it almost if not a little bit more than FF7 even though graphics wise FF7 was leagues above it.
@@Ghalion666 Yeah, Earthbound is very silly unlike REAL mature stuff like anime people wearing goofy colorful outfits and yelling their attack names over lore straight up from some teens' notebook. Let's be fucking real now.
it's no deny rpg from 80-90 establish many immortal IP, set trends in design of everything. But for me it's like testing gorunds. For someone who start play games since 1998 lot of mechanics are rough. Games(and technological progress) make amazeing progress in next 10y. Games like Baldur Gates ('98) or Gothic('01) and later TES 3 Morrowind('03) set trends for storytelling on west. As i lern now xenogears ('98), FF IX ('00) improve genre on many levels, later FF X('01) bring full voice and further improvements in experience of gameing. RPG flourish in early 2000, but become more and more mainstream. First signs of casualization apears in 2009, and around 2013 they start to repeat it self - in story, mechanics, everything. Good ex. of fall of RPG for me is Dragon Age 3 with casual mmo mechanics. So imo '98-2013 was golden 15 years of RPG (with exception of Witcher 3 in 2015 cuz my country game industry was behind :P, but it's perfect condensation of eveything what was good in this 15years period). Now i have feeling there is nothing new in mainstream RPG. Eveything become mixed with other genres and recycled. Few brave independent studios with self-finance(like form KS) give us gems like Divinity Original Sin 2. But it's feels like dark times for RPG now :/
I disagree a little bit with that last statement. There is still a lot of originality out there, but not mainstream anymore, which is maybe why you feel that way. You said it yourself; some indie studios have made it with some pretty unique stuff, but there's also other non-independent companies that keep making original RPGs and the like.
Although I can't say for sure if FFVI (SNES version) was the first RPG I ever played, it might have been DW or BoF, it was the game that had me fall in love with RPGs. The music, the story, and the characters are just so memorable. Plus the stuff Kefka pulled off, well, just didn't stuff like that back in those days. Still one of my favourite games of all time, right alongside Chrono Trigger. Bloody love that game too. FFVII is the whole reason I ended up wanting a PS over the N64. Still remembering getting my mom to rent a PS for me so I can play it. Then ended up learning the hard way about need memory cards. Running through the first few hours of the game twice in the span of a day kind of sucked. It was worth it though and getting a PS allowed me to play many other great RPGs. I like how we can get remakes of FF Adventure but no release of Seiken Densetsu 3.
Chrono Trigger is a good example of how to make a perfect game when you just get together best experts. I wonder why today's gaming companies do not combine their forces to make better games. Today's current gaming industry is badly broken. (Microtransaction and DLC that are not DLC just a game split into parts.)
Ah xenogears ❤️. I wish it was actually impactful as it should have been. Never seen an epic jrpg like it since, nobody even attempted to reach it. Even the director went gameplay over story in xenoblade. Xenosaga is close i guess.
Damn, so many games to play but I'm focused now on Growlanser IV. PD: Celes is beatiful, strong and smart. A underrated waifu maybe? PD2: Se que no tiene nada que ver pero; tengo un problema con Growlanser (el de la PSP) y es que parte de los textos están mal o hay otras letras mal ubicadas, algo así como fallos raros. Es culpa del emulador , del juego? Y si lo es, hay otro lugar confiable en el que pueda descargar el juego en buenas condiciones?
Secret of mana was life back in the day! I played it so much and so long that the Mana beast couldnt harm or hit me because i was so strong from leveling!
...I appreciate it, man, but this list, just like I said at the BEGINNING, was made in chronological order. I love Xenogears but I never said it was better than any of the others in the list.
Great list. Brought back so much nostalgia. I've played them all except Tales of Phantasia. Tactics Ogre LUCT, FF6, Chrono Trigger, FF7,and FFT (along with Vagrant Story) are what made me into an RPG fan. I still get shivers down my spine seeing those games in action. I later got into Western and computer RPGs, but these incredible JRPGs of the 90s are what started it all for me, man. :D Oh, I was also so super pissed for like 10 years that Seiken Densetsu 3 was never brought over out of Japan, argggh, haha.
i wish i´d live in a timeline where the initial vision of xenogears was completely developed D; so so much potential and even without using its full potential still my favorite game of all time.. love all the xeno games, but gears stays as my fav. after starting from scratch two times, now with nintendo monolith has the budget to build up a whole universe over a few games, like they tried with gears and saga.. but didnt happen yet :/ xenoblade x was imo great setup game and introduction, which could be used for much more and i hope monolith will use what they´ve created...
Another really interesting video! I remember that I was completely obsessed with Xenogears back in the day. My friend and I were both playing it and we would discuss it regularly trying to figure out the significance of all the plot, characters, symbolism, and the like. Likewise, Suikoden 1 was one of the funnest games I had ever played up to that point. I enjoyed several of the games on this list. Keep up the good work!
To think I was 5 when I played Xenogears back in 2000 and it was the first RPG I played. I remember my grandad brought this and a ps1 when he was on holiday in the US. Sadly he wasn't aware that games were region locked so this ended up being the only ps1 game I could play for a while
Your dad had/has good taste but is apparently unaware of the point of ESRB/CERO/PEGI. Xenogears was pretty scarring for me at the end of middle school, so I can't imagine playing it and being about the same age as Dan and Midori.
Never played xengears, always wanted to but yeah I live in UK so no dice. Really don't like using emulators. It's best story but second disc is rushed? I heard there second disc is basically an anime, dunno how true that is
Create an american PS3 account if you have a PS3 and you can purchase it. Personally I have a US,UK,HK and JP account so I can generally get the games I want.
Yeah it's a shame they rushed the game out an didn't get it to more markets. The 2nd disc plays out like a novel. Even with the 2nd disc being how it is the game is pretty much a must play for rpg fans.
I like the story in the 2nd disc. But it is rushed in the sense that alot of it is tossed at you in big blocks of text like you are reading a story instead of being played out in gameplay. You can tell entire dungeons and bosses were skipped over like this. However the story contained in it is still quality.
It is the best story I've ever experienced. There are still some parts that kind of drag on (e.g. Kislev can get kinda boring; so can Aquvy for a bit), and a couple instances of what seems like unavoidable cringe, but overall I honestly have yet to see anything outdo Xenogears in terms of telling an amazing story that's worth hearing. I do not use recreational drugs, but this game still expanded my mind. I credit Xenogears with my decisions to get degrees in philosophy and biochemistry.
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest YAY!! Sometimes I think I'm the only one who knows that game. I know it'a bit shitty, but for some reason I obsessed with it back then. I only knew the SNES version though. Sheesh. didn't know it had such a complicated cross-franchise history following up from it. and yes again for Final Fantasy III/VI! :) I know you don't like Final Fantasy too much, Erik, but honestly that is an amaaaazing JRPG. Incidentally, Final Fantasy VIII in 2019 is the new Final Fantasy V lol
I really liked Final Fantasy Mystic Quest also, yeah it was easy and not the best game. But for me the sound track alone made it worth playing and it was still a relaxing game that I enjoyed.
@@martinomagic9230 I think it was a bit of that easy and simple formula that made it so addictive actually. It's almost like a "casual game" Final Fantasy entry in today's standards. Light on story and upgrade systems and more focused on small bites of feel-good task completion achievements. empty monster lair -> next monster lair, rinse and repeat :)
@@codingmatheus Yep it was kind of a mix between a Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda game. It was made to try and introduce dumb foreigners to the RPG genre, if they had not basically stated that I think it would of been a lot better received haha.
@@ErickLandonRPG Talking about Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, since JRPGs were not as popular in the west as they were in Japan they assumed it was because they were to hard. So they made Mystic Quest as a game to get the western audience "Use" to RPG mechanics. But turns out it just took a game like FF3 that more people were interested in.
Xenogears is a very great game for the PS1, however on the topic of historically important jrpgs, why did you give FF7 a silver medal? I'm not the most hardcore fan of Final Fantasy but to me it seems more influential and achieved more than Xenogears did, despite its dated graphics. Xenogears might have aged better and had a deeper plot, but the dungeons on the second disc is nothing but words. How come you believe Xenogears is historically more important when it comes to jrpgs over FF7?
You clearly didn't watch the full video. Pay attention at the beginning and you'll notice that the list is done in CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, not in order of importance.
Professor Landon schooling us in RPGs of the 90s 101. Thanks Professor Landon! Was it me or was his favorite RPG ever did not make the list? I mean Chrono Cross was a great game, but was not as impactful as the others on the list?
The whole concept of a main protagonist having Split personality disorder made Xenogears such a unique experience. I also love that when they created the Xenosaga series which chronologically predates the events of Xenogears that introduce Fei Fong Wong's first incarnation Abel, which made it sooooo interesting.
Watching you assholes analyze this is like watching my ex wife change the oil in her car. While Pokémon is of course technically a JRPG, acting like it was a huge influence on the genre is laughable. Can we get back to reality and games that aren’t designed for 5 year olds now?
Hello, could you review FFIII / VI, V and Chrono trigger in Spanish? I want to introduce my mom into videogames via 90's JRPGs because she is a habid book reader and this is the closest to a book that a videogame can be
im so mad at myself. I had shining force 2, fft, tactics ogre, ff7, but the game I never finished was Xenogear. Im so mad at myself. Emulator yes, but its not the same feeling being 6am a saturday morning parents still sleeping and just playing waiting for the breakfast. I miss those days. thank you Erick! Phantasy star IV :D should have been there. Genesis: yea my parent didnt knew and Playstation god bless them.
In my opinion, Chrono Trigger is not only _the_ single greatest JRPG ever, but also the single greatest OST in a video game. Ever. And I will stick by this until the day I die, or something that changes my mind comes along. It's been 25 years and I'm still waiting.
I know this will be controversial to the hardcore community, but I would say Pokemon Red/Blue seriously deserves to be on this list. It was for many Americans, the first time a RPG would make waves to casual gamers who had no idea what an RPG was and is one (if not the most) commercially successful video game franchises of all time.
Nice video and great mention of all the games. I was thinking that Earthbound would be on the list, but when I think about it, I had that game as a kid and no one I knew liked it, even people who loved Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger. One of the more influential games to me would be either BoF1 and BoF3. Though, those games didn't really have an industry impact like the games you listed. I've been wanting to bust out some of my old RPGs and play them lately. I've had a fix for 90s RPGs.
Man there are so many jrpgs on this list I wish I could have played as a kid when I had unlimited time. It takes me forever nowadays to beat a jrpg. Still love them but my backlog is getting ridiculous right now.
Ff7 is historically important no doubt about that. But as a game is average. A 7/10 being generous, and a big chunk of that goes to the soundtrack. A game that has aged like fish, the three instalments before it are hugely better games.
I like many of the games on the list, but most of them aren't really significant tbh, aside from maybe FFVII. Aside from pokemon that others have pointed out so I won't, I think the first FF and DQ are actually what creates the genre and deserves to be a list like this more than anything else.
This seems to be more of a popular list instead of significant. It would have been nice to talk about future series that were influenced by these instead of always just saying "will go on to be a huge influence". Other than direct sequels, not sure how they influenced anything.
I love you and your videos man but that is not a top 10 (you even said it a list in chronological order) no matter how much traffic these words generate. Please learn basic naming conventions! It started being pretty bothering to see you labeling stuff "hidden gems" and "top something" as if you do not know what these mean.
Good list but 1 question..... are we not counting Pokemon as a JRPG? One of the gaming industries biggest franchise's which popularised the monster capture element that many games went on to use. Shocked that not only was it not in the 10 (which it should be) it didn't even get an honourable mention.
FFVII is potentially the most important jrpg ever, in the grand scheme of things. Nowadays people like to say it's overrated. True it is not the best FF, but if you were alive when this game came out, the hype for it was unbelievable. People who hated rpg's played that game and liked it.
That is so true. I remember how big ff7 was. No one ever talked about rpgs as a kid in school but when ff7 came out that's about all everyone at school was talking about.
Yeah, I remember this kid used to bring the strategy guide to school with him and a decent little crowd would all gather up and ask him this and that. It was the only RPG as a kid I ever saw anything like that.
Damn good list, I would differ on 2 if not 3 of your videos, but I can honestly say I respect everything you put on your list. An it is fine you forgot Pokemon you acknowledged it and apologized so yea not seeing the big deal but im 47 not 16...so there is that. Fun video thanks for the passion and the spotlight for gamer's who might of missed these or born long after they came out.
I thought xenogears told a complete story (atleast for a single game). In fact to me it felt much longer and denser than other jrpgs from the era. I think it's just the fact that it narrates the story to you in certain parts instead of letting you play and explore it yourself that some people didn't like. Never bothered me. I still enjoyed it. The only thing that bothered me was some folks online recommending not to play it because of the 2nd disk. If I would have listened to that terrible advice I would have missed out on an absolute masterpiece.
I like the list but maybe I’m missing something or not understanding the genre completely but Breath of Fire and Fire Emblem Holy War were amazing and those two along with FFVII were some of my favorites growing up. Where are those games on your list?
the fact you don't mention Pokemon Red/Blue/Green as so much as an honorable mention just feels wrong....I get that you're not a fan of the gotta catch 'em all gameplay style, but the original generation of Pokemon is immensely important in JRPG history. The catching & battling style, trading monsters with friends....they kicked off a pseudo genre of monster catching RPGs that still continue to this day, and on top of that Pokemon in & of itself is the biggest multimedia entertainment franchise in the world. also while the Xenosaga trilogy has some very obvious references to Xenogears, the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise is it's own thing and has no connection to gears or saga beyond having many of the same members of the dev team and the special crossover cameos in Xenoblade 2 with KOS-MOS & T-ELOS as Blades.
There are people who are fans of XBC who insist that, as of the end of the third game, there is supposedly a link between Xenoblade and Xenosaga. I'm not saying you should buy into the theory, but if you weren't aware of it, it's apparently a thing. I can't weigh in, since I've only played the first Xenoblade and not the other two.
Good video, but I'm surprised Pokémon didn't get even a honorable mention (I sincerely thought it would be like top 3) since it was a huge success and established many mechanics for its own subgenre of monster collecting RPG, even not being the first to do so. I still have to play Xenogears though, and you are making my expectations getting higher and higher haha.
Ah 90's JRPG. This I can relate! I was in elementary school back then. The previous part of the video, 80's JRPG, for the most part I have only ever heard it talked about since I haven't been born back in the day :P
I think you could definitely do one for the 2000's, and next year MAYBE one for the 2010's (although that may be challenging) But for the 2000's I could definitely name some important games Persona 3 (for starting the daily life RPG trend, for better or worse) Demon Souls (for basically starting it's own genre) actually I'll stop there because because I'm sure you'd have fun coming up with a list if you decide to make that video. But this and the last video we're dope.
![BEST JRPGs of the 2000s! [By year]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/TuN75GP-t1U/mqdefault.jpg)
Alright, guys, please stop with the Pokémon bombs, will you? I admit I completely forgot about it and I know it deserved at least a spot in the honorable mentions. I don't need every single fan out there to point that out. Thank you.
One thing you'll learn as your channel grows is that people will complain no matter what you say. Another thing you'll hopefully learn soon is to ignore them and dont respond to them.
Pokemon and Xenogears on the same list together...ugh..as much as far as the Consumerism of the game industry: YES Pokemon was game changer as now a company could simple make new drawings: and make hundreds of millions of gamers consumerism...in a way the Pokemon Model is what slowly LEAD to the Pre-Order/Games as a Service Market. ALl the while just reskinning and drawing their way to billions overall.
@Weston Meyer I feel like this is an extremely bad take. The continued success of JRPGs is and was never dependent on Pokemon. It was forever a handheld game so I'm not sure how JRPGs would have disappeared without it especially on console which is where the boom for JRPGs in America too place. Obviously it's success propelled that series into the limelight but I wouldn't say pokemon impacted anything outside of it's own brand like a lot of the games listed above. There aren't a ton of pokemon derivatives out there.
@Weston Meyer There was no decline in the demand for JRPGs. That is literally the most overstated thing people say that folks don't want classic style JRPGs and yet we are and have been inundated with them for a long long time, even before pokemon and even after. What I took away from Eric's list was how those RPGs influenced the genre which pokemon has not. I played and loved pokemon but other RPGs don't have elements or influence from it like the classics that we play and enjoy. Pokemon is a series of it's own, a great one for sure but its it's own thing. Game companies aren't making their games or stories based off of frameworks that pokemon built, they just aren't. They are making them based on titles like the ones Eric listed.
Weston Meyer sounds like you read a Kotaku article and declared yourself an expert. That is an incredibly naive belief and clearly thought up by some paid-per-word millennial and believed by others. It’s honestly pretty laughable spouting that trash in a channel filled with JRPG fans that dislike Pokémon.
Like for Tales of phantasia!
You just made me relive ages 9 to 15. Thank you. The Suikoden series and Xenogears to this day are in my top 5 games of all time. I do however wish you would hsve dropped front mission 3 and the esrly Persona series into the honourable mentions. I felt more of a JRPG impact in my youth by ATLUS
Suikoden 😍👍
I've always seen the 90s as the golden age of gaming. So many great games came out that helped to change things. Not to mention the change we saw from awesome 2d art going to 3d. Most of my favorite games of all time came from the 90s.
Thank you for giving Xenogears its due!! The story has haunted me for decades. James Cameron bought the rights and dreamed of making Battle Angel Alita movies for 20+ years and finally succeeded in glorious fashion. That story gives me hope we might someday see Xenogears' story completed. (And better than ever with the graphics tech available now - the floating city in Alita reminded me of Solaris, gear battles could be great etc.) So much to look forward to!
By the way, go see Alita everyone! Not only is it a blast, but its success will be an incentive for more awesome and faithful adaptations.
This almost became a Square Soft video😂
Whats understood, doesn’t need to be said lol
Dude, one serious question, ARE YOU MY BROTHER OR WHAT???
These games i used to play way back!!!
LOVE YA BRO
FFVII was the first FF released in Europe. Like many people of my country i discovered JRPG with it , and it will stay my gamer's best memory ever
, its the pinacle of JRPG History, no question asked. I did later all the rpg you are talking about and i 200% agree with your video. Only a handful of game can actually compete with Xenogears scenario
I am living in Europe. I've heard very positive things about Xenogears. But nowadays, I will have to import it from the US, right? And are those anime scenes in the US version subtitled with Japanese VA, or with English VA?
@@NoctLightCloud English VA but it might be available through the your PS store with the vita or ps3, not the ps4 though.. but hopefully one day.
Earthbound will always be historically important to me, I realize some people don't like it. But for me and I am sure a lot of others it was one of the few weird JRPGs that broke away from the norms of the genre. With its post modern/sci fi story and all the crazy situations it put you in on your adventure. I would of never got into RPGs if I had not been tricked into playing that weird game haha.
EarthBound was one of my first RPGs ( alongside Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, Breath of Fire and RoboTrek ) and to this day remains my favorite game of all time :) I'd certainly call it an important JRPG since aside from being a rare instance of a modern setting in the genre it was also one of the rare examples of a game's story & whatnot feeling very personal.
I've been playing RPGs for longer than earthbound's existence, and when I first played earthbound, my initial re action was 'this is stupid'. Not to shit on a game you like but I'm sure you can at least understand someone who is already familiar with rpgs going into that one expecting another one to be dismayed to say the least.
The setting was a bit odd for sure, but there were other ones with unorthodox settings at the time such as Robotrek.
The biggest problem with earthbound is it has a huge fanbase of people who claim to be fans just for hipster points who may not even be a fan. Hell I recently saw an article from some 'games journalist' who claims to be the biggest earthbound fan, and wrote in the same article that they never even played the game. wut. It really is some kind of sick 'nerd cred' stick for hipster wannabes. I mean I'm not talking about the legit fans, they're legit, I got no problem with them, but it has an issue where people say it's great and all that, just because they think they'll be cooler for doing so. Kinda like some people want to get into chess, or pretend to be into chess, because they know that if they pass as a chess nerd, people will suddenly think they're smart.
@@Ghalion666 Yep that's why I said I realize some people don't like it, you either are a fan or find it dumb for some reason there doesn't seem to be much in between. I have always been a fan of extremely weird corny stuff and the Earthbound games are full of it. I also liked Robotrek but I never actually beat it, Its a game I should go back and play finish it someday.
I have never met a fake fan of RPGs before but I wouldn't doubt it kind of reminds me of one of a girlfriend I had who got me all excited when she said she was a gamer but found out that just meant she played Mario and Zelda when she was a kid lol.
@@newageBoundhippie I feel the same way I loved all those games to but Earthbound being my first RPG it will always be one of my top favorite games. Another one from that era is Lufia 2, I loved the puzzle dungeons from it and really stood out to me also. I think its why when Wild Arms came around I loved it almost if not a little bit more than FF7 even though graphics wise FF7 was leagues above it.
@@Ghalion666 Yeah, Earthbound is very silly unlike REAL mature stuff like anime people wearing goofy colorful outfits and yelling their attack names over lore straight up from some teens' notebook.
Let's be fucking real now.
I Love Shining Force
So many great RPGs in the 90s. :) Thanks for the video.
Hnnngg! The nostalgia is too powerful. Love Xenogears & Suikoden 2!
Los 90 fue bajó mi punto de vista los años dorados de los JRpg que maravillas nos llegaron títulos inolvidables.
it's no deny rpg from 80-90 establish many immortal IP, set trends in design of everything. But for me it's like testing gorunds. For someone who start play games since 1998 lot of mechanics are rough. Games(and technological progress) make amazeing progress in next 10y. Games like Baldur Gates ('98) or Gothic('01) and later TES 3 Morrowind('03) set trends for storytelling on west. As i lern now xenogears ('98), FF IX ('00) improve genre on many levels, later FF X('01) bring full voice and further improvements in experience of gameing. RPG flourish in early 2000, but become more and more mainstream. First signs of casualization apears in 2009, and around 2013 they start to repeat it self - in story, mechanics, everything. Good ex. of fall of RPG for me is Dragon Age 3 with casual mmo mechanics. So imo '98-2013 was golden 15 years of RPG (with exception of Witcher 3 in 2015 cuz my country game industry was behind :P, but it's perfect condensation of eveything what was good in this 15years period). Now i have feeling there is nothing new in mainstream RPG. Eveything become mixed with other genres and recycled. Few brave independent studios with self-finance(like form KS) give us gems like Divinity Original Sin 2. But it's feels like dark times for RPG now :/
I disagree a little bit with that last statement. There is still a lot of originality out there, but not mainstream anymore, which is maybe why you feel that way. You said it yourself; some indie studios have made it with some pretty unique stuff, but there's also other non-independent companies that keep making original RPGs and the like.
I'm pleasantly surprised about Phantasia. Not many know how influential it actually was.
Although I can't say for sure if FFVI (SNES version) was the first RPG I ever played, it might have been DW or BoF, it was the game that had me fall in love with RPGs. The music, the story, and the characters are just so memorable. Plus the stuff Kefka pulled off, well, just didn't stuff like that back in those days. Still one of my favourite games of all time, right alongside Chrono Trigger. Bloody love that game too.
FFVII is the whole reason I ended up wanting a PS over the N64. Still remembering getting my mom to rent a PS for me so I can play it. Then ended up learning the hard way about need memory cards. Running through the first few hours of the game twice in the span of a day kind of sucked. It was worth it though and getting a PS allowed me to play many other great RPGs.
I like how we can get remakes of FF Adventure but no release of Seiken Densetsu 3.
Chrono Trigger is a good example of how to make a perfect game when you just get together best experts.
I wonder why today's gaming companies do not combine their forces to make better games.
Today's current gaming industry is badly broken. (Microtransaction and DLC that are not DLC just a game split into parts.)
Ah xenogears ❤️. I wish it was actually impactful as it should have been. Never seen an epic jrpg like it since, nobody even attempted to reach it. Even the director went gameplay over story in xenoblade. Xenosaga is close i guess.
xenogear's story is too over the top complicated. not really good story telling by any measure.
Maybe I am in the minority, but for me Xenosaga's story surpassed the one in Xenogears.
@@lukegf0 xenosaga has a nice story for sure
Damn, so many games to play but I'm focused now on Growlanser IV.
PD: Celes is beatiful, strong and smart. A underrated waifu maybe?
PD2: Se que no tiene nada que ver pero; tengo un problema con Growlanser (el de la PSP) y es que parte de los textos están mal o hay otras letras mal ubicadas, algo así como fallos raros. Es culpa del emulador , del juego?
Y si lo es, hay otro lugar confiable en el que pueda descargar el juego en buenas condiciones?
Both of my all-time favorites on one list! (Seiken Densetsu 3 & Xenogears)
@Erick: I've always LOVED Shining Force more than the second one... for some reason, the second game never grabbed me as much as the first one did. :P
Secret of mana was life back in the day! I played it so much and so long that the Mana beast couldnt harm or hit me because i was so strong from leveling!
I just subscribed to your channel for one simple reason: You gave Xenogears it's righteous place in a rank.
...I appreciate it, man, but this list, just like I said at the BEGINNING, was made in chronological order. I love Xenogears but I never said it was better than any of the others in the list.
Great list. Brought back so much nostalgia. I've played them all except Tales of Phantasia. Tactics Ogre LUCT, FF6, Chrono Trigger, FF7,and FFT (along with Vagrant Story) are what made me into an RPG fan. I still get shivers down my spine seeing those games in action. I later got into Western and computer RPGs, but these incredible JRPGs of the 90s are what started it all for me, man. :D Oh, I was also so super pissed for like 10 years that Seiken Densetsu 3 was never brought over out of Japan, argggh, haha.
Thanks, glad you liked it.
i wish i´d live in a timeline where the initial vision of xenogears was completely developed D; so so much potential and even without using its full potential still my favorite game of all time.. love all the xeno games, but gears stays as my fav. after starting from scratch two times, now with nintendo monolith has the budget to build up a whole universe over a few games, like they tried with gears and saga.. but didnt happen yet :/ xenoblade x was imo great setup game and introduction, which could be used for much more and i hope monolith will use what they´ve created...
Another really interesting video! I remember that I was completely obsessed with Xenogears back in the day. My friend and I were both playing it and we would discuss it regularly trying to figure out the significance of all the plot, characters, symbolism, and the like. Likewise, Suikoden 1 was one of the funnest games I had ever played up to that point. I enjoyed several of the games on this list. Keep up the good work!
Thank you.
xenogears
To think I was 5 when I played Xenogears back in 2000 and it was the first RPG I played. I remember my grandad brought this and a ps1 when he was on holiday in the US. Sadly he wasn't aware that games were region locked so this ended up being the only ps1 game I could play for a while
Your dad had/has good taste but is apparently unaware of the point of ESRB/CERO/PEGI. Xenogears was pretty scarring for me at the end of middle school, so I can't imagine playing it and being about the same age as Dan and Midori.
I still get goose bumps from the Xenogears opening
Shining force is my very first srpg I played. Glad to see it there.
Never played xengears, always wanted to but yeah I live in UK so no dice. Really don't like using emulators.
It's best story but second disc is rushed? I heard there second disc is basically an anime, dunno how true that is
Create an american PS3 account if you have a PS3 and you can purchase it. Personally I have a US,UK,HK and JP account so I can generally get the games I want.
Yeah it's a shame they rushed the game out an didn't get it to more markets. The 2nd disc plays out like a novel. Even with the 2nd disc being how it is the game is pretty much a must play for rpg fans.
I like the story in the 2nd disc. But it is rushed in the sense that alot of it is tossed at you in big blocks of text like you are reading a story instead of being played out in gameplay. You can tell entire dungeons and bosses were skipped over like this. However the story contained in it is still quality.
@@Ragingspoon absolutely. And not just PS3 - you can also get it on Vita on a US account.
It is the best story I've ever experienced. There are still some parts that kind of drag on (e.g. Kislev can get kinda boring; so can Aquvy for a bit), and a couple instances of what seems like unavoidable cringe, but overall I honestly have yet to see anything outdo Xenogears in terms of telling an amazing story that's worth hearing. I do not use recreational drugs, but this game still expanded my mind. I credit Xenogears with my decisions to get degrees in philosophy and biochemistry.
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest YAY!! Sometimes I think I'm the only one who knows that game. I know it'a bit shitty, but for some reason I obsessed with it back then. I only knew the SNES version though. Sheesh. didn't know it had such a complicated cross-franchise history following up from it. and yes again for Final Fantasy III/VI! :) I know you don't like Final Fantasy too much, Erik, but honestly that is an amaaaazing JRPG. Incidentally, Final Fantasy VIII in 2019 is the new Final Fantasy V lol
I really liked Final Fantasy Mystic Quest also, yeah it was easy and not the best game. But for me the sound track alone made it worth playing and it was still a relaxing game that I enjoyed.
@@martinomagic9230 I think it was a bit of that easy and simple formula that made it so addictive actually. It's almost like a "casual game" Final Fantasy entry in today's standards. Light on story and upgrade systems and more focused on small bites of feel-good task completion achievements. empty monster lair -> next monster lair, rinse and repeat :)
@@codingmatheus Yep it was kind of a mix between a Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda game. It was made to try and introduce dumb foreigners to the RPG genre, if they had not basically stated that I think it would of been a lot better received haha.
I love FF3, what're you talking about? o_O
@@ErickLandonRPG Talking about Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, since JRPGs were not as popular in the west as they were in Japan they assumed it was because they were to hard. So they made Mystic Quest as a game to get the western audience "Use" to RPG mechanics. But turns out it just took a game like FF3 that more people were interested in.
The 90s just like with FGs was a boom for RPGs, and equally, right now along with FGs it's becoming a popular genre again.
Xenogears is a very great game for the PS1, however on the topic of historically important jrpgs, why did you give FF7 a silver medal? I'm not the most hardcore fan of Final Fantasy but to me it seems more influential and achieved more than Xenogears did, despite its dated graphics. Xenogears might have aged better and had a deeper plot, but the dungeons on the second disc is nothing but words. How come you believe Xenogears is historically more important when it comes to jrpgs over FF7?
You clearly didn't watch the full video. Pay attention at the beginning and you'll notice that the list is done in CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, not in order of importance.
@@ErickLandonRPG My bad. It all makes sense now. 💩
Professor Landon schooling us in RPGs of the 90s 101. Thanks Professor Landon! Was it me or was his favorite RPG ever did not make the list? I mean Chrono Cross was a great game, but was not as impactful as the others on the list?
Precisely. As much as I love CC with all my soul, I don't think it's as impactful as the others.
The whole concept of a main protagonist having Split personality disorder made Xenogears such a unique experience. I also love that when they created the Xenosaga series which chronologically predates the events of Xenogears that introduce Fei Fong Wong's first incarnation Abel, which made it sooooo interesting.
90s is just too big for breath of fire and legend of legaia.
I'm shocked Pokémon isn't here.
Personally not a fan but I'd say it had a larger impact on the genre than most of these games.
LimeFroge wow thats true, Pokémon Crystal i loved it so much too
Or Phantasy Star 4, it leaves FF6 in the dust in all aspects.
Probably pointless to put Pokémon in the list because it is very well known already 🤔
@Slevin Or did he focus too much on Squaresoft?
Watching you assholes analyze this is like watching my ex wife change the oil in her car. While Pokémon is of course technically a JRPG, acting like it was a huge influence on the genre is laughable. Can we get back to reality and games that aren’t designed for 5 year olds now?
Amazing video bro!! The 90s were truly the golden era of jrpg. I played many of them, but i havent played Xenogears yet. I must play that game.
Hello, could you review FFIII / VI, V and Chrono trigger in Spanish? I want to introduce my mom into videogames via 90's JRPGs because she is a habid book reader and this is the closest to a book that a videogame can be
im so mad at myself. I had shining force 2, fft, tactics ogre, ff7, but the game I never finished was Xenogear. Im so mad at myself. Emulator yes, but its not the same feeling being 6am a saturday morning parents still sleeping and just playing waiting for the breakfast. I miss those days.
thank you Erick! Phantasy star IV :D should have been there.
Genesis: yea my parent didnt knew and Playstation god bless them.
In my opinion, Chrono Trigger is not only _the_ single greatest JRPG ever, but also the single greatest OST in a video game. Ever. And I will stick by this until the day I die, or something that changes my mind comes along. It's been 25 years and I'm still waiting.
I know this will be controversial to the hardcore community, but I would say Pokemon Red/Blue seriously deserves to be on this list. It was for many Americans, the first time a RPG would make waves to casual gamers who had no idea what an RPG was and is one (if not the most) commercially successful video game franchises of all time.
"The Legacy of the Great Intention".
Now that's a original subtitle!
Nice video and great mention of all the games. I was thinking that Earthbound would be on the list, but when I think about it, I had that game as a kid and no one I knew liked it, even people who loved Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger. One of the more influential games to me would be either BoF1 and BoF3. Though, those games didn't really have an industry impact like the games you listed. I've been wanting to bust out some of my old RPGs and play them lately. I've had a fix for 90s RPGs.
I would love to see a 2000s version of this video! I think enough time has passed that they can be considered "historically important".
Man there are so many jrpgs on this list I wish I could have played as a kid when I had unlimited time. It takes me forever nowadays to beat a jrpg. Still love them but my backlog is getting ridiculous right now.
Ff7 is historically important no doubt about that. But as a game is average. A 7/10 being generous, and a big chunk of that goes to the soundtrack. A game that has aged like fish, the three instalments before it are hugely better games.
Yet again, no liver for Breath of Fire 1-4 🤦🏼♂️
At least Legend of Dragoon got mentioned 🤷🏼♂️
I like many of the games on the list, but most of them aren't really significant tbh, aside from maybe FFVII. Aside from pokemon that others have pointed out so I won't, I think the first FF and DQ are actually what creates the genre and deserves to be a list like this more than anything else.
This seems to be more of a popular list instead of significant. It would have been nice to talk about future series that were influenced by these instead of always just saying "will go on to be a huge influence". Other than direct sequels, not sure how they influenced anything.
Xenogears should be redone, fixing ecerything wrong with the original and putting a decent budget, is the best rpg ever (that almost became)
I love you and your videos man but that is not a top 10 (you even said it a list in chronological order) no matter how much traffic these words generate.
Please learn basic naming conventions! It started being pretty bothering to see you labeling stuff "hidden gems" and "top something" as if you do not know what these mean.
"Worldwide", really?
I don't recall Dragon Quest was a thing in Europe until DQ8. Warrior or not.
Xenogears is for games what the Evangelion is for Anime (no to mention that the Xenogears was inspired by Evangelion).
What a great video. It was fascinating and i Love the ending music. Could you shre the name of that song?!
Haha rpg fan love those rpg's 😆😉
Any fan who played Seiken Densetsu 3 in the 90s knows it is way better than 2 (Secret of Mana).
the original suikoden is the best in the series and has one of the best soundtracks of all time
Who wants great FF VI, Suikoden and Chrono Trigger remakes? Pleeeaaaase
I thought Tales of Phantasia was also ported to Playstation (Japanese only).
They need to remake FF tactic, seriously.
Also Xenogears remake
What about megaten? I'd say pretty influencial...
Good list but 1 question..... are we not counting Pokemon as a JRPG?
One of the gaming industries biggest franchise's which popularised the monster capture element that many games went on to use.
Shocked that not only was it not in the 10 (which it should be) it didn't even get an honourable mention.
PottsV1 it’s an unspoken rule we have here. We don’t talk about Pokémon.
FFVII is potentially the most important jrpg ever, in the grand scheme of things. Nowadays people like to say it's overrated. True it is not the best FF, but if you were alive when this game came out, the hype for it was unbelievable. People who hated rpg's played that game and liked it.
I love FF7 but I still think it's overrated, haha. That doesn't mean it's not important, cause it is and very, like you said.
That is so true. I remember how big ff7 was. No one ever talked about rpgs as a kid in school but when ff7 came out that's about all everyone at school was talking about.
@@buckroger6456 it is the best final fantasy
Yeah, I remember this kid used to bring the strategy guide to school with him and a decent little crowd would all gather up and ask him this and that. It was the only RPG as a kid I ever saw anything like that.
Leo Cav Louder for the people in the back!
Damn good list, I would differ on 2 if not 3 of your videos, but I can honestly say I respect everything you put on your list. An it is fine you forgot Pokemon you acknowledged it and apologized so yea not seeing the big deal but im 47 not 16...so there is that. Fun video thanks for the passion and the spotlight for gamer's who might of missed these or born long after they came out.
Thank you.
How am I supposed to take any RPG list seriously when a single SMT game isn't on it? SMT invented half of the mechanics these games even use.
Watch the 80s version, dude, and chill the hell down.
I thought xenogears told a complete story (atleast for a single game). In fact to me it felt much longer and denser than other jrpgs from the era.
I think it's just the fact that it narrates the story to you in certain parts instead of letting you play and explore it yourself that some people didn't like.
Never bothered me. I still enjoyed it. The only thing that bothered me was some folks online recommending not to play it because of the 2nd disk. If I would have listened to that terrible advice I would have missed out on an absolute masterpiece.
I agree; I couldn't care less about the "rushed story in the second disc". I felt satisfied with the story as it was and I loved it.
Xenogears is the Neon Genesis Evangelion of JRPGs.
Your so awesome. Love your channel. Thanks so very much.
Lufia II should have been mentioned here.
I like the list but maybe I’m missing something or not understanding the genre completely but Breath of Fire and Fire Emblem Holy War were amazing and those two along with FFVII were some of my favorites growing up. Where are those games on your list?
Not in mine, they're probably in yours.
It's a shame Xenogears never made it to Europe 😭
the fact you don't mention Pokemon Red/Blue/Green as so much as an honorable mention just feels wrong....I get that you're not a fan of the gotta catch 'em all gameplay style, but the original generation of Pokemon is immensely important in JRPG history. The catching & battling style, trading monsters with friends....they kicked off a pseudo genre of monster catching RPGs that still continue to this day, and on top of that Pokemon in & of itself is the biggest multimedia entertainment franchise in the world.
also while the Xenosaga trilogy has some very obvious references to Xenogears, the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise is it's own thing and has no connection to gears or saga beyond having many of the same members of the dev team and the special crossover cameos in Xenoblade 2 with KOS-MOS & T-ELOS as Blades.
There are people who are fans of XBC who insist that, as of the end of the third game, there is supposedly a link between Xenoblade and Xenosaga. I'm not saying you should buy into the theory, but if you weren't aware of it, it's apparently a thing. I can't weigh in, since I've only played the first Xenoblade and not the other two.
Chrono trigger, FF6, and Earthbound is the holy trinity of RPGs
Acompanho seu excelente trabalho Erick. Continue nos presenteando com esse excelente conteúdo.
You should really do a video with metal Jesus
Seiken densetsu = legend of holy sword
Sei = holy Ken = sword
Illusion of gaia wasn't on the list???
And now Trials of Mana is being released!
You play The Legend Of Dragoon?
Yes.
FF6 might be a great game but I still can't stand the combat....
Terrible ost..
No enemy animations....
Is inferior to Phantasy Star 4...
My favorite gaming channel
xenogears story does not even make sense.
Pokemon is coming for lists ass!
What game is on the thumbnail?
Good video, but I'm surprised Pokémon didn't get even a honorable mention (I sincerely thought it would be like top 3) since it was a huge success and established many mechanics for its own subgenre of monster collecting RPG, even not being the first to do so.
I still have to play Xenogears though, and you are making my expectations getting higher and higher haha.
Jeez, I forgot, okay?
It's okay, and I really like your view of that time. Are you planning doing a 2000s edition? I would like to see it.
Terra garden
Earth Garden ??
I love your Videos ❤️
Final Fantasy Tactics (and hence Tactics Ogre) = probably the one game that I wish would be re-released/remade more than any other
The stupid thing about DQIV not coming to North America is that there was an advertisement on the back of the manual for Dragon Warrior VII
But DQ4 DID come to North America...
@@ErickLandonRPG I am talking about the PS1 version
Great list! However I think you meant to say 108 characters at 13:56 not 808 characters... that would be quite an rpg though!
I thought FF4 pioneered the story complexity and plot twists and not FF6. But its whatever
Ah 90's JRPG. This I can relate! I was in elementary school back then. The previous part of the video, 80's JRPG, for the most part I have only ever heard it talked about since I haven't been born back in the day :P
Suikoden!!! sob sob...
No Earthbound
What's the picture in the thumbnail?
Celes from FFVI
It's interesting how we've gone full circle, Nintendo Switch is fast becoming the success the SNES was and hosting a lot of new and remade RPG's :)
FF7 is my all time favorite. The only thing that kept xenogeres from a tie was the second disk.
I think you could definitely do one for the 2000's, and next year MAYBE one for the 2010's (although that may be challenging)
But for the 2000's I could definitely name some important games
Persona 3 (for starting the daily life RPG trend, for better or worse)
Demon Souls (for basically starting it's own genre)
actually I'll stop there because because I'm sure you'd have fun coming up with a list if you decide to make that video. But this and the last video we're dope.
I agree those 2 games are historically important for the 2000s. I might consider doing it some time later.