Honestly, I think it would be interesting to see a list of RPGs that you never got the chance to play. If enough games exist for such a list to be possible, of course.
I played Phantasy Star III at the very young age where I simply couldn't comprehend that a game could be "terrible" lol. Especially since I liked I and II so much. That game almost broke my brain and the music was just painful. Somehow it didn't end the series though and then came an absolute titan in JRPG history with IV.
I bought 3 instead of 4 because of the damn box art. 😂. It was ok, but didn't keep my attention enough to finish because I was very busy. I always got a laugh out of the enemy animations. Cool and silly.
The reason why Dawn of Mana was bad was the Havok engine wasn't really compatible with the PS2. Despite being used on dozens of PS2 games all which turned out poorly devs never got the hint.
I'm going to drop two RPG recommendations: first, Saiyuki on PS1. It's a strategy RPG based on Journey to the West, one of the four great works of Chinese literature (which Suikoden also falls into). Second, Indivisible, the Valkyrie Profile spiritual successor. Yeah, it's not a JRPG (it's more of an exploration platformer), but if you enjoy mythology, character recruiting, and the Valkyrie Profile battle system, check it out.
BOF Dragon Quarter was a cool twist on the formula imo, they wanted to create this sense of urgency while giving it the Resident Evil like formula. I feel like with the way roguelite games are praised now, Dragon Quarter would sell big if they were to re-release it for Steam. . . granted I feel Unlimited Saga would have the same type of success, both those games came out ahead of their time and given the type of games that are popular now I feel they both fit what people enjoy.
There's "Black Sheep" and then there's 100% unplayable don't even think about it. To me, "Black Sheep" games are playable but probably worst or 2nd worst of the series. BoF6 falls under the "unplayable" category. I haven't heard one single person who thinks 6 was a good game, or even a passable game. I have, though, heard some people say they enjoyed 5 though my mind fails to process how that is possible, but eh. I'm willing to agree to disagree, just like how everybody seems to adore 4 but I just can't bring myself to actually see the end of it a 2nd time.
I love FF2 no matter what people say. The "leveling up" system is not fun, but I like the game and its mood. It clearly had a huge influence on FF6's storyboard.
Hey David, I just wanted to say I'm a big fan of your channel. I've been playing rpgs for as long as I can remember, and your channel provides a lot of insight and depth into a lot of series that I've tried based on your recommendations. Keep up the great work! :)
All of those fit the black sheep glove extremely well. All of them hurt in some way haha! I had thought a "Most enraging moments in RPGs" video would do well to accompany this since so many of these black sheep games are rife with problems. I mean, why stop there though haha, there is so much rage in the midst of all the greatness in other JRPGs as well! (Also David I finally posted a new video, its a pickups video but JRPG centric....cheap plug, yeah, I know haha). Thank you for the work you put into all this!
I played them all. Honestly, I enjoyed DQ. It's quite a radical change from the rest of the games, and probably my least favourite in the series, but I appreciate that they tried something different.
I never played DQ but from the looks of it. its not good and yet comfortable to watch... BOF3 and 4 was really good i wish they continued the story like a second chapter where they explore more in BOF3 in the gates that was unaccesible where they battle the Big Axe Demon or in BOF4 where they added nee terrains and ways to explore.
@@vladimirpamoceno970 I've completed all 5 games, and it's a good game in my opinion. Very different, and not as good as the others, but good. BOF3 / BOF4 are my favourite ones.
Suikoden Tierkreis was more a black sheep than Suikoden IV, maybe in a next video. More that come to mind: Yakuza 7, Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Heroes of Mana, Zelda 2 Adventure of Link (most RPG of all Zelda titles)
I loved phantasy star 3. It was the first of the series I played. I loved the art style. I loved the character sprites and especially the music. Plus the dungeons were actually manageable unlike the first 2 games. Also Wren is a badass.
David please continue to upload top 10s. I watch your top tens everyday you upload them. I've learned of a few good jrpgs I would have passed up if not for you and i love your content. Your awsome, keep it up! :)
I know it was off, but i rather enjoyed the way the story was told in BoF5, subsequent playthroughs (and deaths) gave you access to new areas and further story elements that changed your view of certain characters and settings. I like games that present thier stories in odd ways.
The good thing about Breath of Fire 5 is that you're meant to replay it without losing all your progress so you can technically put it down for months or years and pick it back up
BOF:DQ was definitely an interesting take on the RPG genre. While I can understand why it didn't take off, people who took the time to figure out and master its mechanics were given a pretty solid tactical RPG experience. I mean, it's a game that took New Game Plus, something now a staple for many RPG games, and made it a core mechanic of the gameplay.
The Phantasy Star series is my favourite RPG franchise, with the fourth game being my top game of all time. But I can definitely see what you mean about its prequel. I wouldn't say they were lazy though, however they definitely overscoped with so many worlds and only 6 megs, all handled by a single designer. Still, the story itself is quite good and the character design is beautiful (the portraits and sprites are the best in the series). Some of the music is very epic too. I got the OST for the series on CD by my fiancee as a birthday gift this year and showed it on Twitter. The composer of III and IV congratulated me on my birthday, that was wonderful! :)
ff2 was a very interesting idea. For the time the password system was very impressive but the tech as too limiting. instead of being immersive it felt like any time I was stuck its because I was day dreaming and didn't notice the password to record.
I knew Lunar Dragon Song would be on this list. It was the first (and still only) Lunar game I ever played. I remember spending about 3 hours fairly early on grinding to upgrade all my equipment... only to have the very first enemy encounter in a dungeon break it. I never played that game again.
I really enjoyed Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. While I get that its unique nature isn't for everybody, I think that it had the luxury of being in a series where the battle system wasn't that in depth and it was always more of a series focused on the story with fun gameplay elements. Final Fantasy has had many changes and while the fanbase is divided over them, they have their fans. Gensou Suikoden with IV shouldn't have changed the 6 party because it is a feature that Gensou Suikoden is renowned for. While I love Gensou Suikoden IV, I think that was an unnecessary change.
I've said it before; Dragon Quarter and Dawn of Mana hurt me on a spiritual level. Trials of Mana made up for some of the heartbreak but BoF (not counting the mobile "game") is pretty much dead.
FF ll was a solid game, there were good subplots in the overarching story which was also solid. The game’s only real shortcoming was the leveling system.
@@jc.1191 it took some time to get used to. But once you got used to it it made sense, and was exploitable the same way any leveling system is with grinding if you choose to do so. It also allowed for a ton of flexibility in a game that didn’t have defined job classes.
I followed a guide and had fun, it wasn´t too hard nor too grindy, nothing special but not bad either maybe if I played with no guide I would hate it, idk
I'm with you in that I loved BoF: Dragon Quarter. It was difficult where none of the previous games except for BoF2 were; the soundtrack by Hitoshi Sakimoto (FF Tactics) is amazing, and the tactical gameplay is certainly unique. I definitely recognize it as the black sheep of the series for the design and gameplay choices it made but that doesn't take away from why it's great in its own way. Wish it got a PS4 port!
Am I just weird that I thought BoF4 was ludicrously hard when you got to the last dungeon? I remember doing just fine in battles and then I got to that stupid castle at the end and.... barely winning fights and having to run back out after every few battles to rest up and the XP/hr didn't really make sense to grind there, but yet nothing else gave any good XP either...
I believe what happened with Phantasy Star III was the entire dev team of PSII was working on a Sonic game (the first one for the Genesis?) because SEGA wanted all hands on deck to get their competitor to the soon to release Super Mario World out. Everyone except the person who wrote the character bios for PSII. Knowing that, it's not a surprise. PSIII walked so Sonic could... well, run. Such a shame. I think it had a lot of potential, and could have been a really good game had it been given the appropriate resources. I enjoyed it for what it was, but it's definitely the weakest of the original four games.
Phantasy Star 3 isn't so bad if want to play an old game with different outcomes. At least you can skip to 4 without needing to know much of the previous entry.
Interesting to see which games in the franchises went in different directions. I haven't played any of these myself, but am curious to try them out regardless.
I thought that Tales of the Tempest was outsourced to another company, but I might be misremembering that. Also, other than TotT, I'd say that the next black sheep would be Tales of Graces f, though I think that it's still definitely a great game overall. Its battle system was a massive departure from the previous games in the series (and arguably the best it's ever been) until Tales of Berseria came out, its story was pretty straightforward (though still at least decent, with probably my favorite end-boss resolution in the series) unlike the the series' normal tendency to deconstruct everything to the bone, the Lineages and Legacies epilogue chapter was pretty much a full blown sequel that wrapped up a bunch of the relationship drama (and not just the romantic type) that grew throughout the main game, and it is all in a league of its own when it comes to the polish of its localization. Also, I would argue that it has the best looking Mystic Artes/Blast Caliburs of the entire series.
I never understood the hate for Dragon Quarter because it was different and tried to be more cyberpunk then the classic styled ones. Part 6 was hailed the worst and was far worse even for mobile phone. Final Fantasy 2 used a saga styled system but to say you hate it you might as well hate every Saga game because they ALL use the same set up
Great video as always! I definitely was disappointed in Phantasy Star 3 back in the day. I think it is because I played 4 first and then went to 3. Also I wanted to love FF 2 but I was never patient enough to grind the way you needed to.
4 is masterpiece. The Generation idea in 3 was cool, too bad the gameplay was just too slow, too many randoms and grindy that I didn't want to play through all the different main characters.
Ideas for future lists: Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance (Dream Eaters and the Drop System) Radical Dreamers Megaman Battle Network 4.5 (not released in English because it was so different) Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire (upon release, no way to catch half of the Pokedex, requiring FireRed and LeafGreen to be developed) FF8
I'd say Chain of Memories ( either version....hated the card system ), 358/2 ( repetitive and the panel system went a bit too far for it to be fun ) or RE: Coded would be more fitting than Dream Drop Distance...as annoying as the drop system could be and as divisive as the Dream Eaters may be the basic gameplay mechanics were really good
@Ro Bear VIII...I hate the cast (sans Quistis...I'm a Trepie), I hate the convoluted story and I hate junctioning. I sympathized with Ultimecia. I wanted to "kompress" that world as well. haha
Good list, but just wanted to say something about FF2 that I'm a bit tired of hearing. You don't "HAVE TO" keep hitting yourself in battles to get stat increases. That's your own choice. You can make the game super tedious for yourself by doing that, sure, but it's hardly the game's fault if it's not fun. The game is balanced well enough for you to get stat increases by playing it like a normal FF game. I saw a youtube channel even trying out different ways to grow your party and the "hitting yourself" strategy wasn't even superior strategy in any way. It's like complaining about any jRPG that you just HAVE TO grind to level 99 in the opening section of the game fighting the same low-level enemies and it becoming a chore. I like your channel man, but this is such a non-issue and people only got themselves to blame for draining the fun out of the game.
@@armandostockvideos8386 I didn't enjoy the combat in 3. But by no means am I saying 3 isn't worth playing. And 4 is a little more special to me because windwaker was one of my favorite zelda games so kinda partial to the sailing mechanic
oh it's bad alright I've bought it new for like 20$ in a bargain bin at one of my local grocery stores one day, play it and regretted it altogether they messed it up big time for a so-called return to Lunar
I played it once when I wanted to expand my experiences with RPGs... I barely got anyway before giving up on it, didn't help when the game thought I was trying to escape due to questionable design choices as well as it being slower than molasses.
I will point out death is not necessary in Dragon Quarter. SOL Restart is only for when you screwed up beyond belief. SOL Restore, when you are close to a locker for safe keeping is a different story.
Dragon Quarter is titled Breath of Fire V. The localization team just chose for whatever reason to remove the V. Take a look at the Japanese packaging, it’s there. It’s kind of like, for whatever reason Nintendo chose to localize Xenoblade as Xenoblade Chronicles. Certain things I can understand but a lot of localization changes seem so arbitrary to me. Like In Illusions of Gaia, they changed the main character’s name from Tim to Will.
similarly, Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade for GBA and Custom Robo: Battle Revolution for GCN had their subtitles removed during localization for some reason...and Namco changed Tales of Eternia on PS1 to Tales of Destiny II because they basically assumed we western gamers were too stupid to know it was part of the same series as Destiny if it wasn't called Destiny II....and Europe added a pointless Bros to the last 2 non remake Mario & Luigi games' titles. Just....WHY?
Breath of Fire V is a numbered entry...in Japan. Saying it isn't one is like saying Yakuza 7 is not a numbered entry due to a localization change, or that Final Fantasy VI is actually numbered III. Also, dying intentionally is most definitely not necessary to beat Breath of Fire V. Anyway, this list generally makes good choices. My main qualm is with your definition of "black sheep." Being a black sheep has more to do with being "different" than being "the worst" (i.e., a black sheep stands out in a flock of white sheep because the black one looks different, not because it's a worse sheep). In a lot of these cases, the black sheep of the franchise is also the worst, sure (I definitely don't think that FFII or BoFV are the worst, personally), but the black sheep in a franchise is often a love it or hate it kind of game, since the differences can make the black sheep more enjoyable to some. That's why Mario Bros. 2, Zelda 2, and Breath of Fire V have lots of fans in addition to haters. Hell, Mario Bros. 2 barely has any haters, yet it is very much so a black sheep.
Trying to get up TO that point, though, can be one of the most boring grinds ever. That, and curbstomping everything gets old after awhile. It's fun and neat at first, but then you realize that you might have just removed all of the challenge from the game, lol. At least with traditional XP systems, they put some sort of gating on how far you can take it, because everybody has limited patience. If battles only give 100xp, not very many people are gonna grind up when you need a couple million for a levelup in later levels.
@@Dhalin I totally understand, but I’m the guy that equipped everyone with two shields and blasted away with magic. I will get my curbstomping in, whether the game wants me to or not. At least FF2 let me be inventive about it. I thought it was cool that I could access 75% of the map before triggering any story. I also liked the added story in the GBA version. I was so mad when my characters had terrible equipment, but then I realized it was my fault for dequipping them before they die in the main story.
This was an interesting one for sure. Some of these entries ended their franchise, some spawned entire new ones. Dragon Quarter is a game I loved, Dragon Song... not so much. Putting Dragon in your game title seems to mean it is going to be the best or the worst possible, no middle ground. David, you should do a list on Dragon Quest spinoffs!
@@realavt But Unlimited's practically unplayable.I bought it used from Gamestop for $10. If the store were still open, I'd pay them another $10 to take it back.
#10 Never played. Wanted to. #9 Loved this one as a kid. Never got far though. #8 Skipped this one, sadly. #7 Fair. Most would agree. Or say Dirge. #6 Haven't played this one. #5 Yep. This was my first Lunar, and it was bad. I had to Grind so much to make Jian strong enough to survive most fights without weapons or skills. #4 Ah, yes, another fair black sheep. 2 Was the best in my opinion of the original 4. Wish we had it remade. Nei was my first Aerith. lol. #3 Another series I need to play. #2 4 is the blacksheep? That was my favorite one! (Course I only played 4, 5, and the Tactics game) #1 Didn't even know that was a Tales game. lol
The thing with Fire Emblem Fates is not so much that the gameplay is bad, far from it. It's the story that everyone and I do mean fucking EVERYONE bitches about being bad. There are probably worse games in the Fire Emblem franchise than Fates, but it is by far the biggest target for people to complain about, which is a shame since it's really NOT the bad piece of shit game that people often claim it is.
In Phantasy Star 3's defence they were trying a lot of new stuff and had a few good ideas. It was still the worst game in the original block of the series, but I respect what they were trying to do.
Depression: When you feel very much demoralized when you do not find people that talk good things about the stuff on this list or what can be salvaged from them in the case for those not just on the list but also those NOT... A weird arguement for wanting another Dragon Quarter-style Breath of Fire game is mostly a feel of second chances, and want to see plenty of cycling setbacks... like if they port BOF 5 to the eShop and NOT Port BoF 3 and 4, I'd kinda feel happy but that's for just eShop... The other sad part is when for all the digital game services not many people want any of the game in there... I just hope an Indie Dev takes a look at them, pull some parts out and make a game out of it that people will enjoy... meantime I'll be over here crying that Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter hasn't gotten much love at all...
He's got one now. Child of light looks cool to me. Although it appears a child's game, the girl appears classic heroic unlike plenty of new games. The artwork isn't my preference for 2d, but it's really good for what it is. Only $15 too. Lemme know if you see something too. 🙂
@@jamesa.646 It deleted my link unfortunately. It comes up in search for me. Hope you find it. Vigil looks cool to. Its kinda action oriented, with heavy rpg elements. (It's not platforming and puzzles) Has cool graphics and music. Kinda like Faxanadu in a way. Seems a better description than what the kids are calling those these days, lol.
Honestly, Zestiria is more of the Tales black sheep than Tempest. I mean, Tempest literally got demoted to an escort title so I don't even think it's mainline.
The most fun i had playing FF2 was because of Dual weilding, its really broken how much damage you can do when you stack two powerful weapons on a character. But yeah,most spells feel useless, even Ultima, an spell the game hypes so much, is really boring to grind. Speaking about grinding, i didn't had to do much grinding, just at the beginning of the game to buy things , but i do that in every RPG. I don't know if that is because i was playing the gba remake instead of the original.
The original is pain because raising attempting to raise certain stats had a chance of LOWERING other stats and ALL armour and shields reduce your Magic stats to below the underworld. Want a Paladin-esque character? Have fun being a bad attempt at one of the two core features of said archetype Want to be powerful mixed attacker glass cannon? Good luck actually getting both of those stats to decent thresholds They are probably still possible and are more accessible in every version besides the original Famicom version. Unarmed attacks apparently scale higher than other weapons at high ranks.
@@unwithering5313 in that case i am not touching the original ever again, that sounds really bad. I remeber playing it before and i got soft locked, thats why i finished it on the remake.
True Star Ocean fans would notice how bad SO5 in a heartbeat. Reused musics, characters are bunch of rehash of previous character (Fidel is literally Fayt), almost no cutscenes... like, what supposed to be an emotional moment is ruined cuz i can just walk to the corner and the character would say something dramatic. And people say SO4 was bad
@@daniel_cofresi I hadn’t played many games with voice acting, so I really didn’t mind that much. But it does make me wonder if they made him talk fast instead of compressing the audio further.
I just bought Tales of the Tempest just to say I own it, but I've heard it's terrible lol. And I 1000% agree with Dragon Song, I picked it up bc I used to see it advertised in Nintendo Power, and like you, I enjoyed the other Lunar's but being hurt while running!? Who thought that was a good decision!? I didn't even get far enough to know my weapons could break lmao. I will however disagree with FFII. Not that it's not the black sheep, I'm fully aware of it's shortcomings and notoriety. However, I think people often say you "HAVE" to hit your own party, to get decent stats. That is not the case, you can CHOOSE to, to make the game easier, but there was a video I watched and he grinded by hitting his own allies for a half hour, and grinded fighting normal enemies for the same amount of time, and the health was marginally lower (obviously it can vary since it's RNG based) but his other stats were higher in the save where he just battled enemies. It's an early RPG, grinding is just part of the experience. But I understand it can be a turn off. I will just always defend FFII, I really enjoy it for what it is lol.
The problem with not hitting yourself, is that in early game.... the girl starts out with 20 and she's in the back row. Move her to the front row and she's likely to get one-shot before you can even react. And/or enemies just don't do enough damage at the start of the game to really trigger an HP increase, but yet they will whittle you to death with 2-3 damage a hit and you only have 40... and you keep going back to town to heal up... but you're not getting very many stamina/HP increases. Then, when you get a little ways in, suddenly you run into enemies that do 10-15 damage a hit and well... the girl has 20 or 25 or so if you got lucky, the guy has 30 and the other guy has 40 ..... you don't last long. At all. Go back to the wimpy enemies at the start.... and no HP upgrades. And if you waited too long, you do too much damage to yourself because you got strength and weapon skill upgrades from killing enemies and you just oneshot yourself. It's rather easy to get into this place where you need upgrades but can't get them.
Lunar Dragon Song was a mistake, pure and simple. Of Integrity and Faithlessness was clearly given a small budget and poor direction. Also oh look, another alien world whose species look entirely human, how original. ......... Also the subtitle is completely meaningless, as Integrity nor Faith or the lack thereof have any relevance to ANYTHING in the game.
Lunar is also in my heart mate which is why I cant recognize dragon song as a lunar game. Dragon song will always be dragon song, juat a feeble cash gran attempt on nostalgia.
#9: I dunno, this at least looks better than the DS dungeon crawler, Children of Mana... #6: I liked Ruins of Lore. 😰 It beats that one with the randomized dungeons at least. What with having actual dungeons with actual puzzles...
Honestly, I think it would be interesting to see a list of RPGs that you never got the chance to play. If enough games exist for such a list to be possible, of course.
0:30 10-(breath of fire)
1:33 9-(mana series)
2:30 8-(dragon quest)
3:26 7-(final fantasy)
4:29 6-(lufia series)
5:28 5-(lunar series)
6:27 4-(phantasy star)
7:24 3-(star ocean)
8:30 2-(suikoden)
9:37 1-(tales of)
I played Phantasy Star III at the very young age where I simply couldn't comprehend that a game could be "terrible" lol. Especially since I liked I and II so much. That game almost broke my brain and the music was just painful. Somehow it didn't end the series though and then came an absolute titan in JRPG history with IV.
I bought 3 instead of 4 because of the damn box art. 😂. It was ok, but didn't keep my attention enough to finish because I was very busy. I always got a laugh out of the enemy animations. Cool and silly.
The reason why Dawn of Mana was bad was the Havok engine wasn't really compatible with the PS2. Despite being used on dozens of PS2 games all which turned out poorly devs never got the hint.
Haven't actually heard about that before- was it too demanding for the PS2, or was there sonething else that made it troublesome?
I'm going to drop two RPG recommendations: first, Saiyuki on PS1. It's a strategy RPG based on Journey to the West, one of the four great works of Chinese literature (which Suikoden also falls into). Second, Indivisible, the Valkyrie Profile spiritual successor. Yeah, it's not a JRPG (it's more of an exploration platformer), but if you enjoy mythology, character recruiting, and the Valkyrie Profile battle system, check it out.
Indivisible needs entire full length documentaries on its development. What happened there?!
Kinda weird that you've included Dragon Quarter in here (which was numbered btw) when there's such a thing out there as BOF6.
BOF fans don't acknowledge that the mobile 6 exists.
There's no such thing as BOF6.
There's no such thing as BOF6
Yeah, BoF6 doesnt exist
Since the servers were closed like, 1 year after its release lmao
BOF Dragon Quarter was a cool twist on the formula imo, they wanted to create this sense of urgency while giving it the Resident Evil like formula. I feel like with the way roguelite games are praised now, Dragon Quarter would sell big if they were to re-release it for Steam. . . granted I feel Unlimited Saga would have the same type of success, both those games came out ahead of their time and given the type of games that are popular now I feel they both fit what people enjoy.
There's "Black Sheep" and then there's 100% unplayable don't even think about it. To me, "Black Sheep" games are playable but probably worst or 2nd worst of the series. BoF6 falls under the "unplayable" category. I haven't heard one single person who thinks 6 was a good game, or even a passable game. I have, though, heard some people say they enjoyed 5 though my mind fails to process how that is possible, but eh. I'm willing to agree to disagree, just like how everybody seems to adore 4 but I just can't bring myself to actually see the end of it a 2nd time.
I love FF2 no matter what people say. The "leveling up" system is not fun, but I like the game and its mood. It clearly had a huge influence on FF6's storyboard.
Nothing wrong with that. I love the leveling up system of ff legend 2. If a game is fun, it's a win!.
I actually liked Dragon Quarter I was very young and didnt have many games, so I played the crap out of that one.
Interesting list, heck we had not even heard of 3 of these so was a fun discussion piece. Much appreciation for the upload Sir.
Hey David, I just wanted to say I'm a big fan of your channel. I've been playing rpgs for as long as I can remember, and your channel provides a lot of insight and depth into a lot of series that I've tried based on your recommendations. Keep up the great work! :)
i love dragon quarter its nice to have a simple game to play where you can jump right in with out much trouble
All of those fit the black sheep glove extremely well. All of them hurt in some way haha! I had thought a "Most enraging moments in RPGs" video would do well to accompany this since so many of these black sheep games are rife with problems. I mean, why stop there though haha, there is so much rage in the midst of all the greatness in other JRPGs as well! (Also David I finally posted a new video, its a pickups video but JRPG centric....cheap plug, yeah, I know haha). Thank you for the work you put into all this!
Dragon Quarter was the only BoF I played. I liked it.
I played them all. Honestly, I enjoyed DQ. It's quite a radical change from the rest of the games, and probably my least favourite in the series, but I appreciate that they tried something different.
I never played DQ but from the looks of it. its not good and yet comfortable to watch... BOF3 and 4 was really good i wish they continued the story like a second chapter where they explore more in BOF3 in the gates that was unaccesible where they battle the Big Axe Demon or in BOF4 where they added nee terrains and ways to explore.
@@vladimirpamoceno970 I've completed all 5 games, and it's a good game in my opinion. Very different, and not as good as the others, but good. BOF3 / BOF4 are my favourite ones.
It was ooookay. 3 was incredible.
Its too annoying for me to continue to play this game, maybe because i played bof IV which is awesome btw
Suikoden Tierkreis was more a black sheep than Suikoden IV, maybe in a next video.
More that come to mind: Yakuza 7, Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Heroes of Mana, Zelda 2 Adventure of Link (most RPG of all Zelda titles)
I loved phantasy star 3. It was the first of the series I played. I loved the art style. I loved the character sprites and especially the music. Plus the dungeons were actually manageable unlike the first 2 games. Also Wren is a badass.
David please continue to upload top 10s. I watch your top tens everyday you upload them. I've learned of a few good jrpgs I would have passed up if not for you and i love your content. Your awsome, keep it up! :)
Thank you for including Lunar Dragon Song. Everyone needs to know what absolute garbage that game is.
I know it was off, but i rather enjoyed the way the story was told in BoF5, subsequent playthroughs (and deaths) gave you access to new areas and further story elements that changed your view of certain characters and settings. I like games that present thier stories in odd ways.
The good thing about Breath of Fire 5 is that you're meant to replay it without losing all your progress so you can technically put it down for months or years and pick it back up
I would love to see the suikoden games to get a remaster and re-release as a collection especially 5 as I never got the opportunity to play it.
omg yes, Id pay 60$ for that collection on day one.
BOF:DQ was definitely an interesting take on the RPG genre. While I can understand why it didn't take off, people who took the time to figure out and master its mechanics were given a pretty solid tactical RPG experience. I mean, it's a game that took New Game Plus, something now a staple for many RPG games, and made it a core mechanic of the gameplay.
The Phantasy Star series is my favourite RPG franchise, with the fourth game being my top game of all time. But I can definitely see what you mean about its prequel. I wouldn't say they were lazy though, however they definitely overscoped with so many worlds and only 6 megs, all handled by a single designer. Still, the story itself is quite good and the character design is beautiful (the portraits and sprites are the best in the series). Some of the music is very epic too. I got the OST for the series on CD by my fiancee as a birthday gift this year and showed it on Twitter. The composer of III and IV congratulated me on my birthday, that was wonderful! :)
ff2 was a very interesting idea. For the time the password system was very impressive but the tech as too limiting. instead of being immersive it felt like any time I was stuck its because I was day dreaming and didn't notice the password to record.
Videos like this about old games are like saturdays morning cartoons
Man first playthrough 1/4 rank runs are actual fire doh.
That is nuts. I have beaten the game without dying once, but getting a 1/4 rank first go is next level. I will definitely give it a go.
@@PS1Fan1991 it's a great speed run category. What they do with kokon is a work of art.
@@TheToasterbox I need to try this out!
i always find it interesting that david talks so highly of lunar but wont lets play it except that side game
I knew Lunar Dragon Song would be on this list. It was the first (and still only) Lunar game I ever played. I remember spending about 3 hours fairly early on grinding to upgrade all my equipment... only to have the very first enemy encounter in a dungeon break it. I never played that game again.
I really enjoyed Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. While I get that its unique nature isn't for everybody, I think that it had the luxury of being in a series where the battle system wasn't that in depth and it was always more of a series focused on the story with fun gameplay elements. Final Fantasy has had many changes and while the fanbase is divided over them, they have their fans. Gensou Suikoden with IV shouldn't have changed the 6 party because it is a feature that Gensou Suikoden is renowned for. While I love Gensou Suikoden IV, I think that was an unnecessary change.
I agree Zach since the game had its own style plus SRPGS were popular hence the change. You didnt just button mash your way in it made you think
I've said it before; Dragon Quarter and Dawn of Mana hurt me on a spiritual level. Trials of Mana made up for some of the heartbreak but BoF (not counting the mobile "game") is pretty much dead.
FF ll was a solid game, there were good subplots in the overarching story which was also solid. The game’s only real shortcoming was the leveling system.
That's the reason I never tried it.
@@jc.1191 it took some time to get used to. But once you got used to it it made sense, and was exploitable the same way any leveling system is with grinding if you choose to do so. It also allowed for a ton of flexibility in a game that didn’t have defined job classes.
@@swilliams21231 Cool, that's how I did FF legend too. Did'nt take long.
I followed a guide and had fun, it wasn´t too hard nor too grindy, nothing special but not bad either
maybe if I played with no guide I would hate it, idk
Tales of Tempest really need a remake, with polished gameplay, cutscenes, and a bigger world and story, because the concept is good.
I'm with you in that I loved BoF: Dragon Quarter. It was difficult where none of the previous games except for BoF2 were; the soundtrack by Hitoshi Sakimoto (FF Tactics) is amazing, and the tactical gameplay is certainly unique. I definitely recognize it as the black sheep of the series for the design and gameplay choices it made but that doesn't take away from why it's great in its own way. Wish it got a PS4 port!
Am I just weird that I thought BoF4 was ludicrously hard when you got to the last dungeon? I remember doing just fine in battles and then I got to that stupid castle at the end and.... barely winning fights and having to run back out after every few battles to rest up and the XP/hr didn't really make sense to grind there, but yet nothing else gave any good XP either...
i can not remember how many times i tried to play bof dragon quarter...
I loved dragon quarter. It was different but it was really unique and fun
I believe what happened with Phantasy Star III was the entire dev team of PSII was working on a Sonic game (the first one for the Genesis?) because SEGA wanted all hands on deck to get their competitor to the soon to release Super Mario World out. Everyone except the person who wrote the character bios for PSII. Knowing that, it's not a surprise. PSIII walked so Sonic could... well, run.
Such a shame. I think it had a lot of potential, and could have been a really good game had it been given the appropriate resources. I enjoyed it for what it was, but it's definitely the weakest of the original four games.
This list just shows a bunch of JRPGs need ports/remakes to modern day systems instead of being stuck and forgotten on the NDS/PSP.
Phantasy Star 3 isn't so bad if want to play an old game with different outcomes. At least you can skip to 4 without needing to know much of the previous entry.
Rock on, another great video, David! You always come up with interesting topics.
Fun fact Dawn of Mana was originally known as Seiken Densetsu 4. Thankfully It wasn’t called Secret of Mana 2 in the West.
Interesting to see which games in the franchises went in different directions. I haven't played any of these myself, but am curious to try them out regardless.
I thought that Tales of the Tempest was outsourced to another company, but I might be misremembering that.
Also, other than TotT, I'd say that the next black sheep would be Tales of Graces f, though I think that it's still definitely a great game overall. Its battle system was a massive departure from the previous games in the series (and arguably the best it's ever been) until Tales of Berseria came out, its story was pretty straightforward (though still at least decent, with probably my favorite end-boss resolution in the series) unlike the the series' normal tendency to deconstruct everything to the bone, the Lineages and Legacies epilogue chapter was pretty much a full blown sequel that wrapped up a bunch of the relationship drama (and not just the romantic type) that grew throughout the main game, and it is all in a league of its own when it comes to the polish of its localization. Also, I would argue that it has the best looking Mystic Artes/Blast Caliburs of the entire series.
I never understood the hate for Dragon Quarter because it was different and tried to be more cyberpunk then the classic styled ones. Part 6 was hailed the worst and was far worse even for mobile phone. Final Fantasy 2 used a saga styled system but to say you hate it you might as well hate every Saga game because they ALL use the same set up
Great video as always! I definitely was disappointed in Phantasy Star 3 back in the day. I think it is because I played 4 first and then went to 3. Also I wanted to love FF 2 but I was never patient enough to grind the way you needed to.
4 is masterpiece. The Generation idea in 3 was cool, too bad the gameplay was just too slow, too many randoms and grindy that I didn't want to play through all the different main characters.
Ideas for future lists:
Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance (Dream Eaters and the Drop System)
Radical Dreamers
Megaman Battle Network 4.5 (not released in English because it was so different)
Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire (upon release, no way to catch half of the Pokedex, requiring FireRed and LeafGreen to be developed)
FF8
I'd say Chain of Memories ( either version....hated the card system ), 358/2 ( repetitive and the panel system went a bit too far for it to be fun ) or RE: Coded would be more fitting than Dream Drop Distance...as annoying as the drop system could be and as divisive as the Dream Eaters may be the basic gameplay mechanics were really good
That was the last Star Ocean game? I remember being hyped for 5 because of how you could instantly start enemy encounters but damn what a shame ...
I thought I’d see xenosaga ep2! Can’t wait for a next episode from you
Honestly if FF2 had a normal experience system it would be so much fun.
I'd like to nominate Ys 5: Lost Kefin Kingdom of Sand, and Shadow Hearts: From the New World for this list as well.
I would rather play FFII than FFVIII...there, I said it.
@Ro Bear VIII...I hate the cast (sans Quistis...I'm a Trepie), I hate the convoluted story and I hate junctioning. I sympathized with Ultimecia. I wanted to "kompress" that world as well. haha
lmao same
Good list, but just wanted to say something about FF2 that I'm a bit tired of hearing. You don't "HAVE TO" keep hitting yourself in battles to get stat increases. That's your own choice. You can make the game super tedious for yourself by doing that, sure, but it's hardly the game's fault if it's not fun. The game is balanced well enough for you to get stat increases by playing it like a normal FF game. I saw a youtube channel even trying out different ways to grow your party and the "hitting yourself" strategy wasn't even superior strategy in any way. It's like complaining about any jRPG that you just HAVE TO grind to level 99 in the opening section of the game fighting the same low-level enemies and it becoming a chore.
I like your channel man, but this is such a non-issue and people only got themselves to blame for draining the fun out of the game.
Top 10 star entries of famous franchise’s. Also Star Ocean 5 was a day one buy for me and I’ve never forgiven them for what we got
That could get very controversial.
Imagine playing 30 hours into Suikoden 4 only to then realize I could speed up my ships movement -_-
I really enjoyed Suikoden IV. I was more disappointed by III.
Same. I thought IV had a good enough of an ending. The encounter rate was horrible.
Given a choice between 3 and 4. I'm taking 4.
What!? Why!? I was looking forward to playing that game, it was going to be my first Suikoden
@@armandostockvideos8386 I didn't enjoy the combat in 3. But by no means am I saying 3 isn't worth playing. And 4 is a little more special to me because windwaker was one of my favorite zelda games so kinda partial to the sailing mechanic
@@armandostockvideos8386 but please start from the beginning
I honestly think Phantasy Star III would be ok (for the time) if they could fix the ridiculously slow movement speed. Good god it’s tedious.
The first two Lunar games were on Sega CD originally.
Ahh I'm not the only one disappointed in lunar dragon song.
oh it's bad alright
I've bought it new for like 20$ in a bargain bin at one of my local grocery stores one day, play it and regretted it altogether
they messed it up big time for a so-called return to Lunar
I would consider it the worst RPG I've played. EVER. It stands as a cautionary tale of why unique does not equal good.
I played it once when I wanted to expand my experiences with RPGs...
I barely got anyway before giving up on it, didn't help when the game thought I was trying to escape due to questionable design choices as well as it being slower than molasses.
We DON'T talk about BOF Dragon Quarter........EVER
I have finished all 4 paths of Phantasy Star 3. I would like my time back.
I'm surprised that Final Fantasy 8 is not your black sheep of the FF franchise.
I will point out death is not necessary in Dragon Quarter. SOL Restart is only for when you screwed up beyond belief. SOL Restore, when you are close to a locker for safe keeping is a different story.
Dragon Quarter is titled Breath of Fire V. The localization team just chose for whatever reason to remove the V. Take a look at the Japanese packaging, it’s there. It’s kind of like, for whatever reason Nintendo chose to localize Xenoblade as Xenoblade Chronicles. Certain things I can understand but a lot of localization changes seem so arbitrary to me. Like In Illusions of Gaia, they changed the main character’s name from Tim to Will.
similarly, Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade for GBA and Custom Robo: Battle Revolution for GCN had their subtitles removed during localization for some reason...and Namco changed Tales of Eternia on PS1 to Tales of Destiny II because they basically assumed we western gamers were too stupid to know it was part of the same series as Destiny if it wasn't called Destiny II....and Europe added a pointless Bros to the last 2 non remake Mario & Luigi games' titles. Just....WHY?
Breath of Fire V is a numbered entry...in Japan. Saying it isn't one is like saying Yakuza 7 is not a numbered entry due to a localization change, or that Final Fantasy VI is actually numbered III. Also, dying intentionally is most definitely not necessary to beat Breath of Fire V.
Anyway, this list generally makes good choices. My main qualm is with your definition of "black sheep." Being a black sheep has more to do with being "different" than being "the worst" (i.e., a black sheep stands out in a flock of white sheep because the black one looks different, not because it's a worse sheep). In a lot of these cases, the black sheep of the franchise is also the worst, sure (I definitely don't think that FFII or BoFV are the worst, personally), but the black sheep in a franchise is often a love it or hate it kind of game, since the differences can make the black sheep more enjoyable to some. That's why Mario Bros. 2, Zelda 2, and Breath of Fire V have lots of fans in addition to haters. Hell, Mario Bros. 2 barely has any haters, yet it is very much so a black sheep.
I really like FF2. Even if it takes a lot of grinding, it get amazing when I started destroying enemies with Lvl 16 spells (or whatever max level is)
Trying to get up TO that point, though, can be one of the most boring grinds ever. That, and curbstomping everything gets old after awhile. It's fun and neat at first, but then you realize that you might have just removed all of the challenge from the game, lol. At least with traditional XP systems, they put some sort of gating on how far you can take it, because everybody has limited patience. If battles only give 100xp, not very many people are gonna grind up when you need a couple million for a levelup in later levels.
@@Dhalin I totally understand, but I’m the guy that equipped everyone with two shields and blasted away with magic. I will get my curbstomping in, whether the game wants me to or not. At least FF2 let me be inventive about it. I thought it was cool that I could access 75% of the map before triggering any story.
I also liked the added story in the GBA version. I was so mad when my characters had terrible equipment, but then I realized it was my fault for dequipping them before they die in the main story.
This was an interesting one for sure. Some of these entries ended their franchise, some spawned entire new ones. Dragon Quarter is a game I loved, Dragon Song... not so much. Putting Dragon in your game title seems to mean it is going to be the best or the worst possible, no middle ground.
David, you should do a list on Dragon Quest spinoffs!
i always look forward to your new videos :D
~ Baaaah ram ewe
~ Unlimited Saga should be included, too
Every game in SaGa series is a black sheep of JRPG genre :)
@@realavt But Unlimited's practically unplayable.I bought it used from Gamestop for $10. If the store were still open, I'd pay them another $10 to take it back.
@@timbermaniac5756 Well, "UNLIMITED Saga: The Tutorials" videos may help You a lot :) Just look for it on UA-cam.
Nice videos man, keep it up.
That lunar game hurts my soul
#10 Never played. Wanted to.
#9 Loved this one as a kid. Never got far though.
#8 Skipped this one, sadly.
#7 Fair. Most would agree. Or say Dirge.
#6 Haven't played this one.
#5 Yep. This was my first Lunar, and it was bad. I had to Grind so much to make Jian strong enough to survive most fights without weapons or skills.
#4 Ah, yes, another fair black sheep. 2 Was the best in my opinion of the original 4. Wish we had it remade. Nei was my first Aerith. lol.
#3 Another series I need to play.
#2 4 is the blacksheep? That was my favorite one! (Course I only played 4, 5, and the Tactics game)
#1 Didn't even know that was a Tales game. lol
Imo BoF:DQ wasn't a bad game. Just different and not fitting of the BoF name. Should've been it's own game
I'm going with Barkley 2, lol
I remember putting down Suikoden IV because there were so many random encounters when sailing in the boat. So annoying!
Tales of tempest is really goooood... at the middle game, well, at least the OST is good
Snarky David is the best David.
Great video, a second part with tittles such as Fire emblem fate and Chrono cross would be great
The thing with Fire Emblem Fates is not so much that the gameplay is bad, far from it. It's the story that everyone and I do mean fucking EVERYONE bitches about being bad. There are probably worse games in the Fire Emblem franchise than Fates, but it is by far the biggest target for people to complain about, which is a shame since it's really NOT the bad piece of shit game that people often claim it is.
You need to give us your thoughts on Sudeki!
Really enjoyes the vydia, pls do more content like this
You absolutely do not have to hit yourself in final fantasy 2, if you play the game normally you will be okay
Actually Star Ocean 5 is probably the only one that I've liked
Heyy are we taking my name now 🤣🤣 jk love the videos and a huge fan.
In Phantasy Star 3's defence they were trying a lot of new stuff and had a few good ideas. It was still the worst game in the original block of the series, but I respect what they were trying to do.
I actually would love to see it and Phantasy Star 2 remade to be more aligned with the polish-levels of Phantasy Star 4.
I KNEW HE'D CHOOSE GENERATIONS OF DOOM!
EVERYBODY BUT ME HATES THIS GAME... AND I MEAN IT!
Depression: When you feel very much demoralized when you do not find people that talk good things about the stuff on this list or what can be salvaged from them in the case for those not just on the list but also those NOT...
A weird arguement for wanting another Dragon Quarter-style Breath of Fire game is mostly a feel of second chances, and want to see plenty of cycling setbacks... like if they port BOF 5 to the eShop and NOT Port BoF 3 and 4, I'd kinda feel happy but that's for just eShop...
The other sad part is when for all the digital game services not many people want any of the game in there... I just hope an Indie Dev takes a look at them, pull some parts out and make a game out of it that people will enjoy... meantime I'll be over here crying that Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter hasn't gotten much love at all...
Can you do top 10 steam rpgs... been looking for a good jrpg game to play on pc for the longest time
Anyways great video like always!
He's got one now. Child of light looks cool to me. Although it appears a child's game, the girl appears classic heroic unlike plenty of new games. The artwork isn't my preference for 2d, but it's really good for what it is. Only $15 too. Lemme know if you see something too. 🙂
@@jc.1191 oh word, can you link it to me since I can't seem to find it!
@@jamesa.646 It deleted my link unfortunately. It comes up in search for me. Hope you find it. Vigil looks cool to. Its kinda action oriented, with heavy rpg elements. (It's not platforming and puzzles) Has cool graphics and music. Kinda like Faxanadu in a way. Seems a better description than what the kids are calling those these days, lol.
Dawn of Mana was actually kinda sad. Because i thought it would be really good and wasted the money on it.
what about the opposite of this?
long-running ok-ish franchises with the 'black sheep' being the single great game in the lineup.
I LOVE this idea, I'll probably start up the script for it tonight while I watch Firefly Lane! Thanks so much!
Honestly, Zestiria is more of the Tales black sheep than Tempest. I mean, Tempest literally got demoted to an escort title so I don't even think it's mainline.
Zestiria is bad? Oh boy, and that's the only one I have on steam. Was planning to play it at some point.
Tales of Legendia...
BoF V is actually a pretty good game once you give it a try. Its very hard to like, but once you do its really interesting.
WTF? Dragon Warrior 2 was one of the best. You are nuts!
Final Fantasy II's remakes are actually really quite fun, though still a little bit broken.
The most fun i had playing FF2 was because of Dual weilding, its really broken how much damage you can do when you stack two powerful weapons on a character.
But yeah,most spells feel useless, even Ultima, an spell the game hypes so much, is really boring to grind.
Speaking about grinding, i didn't had to do much grinding, just at the beginning of the game to buy things , but i do that in every RPG.
I don't know if that is because i was playing the gba remake instead of the original.
The original is pain because raising attempting to raise certain stats had a chance of LOWERING other stats and ALL armour and shields reduce your Magic stats to below the underworld.
Want a Paladin-esque character? Have fun being a bad attempt at one of the two core features of said archetype
Want to be powerful mixed attacker glass cannon? Good luck actually getting both of those stats to decent thresholds
They are probably still possible and are more accessible in every version besides the original Famicom version.
Unarmed attacks apparently scale higher than other weapons at high ranks.
@@unwithering5313 in that case i am not touching the original ever again, that sounds really bad.
I remeber playing it before and i got soft locked, thats why i finished it on the remake.
0:42 it is though. It's Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter, or Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter for short.
True Star Ocean fans would notice how bad SO5 in a heartbeat. Reused musics, characters are bunch of rehash of previous character (Fidel is literally Fayt), almost no cutscenes... like, what supposed to be an emotional moment is ruined cuz i can just walk to the corner and the character would say something dramatic. And people say SO4 was bad
I always thought the black sheep of Suikoden was Tierkreis, hilarious voice acting and all...
It’dbeatotallygreatgameiftheprotagonist didn’ttalktoofastamIright?
@@dracoerrarus4834 i know right? I mean does the voice actor even breathe?
@@daniel_cofresi I hadn’t played many games with voice acting, so I really didn’t mind that much. But it does make me wonder if they made him talk fast instead of compressing the audio further.
I just bought Tales of the Tempest just to say I own it, but I've heard it's terrible lol. And I 1000% agree with Dragon Song, I picked it up bc I used to see it advertised in Nintendo Power, and like you, I enjoyed the other Lunar's but being hurt while running!? Who thought that was a good decision!? I didn't even get far enough to know my weapons could break lmao.
I will however disagree with FFII. Not that it's not the black sheep, I'm fully aware of it's shortcomings and notoriety. However, I think people often say you "HAVE" to hit your own party, to get decent stats. That is not the case, you can CHOOSE to, to make the game easier, but there was a video I watched and he grinded by hitting his own allies for a half hour, and grinded fighting normal enemies for the same amount of time, and the health was marginally lower (obviously it can vary since it's RNG based) but his other stats were higher in the save where he just battled enemies. It's an early RPG, grinding is just part of the experience. But I understand it can be a turn off. I will just always defend FFII, I really enjoy it for what it is lol.
The problem with not hitting yourself, is that in early game.... the girl starts out with 20 and she's in the back row. Move her to the front row and she's likely to get one-shot before you can even react. And/or enemies just don't do enough damage at the start of the game to really trigger an HP increase, but yet they will whittle you to death with 2-3 damage a hit and you only have 40... and you keep going back to town to heal up... but you're not getting very many stamina/HP increases. Then, when you get a little ways in, suddenly you run into enemies that do 10-15 damage a hit and well... the girl has 20 or 25 or so if you got lucky, the guy has 30 and the other guy has 40 ..... you don't last long. At all. Go back to the wimpy enemies at the start.... and no HP upgrades. And if you waited too long, you do too much damage to yourself because you got strength and weapon skill upgrades from killing enemies and you just oneshot yourself. It's rather easy to get into this place where you need upgrades but can't get them.
I thought there would be an entry for Ys
Probably Ys 5, if it ever got officially localized.
Lunar Dragon Song was a mistake, pure and simple.
Of Integrity and Faithlessness was clearly given a small budget and poor direction.
Also oh look, another alien world whose species look entirely human, how original.
.........
Also the subtitle is completely meaningless, as Integrity nor Faith or the lack thereof have any relevance to ANYTHING in the game.
Lunar is also in my heart mate which is why I cant recognize dragon song as a lunar game. Dragon song will always be dragon song, juat a feeble cash gran attempt on nostalgia.
Tempest really needs the remake version
I kinda want to see a part 2 to this. This list was pretty interesting.
#9: I dunno, this at least looks better than the DS dungeon crawler, Children of Mana...
#6: I liked Ruins of Lore. 😰 It beats that one with the randomized dungeons at least. What with having actual dungeons with actual puzzles...