I would have included "Shadow Hearts" somewhere on this list, as I think this is one of the most underrated JRPGs ever, but your picks were all great nonetheless. Definitely agree about "Trails in the Sky". I passed on this game for years, then finally played it a couple of years ago and fell in love!
Shadow Hearts would have been a great pick, that game does deserve some more love. Glad you enjoyed the list regardless and really glad to hear you enjoyed the Trails in the Sky games. I was pleasantly surprised with how much they ended up blowing me away! The ending to the first game is one I’ll never forget as it caught me completely off guard, which I thought could never happen again with a JRPG after how many I’ve played
@@GamingBroductions the ending was fantastic. It completely took me unawares as well. I've yet to play Cold Steel games, really looking forward to those.
This channel is so good. I can’t wait to binge watch more. Thank you for all the content, keep it up!!! You create better content than 99% of youtubers.
Ah thanks so much for those kind words, means a lot! This is one of our oldest videos and I think our quality has gotten much better since then, hope you enjoy the binge!
Realized we never got back to this, thank you though! We do spend a lot of time with the editing process to make sure what we're putting out is of a certain quality, and in result that time spent has made the time in between videos in the past a bit slow but we're trying to turn this around from here on out. We just came out with 2 more videos in the last week over 'Top 10 Playstation RPGs That Aren't Final Fantasy' and '8 Great JRPGs for the Switch'. Hope you enjoy!
Great channel man. I just found it and it is fire. Please keep it up. The humor and references are right up my alley. Great recommendations in this video too.
I am here as promised. Also that cat came out of nowhere and I loved it. Also English dub is what made Arc Rise Fantasia as amazing as it was. I haven't laughed so har- I haven't been so immersed in a seamless and well articulated voiced story in a long time. Got em.
She’s in all of our outros with a different clip each time lol, we usually try to make it somewhat fit the theme of the video. Yeah, with voice acting like in ARF the best thing you can really do is just derive entertainment from it, and I will say they made it quite memorable for better or for worse.. I’m in a voice acting class right now actually so it serves as a great lesson on how to not approach a script 😅
Septerra Core is one of my favorite PC RPGs of all time. The art, the story, the characters, everything was so well done and almost none of my friends ever heard of it let alone played it. Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2 are must play as well.
I'd probably throw Radiata Stories for the PS2 in. I'd say it's a hidden gem on the same scale as Baten Kaitos. The game is like an action-based Suikoden featuring about 250 recruitable characters and two branching storylines, as well as a time system that ALL NPCs, recruitable and not, follow every day, making the game feel super lively and fun to play.
@@PsychomachineryEBM If you mean the Dreamcast version then I'll have to disagree. I'll definitely take the better graphics, lowered encounter rate and large amount of new bosses and sidequests of the GC version over slightly better sound quality any day.
Thanks for adding more stuff to my extensive backlog of game and for inspiring me to go back and replay Lost Odyssey....too many games not enough time.
I never thought I would ever hear anyone talk about Septerra Core besides me. I got it in a 2 pack from Walmart when I was younger. I still have it. Was really fun at the time.
Baiten Kaitos was AWESOME! Only downsides: voice acting is wretched and low sound quality, and the battles take too long sometimes for enemy animations. And too often I ended up with only defensive cards. But I had a lovely time with this one.
Arc Rise Fantasia is incredible. One of the best and most underrated RPG os it's gen. By the way, you should REALLY turn voice over off or mod your Wii to play an undub version.
Legend of Legaia was my FIRST SERIOUS RPG! Cool man! Played that game and went back to some older ones. Chrono Trigger, FF6. It’s the game that got me into JRPGs
Never did beat the game, but I remember playing the demo that came with the playstation magazine as a kid. I bought it and got about halfway through then gave up because it was tough. Definitely going to give it another go.
@@GamingBroductions Yeah a lot of that early PS1 era is super charming games with some strange decisions. It's the one era I really like when they make remakes for. This, Xenogears, Vagrant Story, FFT: WOTL (was remade), DQ 7 (was remade) and on...
I played ogre battle 64 years ago on the 64 and never finished. Recently I got a modded original x box with N64 games on it and ogre battle was one of them. I don't think I knew how good it was when I was younger. I like the concept of moving whole squads around the map vs individuals and the story is great too
When I see these hidden gems lists, I'm reminded of just how hard it is for a game to stand out and get recognition in the JRPG space. There's a lot of really good ones out there, but they usually have something that went wrong: battle mechanics, voice acting, music, too generic of a story, etc. And sometimes the game is great on its own but it's external factors that keep it hidden like limited regions in which it was released, launching for the wrong system, not enough marketing to spread the word of its existence, timing (EX: it's not a good idea to release it when the latest FF comes out), etc. I also agree about Trails in the Sky. I absolutely love 1&2 to the point where I think they hold their own against the big names out there!
I think Growlanser is a spiritual successor to the Langrisser series. One of the games in that series was put on the Sega as Warsong. It's a fun strategy game I think they remade it for the switch in the past year or two.
growlanser was such a great series and there are multiple ones that we never got a over on the west. there are like 6 and we only got 3 of them growlanser generations which i believe is 2 and 3 then we got heritage of war which i believe is 5
Glad to see Ogre Battle 64 here. Not enough love for this game. The only real negative for me is the Chaos Frame system which interact with the alignment system. Both have ZERO explanation and this Chaos Frame is the main factor in recruiting a lot of unique characters and getting the different endings. The video title would probably be more accurate if it was Underrated JRPG rather than Hidden Gems.
It’s mainly just a way to help support the growth of the channel. Based on what tier you join there are some different benefits though like getting an update on our video topics before they come out, voting in polls to help us decide future video ideas and once we hit our first milestone which we’re really close to hitting we’re going to create a discord for others to hang out and talk about JRPGs or whatever else in
I was pretty bummed when I played through Legend of Legaia. I played it on PS3 from a PS1 disc and I was unaware of a game crashing glitch that happens towards the end of the game. Great game nonetheless!
Legend of LeGaia is a hidden gem these days? I must be getting old. Also, I personally love LeGaia 2. Maybe its not for everyone, but I love how you could collect achievements in the game.
Can you please make a video on games that visually shows customisation rather than just increasing stats. Make the video based on every console. Please please please.
I have a question. I have never played any of the Trails games. In reference to Trails in the Sky in particular. If the game is categorized into chapters. How does that work? Will the one psp disk contain every chapter available for play? Or is it downloadable content? I will need to know in order to play the game. :D Thank you for your time! -- Eric
So each of the 3 chapters are split up into 3 separate games, you’ll need to buy/download each individually to play them all. They’re all complete experiences on their own though and just as long if not longer than your standard JRPG. The Steam versions are probably the easiest/cheapest to get ahold of these days. Always great to see more people curious in checking out these older titles!
I talk about Skies of Arcadia in a lot more detail in our latest video about 8 great JRPGs that capture the spirit of adventure and do mention the ship battles there. Our newer videos in general are a lot more polished than these old ones
Many great games, but at least part of them aren't really a "hidden gems". I mean like Skies of Arcadia, Baten Kaitos - were very popular at the time. And Legend of Heroes is huge even nowadays - a gem, but not a hidden gem at all...
I totally get your point and as someone who’s played jrpgs forever now I agree. I used the term hidden gem a little loosely here and was mainly applying it in terms of those newer to jrpgs who may only be familiar with series like final fantasy, persona, dragon quest, etc. Games like SoA and BK while are quite popular amongst long time JRPG fans aren’t the easiest to play these days due to only ever coming out on the gamecube and Dreamcast so for newcomers they may have been overlooked due to their lack of accessibility. And LoH you’re right as well, I think I remember saying in the vid that it’s not really that hidden anymore and really just wanted to spread some awareness to the older games in the series
Thousand arms looks cool but the whole dating sim part turned me off to it. Wish I'd gotten past that and played it back in the day. Growlanser as a series seems really great but I've not played any. I heard the 4th and 5th are pretty great. i've actually only played two SMT games. SMT V which I really couldn't get into. And Persona 4 which I freaking love and am currently playing. I love Ogre Battle 64, Skies of Arcadia, Arc The Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, and Trails in the Sky.
The children in Lost Odyssey did actually ruin the game for me 😂 I stopped playing a couple hours after it was clear they weren’t going anywhere. Probably should have stuck with it but oh well. Arc Rise Fantasia is sooooo good once you turn the voices off!
Ok, I have to admit, this is the first time I have ever heard the saying "devil must be beating his wife". My reaction was pretty much the same as the girls along with an eff.
Come here in 2022. Playing Lost Odyssey. I wish that Final Fantasy Played like it. Or that Lost Odyssey looked like Final Fantasy XIII. The problem with Lost Odyssey is that is a really ugly game to look (characters).
Digital Devil Saga was like a bucket of ice poured on my head, such a letdown. I just finished SMT4 and SMT Apocalypse, I was thirsty for more "megaten", so I emulated this game... and it's not good, it's just so fucking slow! Also the dynamics between the character, it's literally power rangers, each one have their color/element, their undimensional personality are based on the color... even using speed ups and quick saves from emulation, the pacing of this game remained such a slog, it was a very bad experience (considering I forced myself to finish it). I don't know, maybe nostalgic people who misses the oldschool slow pace, they will enjoy this game. But I'm to anxious nowadays to pick a slow game like this one
No love for Lunar? Legend of Dragoon? Ni no kuni? Blue Dragon? Atelier games some of these games are iconic and helped define this genre and are completely overlooked. Especially in top lists, and I know these lists are subjective but where is the love lol. PS love the list would like to see more.
Those are all great games too! Just can only talk about so many in a top 10 though lol. I know I use the term hidden gem loosely here but I guess I never really considered Legend of Dragoon to be one as it always seemed pretty popular to me. We did release a full retrospective over the game sometime last year however, and both Lunar and Ni No Kuni were given a lot of love in our most recent video about JRPGs that capture the spirit of adventure so those are good to check out if you wanna see more on those titles!
1:06 lol that doug transition is classic
I would have included "Shadow Hearts" somewhere on this list, as I think this is one of the most underrated JRPGs ever, but your picks were all great nonetheless. Definitely agree about "Trails in the Sky". I passed on this game for years, then finally played it a couple of years ago and fell in love!
Shadow Hearts would have been a great pick, that game does deserve some more love. Glad you enjoyed the list regardless and really glad to hear you enjoyed the Trails in the Sky games. I was pleasantly surprised with how much they ended up blowing me away! The ending to the first game is one I’ll never forget as it caught me completely off guard, which I thought could never happen again with a JRPG after how many I’ve played
@@GamingBroductions the ending was fantastic. It completely took me unawares as well. I've yet to play Cold Steel games, really looking forward to those.
For real, stupidly underrated. People who didn't want to give it a chance are idiots.
This channel is so good. I can’t wait to binge watch more. Thank you for all the content, keep it up!!! You create better content than 99% of youtubers.
Ah thanks so much for those kind words, means a lot! This is one of our oldest videos and I think our quality has gotten much better since then, hope you enjoy the binge!
@Gaming Broductions curious. Why not Arc the lad ps1?
JAW is right, because of you I want to try more JRPG.
Do you have many JRPG that you never played before from old Consoles and also newer Consoles ?
Great video, Lost Odyssey is the best JRPG of the 360/PS3 era. So glad it’s backwards compatible and playable on the new Xboxes
Great video, I can tell a lot of time went into editing and polishing the video. Great suggestions too btw. Looking forward to future content :)
Realized we never got back to this, thank you though! We do spend a lot of time with the editing process to make sure what we're putting out is of a certain quality, and in result that time spent has made the time in between videos in the past a bit slow but we're trying to turn this around from here on out. We just came out with 2 more videos in the last week over 'Top 10 Playstation RPGs That Aren't Final Fantasy' and '8 Great JRPGs for the Switch'. Hope you enjoy!
Great channel man. I just found it and it is fire. Please keep it up. The humor and references are right up my alley. Great recommendations in this video too.
This was such a fantastic list, and the video overall was very well done. Thank you!
Thank you for watching, we got plenty more videos you will like!
I am here as promised. Also that cat came out of nowhere and I loved it.
Also English dub is what made Arc Rise Fantasia as amazing as it was. I haven't laughed so har- I haven't been so immersed in a seamless and well articulated voiced story in a long time. Got em.
She’s in all of our outros with a different clip each time lol, we usually try to make it somewhat fit the theme of the video. Yeah, with voice acting like in ARF the best thing you can really do is just derive entertainment from it, and I will say they made it quite memorable for better or for worse.. I’m in a voice acting class right now actually so it serves as a great lesson on how to not approach a script 😅
Septerra Core is one of my favorite PC RPGs of all time. The art, the story, the characters, everything was so well done and almost none of my friends ever heard of it let alone played it.
Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2 are must play as well.
It’s way underrated. Septerra Core is on par with any Final Fantasy game.
I'd probably throw Radiata Stories for the PS2 in. I'd say it's a hidden gem on the same scale as Baten Kaitos. The game is like an action-based Suikoden featuring about 250 recruitable characters and two branching storylines, as well as a time system that ALL NPCs, recruitable and not, follow every day, making the game feel super lively and fun to play.
I almost never see Baten Kaitos mentioned on these types of list, and it truly is underrated. Such a fun playstyle, and still holds up to this day.
Skies of Arcadia Legends is honestly one of my favorite games of all time, the world and cast just feel so alive, it's such a gem of a game!
Absolutely, very solid title!
The original release, tho.
@@PsychomachineryEBM If you mean the Dreamcast version then I'll have to disagree. I'll definitely take the better graphics, lowered encounter rate and large amount of new bosses and sidequests of the GC version over slightly better sound quality any day.
Thanks for adding more stuff to my extensive backlog of game and for inspiring me to go back and replay Lost Odyssey....too many games not enough time.
I never thought I would ever hear anyone talk about Septerra Core besides me. I got it in a 2 pack from Walmart when I was younger. I still have it. Was really fun at the time.
Man it was so funny. xD Your laughing at the dating and than the 90s Anime-vibe (Neon Genesis with cat) xD
Baiten Kaitos was AWESOME! Only downsides: voice acting is wretched and low sound quality, and the battles take too long sometimes for enemy animations. And too often I ended up with only defensive cards. But I had a lovely time with this one.
Like most badly dubbed games, Arc Rise Fantasia has an Undub you can get that makes the audio night and day better. Great list
Arc Rise Fantasia is incredible. One of the best and most underrated RPG os it's gen. By the way, you should REALLY turn voice over off or mod your Wii to play an undub version.
Legend of Legaia was my FIRST SERIOUS RPG! Cool man! Played that game and went back to some older ones. Chrono Trigger, FF6. It’s the game that got me into JRPGs
Legend of Legaia is amazing. I am so sad that it has yet to have a digital re-release.
Never did beat the game, but I remember playing the demo that came with the playstation magazine as a kid. I bought it and got about halfway through then gave up because it was tough. Definitely going to give it another go.
Bless emulation
Thousand Arms was so fun, but god, the encounter rate!
Yeah, not ideal lol. Made some dungeons a slog. The 1v1 battle system wasn't doing it much favors either. Still love the game though, so much charm!
@@GamingBroductions Yeah a lot of that early PS1 era is super charming games with some strange decisions. It's the one era I really like when they make remakes for. This, Xenogears, Vagrant Story, FFT: WOTL (was remade), DQ 7 (was remade) and on...
Missing Golden Sun serie. Love the First two!
We gave Golden Sun a lot of love in our most recent video about 8 great JRPGs that capture the spirit of adventure. Big fan of the first two myself!
I played ogre battle 64 years ago on the 64 and never finished. Recently I got a modded original x box with N64 games on it and ogre battle was one of them. I don't think I knew how good it was when I was younger. I like the concept of moving whole squads around the map vs individuals and the story is great too
When I see these hidden gems lists, I'm reminded of just how hard it is for a game to stand out and get recognition in the JRPG space. There's a lot of really good ones out there, but they usually have something that went wrong: battle mechanics, voice acting, music, too generic of a story, etc. And sometimes the game is great on its own but it's external factors that keep it hidden like limited regions in which it was released, launching for the wrong system, not enough marketing to spread the word of its existence, timing (EX: it's not a good idea to release it when the latest FF comes out), etc.
I also agree about Trails in the Sky. I absolutely love 1&2 to the point where I think they hold their own against the big names out there!
Crowlancer is the successor series to Langrisser, which was released on Sega Consoles in America as Warsong.
The nostalgia in this video... Legend of Legaia and Thousands Arms 2 of my favorite Rpgs ever wow what a time
Azure Dreams is a good one too
Solid list. I think instead of trails you should maybe have tried a few GBA RPGs. Car battler Joe, CIMA: the enemy, sigma star saga. All good choices.
I think Growlanser is a spiritual successor to the Langrisser series. One of the games in that series was put on the Sega as Warsong. It's a fun strategy game
I think they remade it for the switch in the past year or two.
that evangelion cat caught me off guard LOL
2:05 was funny the mom face
LOL’ed @ “Who? Beating his what?!” … ty, I needed that. Haha 😆
Star ocean is getting a new game
Wow, first time I've seen Thousand Arms mentioned by somebody on UA-cam. Loved the game as a kid.
01:46 One day when the world becomes a much better place, 30-40 year old adults will have the same smile on their face as this boy.
The Granstream Saga is 100% underrated and quite hidden. It's more of a Nugget than a Gem though.
Still play Ogre Battle 64 and Shining Force 2 every year
growlanser was such a great series and there are multiple ones that we never got a over on the west.
there are like 6 and we only got 3 of them growlanser generations which i believe is 2 and 3 then we got heritage of war which i believe is 5
Sometimes I still can't believe that Suikoden tapered off. The first two games were two of the best games I've ever played
those textures on the boat in skies of arcadia...
I would have put Dark Chronicle (Dark Cloud 2) on this list honestly. Have you played it?
Very fun soundtrack too!
6:03 the megaman battle network series have similar thing call navi cust
Glad to see Ogre Battle 64 here. Not enough love for this game. The only real negative for me is the Chaos Frame system which interact with the alignment system. Both have ZERO explanation and this Chaos Frame is the main factor in recruiting a lot of unique characters and getting the different endings.
The video title would probably be more accurate if it was Underrated JRPG rather than Hidden Gems.
This video is a hidden Gem :). Thanks Bud
What about rogue galaxy ? I never seen you mentieoned on your videos 🤔
We just put out a retrospective video on Rogue Galaxy, go check it out!
@@GamingBroductions jajajaja you read my mind!
What do you have differenly on Patrion that you don't have here on youtube?
It’s mainly just a way to help support the growth of the channel. Based on what tier you join there are some different benefits though like getting an update on our video topics before they come out, voting in polls to help us decide future video ideas and once we hit our first milestone which we’re really close to hitting we’re going to create a discord for others to hang out and talk about JRPGs or whatever else in
I was pretty bummed when I played through Legend of Legaia. I played it on PS3 from a PS1 disc and I was unaware of a game crashing glitch that happens towards the end of the game. Great game nonetheless!
Trails in the Sky!
What is the closing music? I know it from somewhere, but I cannot place it.
Mike Tyson Mysteries lol
@@GamingBroductions yes! Thank you.
Legend of LeGaia is a hidden gem these days? I must be getting old.
Also, I personally love LeGaia 2. Maybe its not for everyone, but I love how you could collect achievements in the game.
Can you please make a video on games that visually shows customisation rather than just increasing stats. Make the video based on every console. Please please please.
I have a question. I have never played any of the Trails games. In reference to Trails in the Sky in particular. If the game is categorized into chapters. How does that work? Will the one psp disk contain every chapter available for play? Or is it downloadable content? I will need to know in order to play the game. :D Thank you for your time! -- Eric
So each of the 3 chapters are split up into 3 separate games, you’ll need to buy/download each individually to play them all. They’re all complete experiences on their own though and just as long if not longer than your standard JRPG. The Steam versions are probably the easiest/cheapest to get ahold of these days. Always great to see more people curious in checking out these older titles!
@@GamingBroductions thanks for the speedy reply. I look forward to starting this epic game series. 😁
Shadow Madness.
You should play radiant historia.
You get a like for Noa!
Arc Rise Fantasia really was a pleasant surprise. There is a Japanese undub floating around the interwebs. The JP voices are much better.
Hidden from who? These are all old school classics.
Lost Odyssey is one of the best JRPG I've _ever_ played.
How do you talk about Skies of Arcadia without mentioning the airship battles, which are one of its more unique aspects?
I talk about Skies of Arcadia in a lot more detail in our latest video about 8 great JRPGs that capture the spirit of adventure and do mention the ship battles there. Our newer videos in general are a lot more polished than these old ones
Many great games, but at least part of them aren't really a "hidden gems". I mean like Skies of Arcadia, Baten Kaitos - were very popular at the time. And Legend of Heroes is huge even nowadays - a gem, but not a hidden gem at all...
I totally get your point and as someone who’s played jrpgs forever now I agree. I used the term hidden gem a little loosely here and was mainly applying it in terms of those newer to jrpgs who may only be familiar with series like final fantasy, persona, dragon quest, etc. Games like SoA and BK while are quite popular amongst long time JRPG fans aren’t the easiest to play these days due to only ever coming out on the gamecube and Dreamcast so for newcomers they may have been overlooked due to their lack of accessibility. And LoH you’re right as well, I think I remember saying in the vid that it’s not really that hidden anymore and really just wanted to spread some awareness to the older games in the series
Aaah Ogre Battle😍
Thousand arms looks cool but the whole dating sim part turned me off to it. Wish I'd gotten past that and played it back in the day.
Growlanser as a series seems really great but I've not played any. I heard the 4th and 5th are pretty great.
i've actually only played two SMT games. SMT V which I really couldn't get into. And Persona 4 which I freaking love and am currently playing.
I love Ogre Battle 64, Skies of Arcadia, Arc The Lad: Twilight of the Spirits, and Trails in the Sky.
The Trails in the Sky Games are all on steam including the third game that was never localized for psp
One of the best genres
The children in Lost Odyssey did actually ruin the game for me 😂 I stopped playing a couple hours after it was clear they weren’t going anywhere. Probably should have stuck with it but oh well.
Arc Rise Fantasia is sooooo good once you turn the voices off!
Ok, I have to admit, this is the first time I have ever heard the saying "devil must be beating his wife". My reaction was pretty much the same as the girls along with an eff.
Elite video
El arte de Growlanser se parece al de Front Innocent... If you know what I mean 🤫
How about Legend of Gaia ?
The devil must be beating his wife.... beating his what?
lmao wtf??
Come here in 2022. Playing Lost Odyssey. I wish that Final Fantasy Played like it. Or that Lost Odyssey looked like Final Fantasy XIII. The problem with Lost Odyssey is that is a really ugly game to look (characters).
Beating his what?? 😨
Digital Devil Saga was like a bucket of ice poured on my head, such a letdown. I just finished SMT4 and SMT Apocalypse, I was thirsty for more "megaten", so I emulated this game... and it's not good, it's just so fucking slow! Also the dynamics between the character, it's literally power rangers, each one have their color/element, their undimensional personality are based on the color... even using speed ups and quick saves from emulation, the pacing of this game remained such a slog, it was a very bad experience (considering I forced myself to finish it). I don't know, maybe nostalgic people who misses the oldschool slow pace, they will enjoy this game. But I'm to anxious nowadays to pick a slow game like this one
No love for Lunar? Legend of Dragoon? Ni no kuni? Blue Dragon? Atelier games some of these games are iconic and helped define this genre and are completely overlooked. Especially in top lists, and I know these lists are subjective but where is the love lol.
PS love the list would like to see more.
Those are all great games too! Just can only talk about so many in a top 10 though lol. I know I use the term hidden gem loosely here but I guess I never really considered Legend of Dragoon to be one as it always seemed pretty popular to me. We did release a full retrospective over the game sometime last year however, and both Lunar and Ni No Kuni were given a lot of love in our most recent video about JRPGs that capture the spirit of adventure so those are good to check out if you wanna see more on those titles!
Arc Rise Fantasia just get the Undubbed version it's way better.
Wasn't aware there was an undubbed version actually, thanks for the heads up.
Bump
Dual Orb II and fucking Terranigma instead anything related to Shit Megami Tensei
I love Septerra Core, but it's not a "gem", is an insufferable game that drags way too long