The party line
Can you believe we didn’t have a best JRPG list until now?
We also have a few familiar fantasys in our list of the50 best RPGs on PC.
But until now we haven’t addressed the genre in its own right.
Our interpretation of the JRPG is fairly open-ended.
But that’s okay, even the genre’s own label isnot beyond interrogation.
In other words, we make up the rules here!
And for now those rules go as follows: only one game per franchise.
For example, you’ll only find one Final Fantasy on the list (what!)
despite it being the most dominant name in the genre (besides,we have those covered).
Another rule I’ve decided to follow is not to include the game you love the most.
It is number 12.
The best JRPGs on PC
Here’s our list in short.
If you truly can’t stand to wait, no worries.
Just click a title below to be directed straight to that game.
It’s a colourful mash-up of gamey ingredients: part role-playing game, part city management, part real-time-strategy.
The story of Evan, the cat-eared boy king, is ultimately a little forgettable.
you could start the game as a thief seeking an escape from their oppressive and shadowy crime syndicate.
Or a cleric with a touch of Columbo, out to uncover the truth about his own church.
They are both unapproachable dorks.
And yet… and yet… Tales Of Arise is simply the best-looking and best-feeling of these slash-first-ask-questions-later misadventures.
Disgaea 5
What else should I play if I like this?All the other Disgaeas, I guess?
How much do you really care about storytelling in a JRPG?
The Disgaea games are known for their labyrinthine and anarchic approach to number crunching and character customising.
Becoming “OP” inDisgaea 5is only the beginning.
There’s no grind, for example, no random battles.
Especially if it sticks unbendingly to the traditions of turn-taking and tiki-taka levelling up.
But now you could see what all the fuss is about.
The rest of these games aren’t going anywhere.
But it is.Undertaleis about a human child who grows up around monsters.
It is dense with gags.
But if Chrono Trigger looks by-the-numbers, that is because it invented the numbers.
It had branching storylines and multiple endings long before it became normal.
It hid a huge amount of its most emotionally powerful storytelling in sidequests and non-essential areas.
Modern games often don’t have the confidence to pull off this last trick.
But it’s one of the reasons a love for Chrono Trigger still reverberates among JRPG fans today.
To those who explore every nook and cranny of time itself, it feels like a personal journey.
Also, its music is good enough towarp the mind of a master pianist.
I don’t know, it’s your life, buddy.
To recommend the former is to stick to conventional wisdom.
To recommend the latter is to introduce a new conventional wisdom with better graphics.
Either way, we are going to upset everyone on planet earth.
Here we’re seeing that tale adapted and built-upon, morphing in sometimes unpredictable ways.
The re-telling of a story long carved in immovable JRPG stone.
This alone makes the ongoing modernisation of Cloud’s strife worth following.
In 1997, gamers were forced to process the loss of a character to the point of acceptance.
Over twenty years later, we are being handed a chance to dive head-first back into denial.
That’s kinda neat!
And it doesn’t shy away from the absurdity that the series has become well-known for.
you’re able to debuff enemies by spritzing them with perfume.
you’ve got the option to level up legally-distinct Pokemon in a fully-realised side game.
you’ve got the option to join a dating app and embarrass yourself by getting badly cat-fished.
But between the turn-based battles lies the game’s real heart.
It’s a nostalgic visitation to the best days of your life.
But that’s probably just me, very sheltered.
