[Gamasutra] A Japanese RPG Primer: The Essential 20

RC Cola · Mar 20, 2008

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3581/a_japanese_rpg_primer_the_.php

[The Japanese role-playing game is a surprisingly important genre for developers to study - both in terms of gameplay and storytelling, and Gamasutra presents an 'Essential 20' explaining and chronicling the top JRPGs of all-time.]

The gap between Western and Japanese RPGs is so huge that they sometimes don't even seem like they belong in the same genre. Western RPGs usually concentrate on open-ended gameplay, with a "go anywhere, do anything" mentality.

Japanese RPGs concentrate on narrative and battle systems, being more eager to tell a story than let the gamer play a role. However, Japanese RPGs didn't just appear out of nowhere -- as their roots lie heavily in early American computer RPGs of the 80s.

Two of the most popular games back in the day were Ultima and Wizardry. Although all had followings amongst hardcore Japanese gamers, they were a little bit too uninviting for your average console owners, whose ages skewed a bit younger. Yuji Horii, a developer at Enix, decided to take on an interesting experiment.

By combing the overhead exploration aspects of Ultima (the third and fourth games, specifically) and the first person, menu-based battle system of Wizardry, a new game was born: Dragon Quest. Released for the Nintendo Famicom in 1986, the game became a phenomenon, and went on to inspire dozens of clones. Most of these are best left forgotten, but it did inspire two more notable franchises: Square's Final Fantasy and Sega's Phantasy Star.

Meanwhile, in America, it wasn't until 1989 that Nintendo translated the game for English speaking audiences, redubbing it Dragon Warrior. Despite the huge amount of effort put into the localization, the subpar graphics and stodgy interface failed to win over many gamers.

Throughout the rest of the 8 and 16-bit eras, RPGs in America -- and especially Europe -- were relative rarities. While Square continued to translate most of its better games for America, most publishers had left the market, with only sporadic releases from the likes of Capcom, Sega, Working Designs, and a handful of others.

It wasn't until Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation, with its flashy full motion cutscenes, that Japanese RPGs truly obtained worldwide popularity.

Since then, a vast majority of JRPGs have been translated into English, whether they're contemporary releases, remakes of old titles or even fan-translated ROMs for play on emulators.

As of 2008, the Japanese RPG has become a subject of scorn for many Western critics, deriding it for its conventions -- slow, menu based combat, random battles, overreliance on narrative -- and for its failure to evolve. In spite of this, there are still many fans of the genre, who continue to enjoy them for their interesting plots, characters, and battle systems.

This is a list of twenty of the best JRPGs of all time -- well, an attempt, anyway. Each of these has been selected for excelling in some significant way, whether it's through compelling narrative devices or intriguing gameplay mechanics.

To avoid redundancies, only the best installment of a franchise will be chosen as a representative. The exception to this rule includes the Final Fantasy games, many of which are so vastly different from each other that they can barely be recognized as part of the same series, outside of the name.

It's worth bearing in mind that there are technically a few different subgenres of the Japanese RPG. These include action-RPGs like Ys, Kingdom Hearts, Secret of Mana, and (arguably) The Legend of Zelda.

There are also strategy RPGs, like Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea, Shining Force, and the like. There are also a handful of Japanese-developed online RPGs, like Phantasy Star Online and Final Fantasy XI. For the sake of focus, these types of games will be excluded from the list.
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20 more pages dedicated to each game (or games) that they list. Great read IMO.

Here are the results for the lazy (in no particular order):

1. Valkyrie Profile
2. Final Fantasy 4/6/7 (yes, all 3 together)
3. Xenogears
4. Chrono Trigger
5. Shadow Hearts Covenant
6. Persona 3
7. Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne
8. Final Fantasy 8 (yes, another FF)
9. Earthbound
10. Grandia
11. Final fantasy 12 (yet another FF)
12. Dragon Quest 5
13. Panzer Dragoon Saga
14. Final Fantasy 10
15. Skies of Arcadia
16. Chrono Cross
17. Phantasy Star 4 The End of the Millennium
18. Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter
19. Suikoden 2
20. Street Fighter...actually it's Final Fantasy 5

Seems like a good list, although I don't really like the way they treated the FF games.

Invisible Fan · Mar 20, 2008

I've played many games on the list and they're still memorable.

fadeaway · Mar 20, 2008

No Star Ocean 2? Are you kidding me? That's arguably my favorite RPG ever, right up there with Skies of Arcadia and Chrono Trigger.

Apollo Creed · Mar 20, 2008

They're a little overly critical on some games for a tribute piece. Especially when they start bashing SNES games because they couldn't convey proper emotion due to graphical limitations. I mean geez, come on.

tinman · Mar 20, 2008

i like the japanese role playing game where your role is to be the champion of the world.
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Apollo Creed · Mar 20, 2008

tinman said:

i like the japanese role playing game where your role is to be the champion of the world.
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Okay tinman, you can hang out in this thread, but play nice with RPGs, so if you can't say anything nice...

tinman · Mar 20, 2008

Apollo Creed said:

Okay tinman, you can hang out in this thread, but play nice with RPGs, so if you can't say anything nice...
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ok ok

i did enjoy one of these type of games. this one was the best
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Apollo Creed · Mar 20, 2008

tinman said:

ok ok

i did enjoy one of these type of games. this one was the best
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Nice!

Speaking of old school sega rpgs (not master system, but still)

Me and my freshmen roommate used to play that for hours on end. (4 yrs ago)

tinman · Mar 20, 2008

Apollo Creed said:

Nice!

Speaking of old school sega rpgs (not master system, but still)

Me and my freshmen roommate used to play that for hours on end. (4 yrs ago)
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apparently they remade the old phantasy stars back for ps2, but those bastards didn't release it in the states! damn you japanese!
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the music was awesome for the old school game too:
http://www.rpgclassics.com/shrines/sms/ps1/music/tower.mid

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OmegaSupreme · Mar 20, 2008

RC Cola said:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3581/a_japanese_rpg_primer_the_.php

9. Earthbound...
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SMAAAAASSSSHH!!!

eb, ftw.

RC Cola · Mar 21, 2008

fadeaway said:

No Star Ocean 2? Are you kidding me? That's arguably my favorite RPG ever, right up there with Skies of Arcadia and Chrono Trigger.
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Was hoping that maybe he was just not counting it as a pure JRPG for some reason, but it looks like I'm wrong:

Well, to clarify - my criteria for selecting a game for this list was that it had to truly excel in one or two areas of game design, whether it be through narrative or battle system or character customization. That's why things like Lunar got left off - I love the games (first one especially) but there's not really much that stands out about it. It was important in American JRPG history, in that it was on CD, had voiced cutscenes, and surprisingly competent writing. And they're still excellent, but just being excellent isn't enough of a qualifier to land it on the list.

As for others - Dragon Quest has some cool narrative devices, but V's is the best. III is a fantastic game, especially for being an 8-bit RPG, but again, this isn't really a list of historically important games, nor a list of really good ones. Personally, if I had to pick another DQ, it'd probably be IV, because I really dig the chapter-system.

The Tales games aren't on there, not because it could be qualified as an action-RPG, but because I never thought the battle systems were particularly well implemented. Ditto Star Ocean, although those games do have other qualities going for it, especially the vague branching paths in the second game. Personally if they added a combat system like Secret of Mana or the later Ys games, while still keeping in the framework of a traditional JRPG, then I'd be all over it.

I didn't add Pokemon because I don't like Pokemon at all.

Vagrant Story is kinda a borderliner - moreso than Valkyrie Profile or Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. I think you could make an argument for being included. I also don't much care for it, so I couldn't rationalize a solid argument in favor of it.

I really would've liked to include a wider number of games, but I needed to draw the line somewhere. I definitely considered Paper Mario, Baten Kaitos Origins, Star Ocean: Second Story, Lufia II and a handful of others. But at the end of the day, this is still technically an opinion piece, so I had to prioritize them. I place more importance crazy customization systems or interesting narrative devices over puzzle dungeons, which is why so many Final Fantasies made it but Lufia II got bumped. One day I might expand on it and maybe start branching out into the other subgenres.
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Been a while since I played SO2 (or the Tales games), although I don't remember the battle systems being much of a problem (compared to other games anyway).

mic · Mar 21, 2008

Chrono Trigger is hands down my favorite game of all time.

I was about to ask why no Secret of Mana love, but I understand now. Makes sense, I guess.

I'm a little sad and disappointed in myself for not having played a number of those titles. Unfortunately, a lot of them are hard to come by.

blathersby · Mar 21, 2008

Grabbed the link off of Kotaku a couple of days ago. All that matters to me is that in the Earthbound section they mentioned Charles Barkley: Shut Up and Jam! Gaiden: Chapter 1 of the Hoopz Barkley Saga.

CriscoKidd · Mar 21, 2008

I personally thought Shadow Hearts Covenant sucked. Ditto with skies of arcadia.

Games I'm surprised that are on there: Grandia(love that game) FF8(not that it's on there, but that it's so high, still, I like the game), and BoF dragon quarter(I'm actually playing through the game right now and it IS awesome, but the save system is a pain in the ass).

There's noteworthy ommisions, but eh, it's just some dudes opinion.

SuperStar · Mar 21, 2008

Where's
Secret of mana?
Lufia?
Shinning Force?

Apollo Creed · Mar 21, 2008

SuperStar said:

Where's
Secret of mana?
Lufia?
Shinning Force?
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I'm with you on 2 out of three...

Lufia had some kickass puzzles, but those games were terrible.

SuperStar · Mar 21, 2008

ops miss that bit about gameplay for secret of mana.

chow_yun_fat · Mar 21, 2008

A pity Vagrant Story isn't on the list.

RC Cola · Mar 21, 2008

CriscoKidd said:

Games I'm surprised that are on there: FF8(not that it's on there, but that it's so high, still, I like the game)
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The games aren't ranked. The numbers simply correspond to the order they appear in the article (intro on page 1, VP is first game listed, SMT Nocturne is 7th, FF5 is mentioned last). For all we know, FF5 is the author's favorite game and Valkyrie Profile just barely made the list.

SuperStar said:

ops miss that bit about gameplay for secret of mana.
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Shining Force would be out too, being a SRPG.

Seems like Lufia II was one of the games that got bumped to make room for all the separate spots needed for Final Fantasy games.

SuperStar · Mar 21, 2008

Apollo Creed said:

I'm with you on 2 out of three...

Lufia had some kickass puzzles, but those games were terrible.
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I love the story in Lufia. You start out as the first generation fighting the last boss on doom island and then you end the game as the second generation fighting the same last boss on doom island again!

Friend was wondering wheres Vagrant Story! lol

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