It's not even close. Persona 5 was already top 5 then the Royal edition completely cemented its position as my favorite JRPG ever made and one of my favorite games ever made.

Definitely can't separate this one from childhood nostalgia. This game gave me a love for dark science-fantasy and playing it evokes so many special memories.

If I wrote a JRPG, it would have looked a lot like this. In fact, it was kinda wild playing through this when my book was already mostly complete, since there are a lot of similarities in the setting and themes.

viiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiibe

My introduction to Falcom and Trails, and I still find it to be one of the most fun games in the series in terms of scenarios and characters.

It mixes three core elements of my childhood: rural living/murder mystery tv/JRPGs. It's almost too familiar at times, but I love it.

This game hit harder than it had any right to. The gameplay looks like it should play like a PS2 title, but it's surprisingly fluid. And the story would have been forgiven for just being a simple plot draped over the action, but no, it somehow struck emotional chords that I can't think of any other game doing for me. It made me realize that I actually love adventure stories.

This is the entry in the Trails series that made me realize just how deep the world building is and I love the purgatory-esque setting for the main plot and really love all the side stories.

Was a wonderful wrap-up to the Crossbell and Cold Steel arcs of Trails and once again featured a nice, tight main narrative and episodic side stories. Pretty much equal with Sky 3rd.

My introduction to tactics RPGs. Took me around 8 years to beat it. Looking back, I love all the hidden details in it. The newer ones lack the mystery, but that might be best for the newer players.

This entry was probably the single strongest title in the arc for me (even if I still favor 1 more). The characters were on point, the drama was deeper and more engaging, the gameplay was refined (though on replay, laughably broken once you figured out the trick), and that damn cliffhanger was wild.

This should probably be higher. It continues everything I love about Zero, I'm just super partial to the lower scale story of that one.

The music is great, the world is creative, and the story is wild. It's kind of hard to sum up what make Chrono Trigger so endearing. Just gotta play and find out.

A superb remake of the Midgard portion of FFVII. I think it captured what I loved about the original, made it look gorgeous, replaced the dated battle system with something fun and unique, and expanded on the parts of the original that were poorly explained the first time around. If the next chapters maintain the quality, this will be an even more amazing title.

This was the game of the GBA for me. Cool combat, plentiful secrets, a dramatic plot. Awesome game.

Gorgeous art style, a fun setting, and probably my favorite turn-based system invented. My only real problem with it is that the balance is kinda screwy at times, as in, it feels like you can really cheese some fights instead of having to engage with the breadth of the systems.

A step up in gameplay from Ys VIII and with its own fun new setting and cast. Objectively, I think this game is about on par with VIII, but VIII just hit harder so the story in this one doesn't shine quite as bright in comparison.

This game teased me for years as I could only play it at other people's houses if they had a SNES (which I didn't). Action JRPGs were a completely foreign concept to me until Sword of Mana finally came out. Eventually I did pick it up on the Wii virtual console. Not the greatest game of all time, but it still holds a bit of mysterious allure for me.

I love the setup for this title and the finale(s). The only reason I probably don't rate this one as high is that the character moments aren't quite as memorable for me. (but they're still good)

In the middle of revaluating this one. I love of the character interactions and overall mood of this one, but there were a few key moments that landed a bit flatter than they could have. Hajimari has made me rethink some things though, so we'll see.

Would it make sense to call something the Lord of the Rings of JRPGs? This game is so solid and does so many things well that it's almost too perfect for me. It's got romance, deep political drama, cool fantasy elements, good combat, and a really fleshed out world, and ANALACE.

The only reason it's this low is because it's just missing that one completely irrational hook that grabs me specifically.

VIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIBE
BRING ON THE RAAAAAIIIIIIIN

The very first JRPG I ever played. I was enthralled by the visuals and world design and a story that was at times fun and adventurous, and other times gloomy and deadly.

This game almost made 9 year old me cry somehow. I didn't know Pokemon games were allowed to have actual emotion behind them.

The game also had a bunch of esoteric mechanical depth that I loved.

An amazing opening scene, a total gut punch ending, lots of great characters and dialogue and world building.... but the gameplay systems are a bit too simplistic (fixed immediately in the sequel) and the moment-to-moment plot isn't very engaging for me.

Overall, worth it. Great music.

I have no idea what this game was about, but I keep thinking about it.

The presentation is a bit rough in this game, which is a shame because the intrigue is really good as you uncover it. The character drama is also really fun. The tactics gameplay is pretty addicting, though the mission design is pretty simplistic.

An alright open-world game for 10-20 hours, then it remembers that it wants to tell a story. The cast is fun, the visuals are super memorable, and there's a haunting charm to the narrative that makes me wanna go back and analyze it further. The open world just tends to get in the way.

I remember the plot of this game being intriguingly developed compared to the previous games, but hell if I remember what it was. The gameplay was nice and tight though. Super snappy.

A simple but effective action-rpg in the vein of Ys, but with more of the narrative focus one would expect from Trails. It doesn't reach the height of either, but it was memorable in its own right for me and I'm glad to have played it through.

Still need to actually finish it, but the doomsday messiah plot setup is really intriguing to me and... Lightning is hot.

A nice dark-fantasy with a great cast and a decently fun combat system. The opening does a really good job of getting you invested in the characters... I just have yet to finish it....

Don't fear the corridor, this is still a fun RPG. Also.... Lightning is hot.

Pokemon, but for some reason its borderline dystopic. Hell yeah.

I haven't played this one all the way through, but this game is kinda trippy and the plot was suprisingly detailed.

I know this is a really good game... but it always loses me when I try to get through it.

Goes even harder on the Waifu'ing than Awakening but the scenarios were tactically complex again, and I liked that.

The ushering of the age of Waifu Wars FE. Solid, way more approachable, and fun cast, but lost a bit of what made the older games special to me.

Pokemon, but a step up from last time.

It's a fun game.... not really much more to say than that. It's just a well rounded JRPG with a fun, lighthearted plot.

See above.

A light shining on my heaaaaart
A memory of forgotten loooooove
Rays burning through the clouds
DOWN FROM THE SKY- UP ABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVEEE

Pokemon Colosseum but with dorkier character designs and cooler mechanics.

A very, very pretty game with a pretty fun combat system, but the narrative is pretty disjointed and if it did take advantage of the eight protagonists thing, it had already lost me before it did. That said, I do feel like I should finish it eventually.

A really cool, interesting world, with wild Ocean themed art.... then there's Tidus's stupid jorts and I'm still having a really hard time getting past those.

Pokemon minus Silver's goat roster.

A very simple game, but actually really impressive for something from the 80's. Technically, I played the Chronicles remake, but aside from the graphical overhaul the game was the same. So, still impressed by the depth presented even for such a short title.

The Final Fantasy where combat is about tweaking AI behavior and turning the turbo as high as it'll go.
Interesting world and character designs, but I still need to get back to it sometime to finish the story.

"We'll take the second best Pokemon generation, remake it in 3D, add Pokemon that follow you on the map.... then slow everything down to 40% speed."

The fuck is happening in this game? Story is actually really cool because of that... the gameplay is not. Punishes you for being too high of a level, but that kind of doesn't matter because resource management is practically free, and.... I don't understand.

The most basic you can get, and I respect that.

These are funny games, but the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired for me.

See above.

A lesson in how to suck all the momentum out of every moment of gameplay.