1:42 - Lost Odyssey 4:07 - Vagrant Story 6:18 - Nier 9:20 - Vandal Hearts 11:37 - Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga 1&2 13:43 - Xenogears 16:16 - Yakuza: Like a Dragon 19:33 - Final Fantasy VI
FF VI was one of the best games ever made, too bad they can't tell stories like that any more due to wanting better graphics or some other nonsense instead.
@@donnyabner8446 I agree final fantasy 6 is my favorite in the series.I played it in the 90s when it came out I was like 8 or 9 n fell in love with it n beat it at the young age.I bought the ps1 version as well.
1:42: Lost Odyssey 4:06: Vagrant Story 6:18 Nier 9:20 Vandal hearts 11:36 Shin Megami Tensei/Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2 13:43 Xenogears 16:16 Yakuza: Like a Dragon 19:32 Final Fantasy 6
The saddest thing is that Xenogears as great as it is, is incomplete. The reason why the second disk goes into that weird story telling mode is because they ran out of time and were rushed to finish it so they just put something together. They had so much planned but couldn’t implement it and it breaks my heart.
Still think Xenogears was amazing. It is to this day the only RPG I can think of that successfully married Martial Arts, Melee weapons, Guns, Magic, and Gundam style Giant Robots while making it all work. The real shame is that Monolith Soft couldn't pull it off with Xenosaga.
This is half true. A lot of the staff were also pulled off of the team for _Final Fantasy Ⅷ,_ meaning that they could not complete the game as they originally intended.
Looks like there is some decent interest for it so we’ll definitely get to it at some point soon enough! We do have a few other video topics we wanna tackle first though
I wish we could get a Vagrant Story remaster. I feel like this game was almost incomplete story wise but it was so epic once I figured out what was going on. I really wish we could've had a sequel, or a remaster / remake of some sorts but sadly this game is sort of lost to time. 10/10 would recommend this game to anyone looking for an incredibly unique story, battle, and crafting system.
THIS 👆I mean, it screams for a remake with some added quality of life improvements. The story is awesome. They could easily start a series with a remake. …And Legacy of Kain (not JRPG though).
The game was incomplete in some ways. There are unused data files that hint at a more expanded game. I agree with you, I would love to see a remaster of Vagrant Story, however, I don't want SquareEnix to have ANYTHING to do with it. It is very conflicting.
I gotta say, Suikoden 2 has been really left behind as time marches on, but it's really one of the pinnacles of the genre, and absolutely one of the most mature stories you can get in a jrpg.
Totally agree. I just watched the video and expected Suikoden 2 (or even 1) till the very end. Very mature story with plenty of politics, issues of betrayal and loyalty and overall interesting lore and backstory.
Lost Odyssey for me was fantastic. Those little stories in the games that you can read are some of the most beautiful short stories I've ever read. Worth playing just to experience the amazing SL.
Mh...yeah it was not bad but most delusional thing was that the story doesn't show how and why the immortals are immortals. I remember that when I finished the game the only thing I was capable to think was:"Yeah, but why the hell there are this immortals? Where da hell they come from?" Man...I was so disappointed
Vagrant Story's complexity is subterfuge. As long as you're keeping your weapons upgraded, all you need is (1) a slashing weapon, (2) a crushing weapon, and (3) that attack add-on that increases PP. Keep your two weapons topped off on PP and you can hurt basically anything. In a pinch use gems/spells to increase type/elemental affinity.
Vagrant Story, the semi horror game that behaves like a Parasite Eve game with rpg elements, that also is connected to the Ivalice Universe from Final Fantasy franchise.
Solid video as always! While I would say the large majority of JRPGs feel like they're written more for teens than adults, that doesn't mean there isn't a substantial amount out there that feels more catered towards adults, nor that the ones that are aimed more at teens can't feel mature in their own way. Aside from the games you already mentioned, here are 8 other JRPGs I also think deserve a mention: - *Radiant Historia* - *Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean* - *Triangle Strategy* - *Suikoden II* - *Yakuza 0* - *Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance* - *Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits* - *Shadow Hearts: Covenant*
Thank you! Those are some solid picks as well. Some of them I did think about including on this list but a couple others I didn’t even consider like twilight of spirits which is a good one, it does get pretty dark at times from what I remember on Darc’s side
I would love a part 2! I’m currently playing Lost Odyssey having known nothing about it (but very quickly recognizing the Inoue character designs as I am a HUGE fan of his manga). As soon as I got to the first short story, I could tell I was in for a special game like nothing else I’d played or might ever play.
Recently been wanting to play some JRPGs that deal with heavier + more mature themes, and this was just the video I needed. I always look forward to your videos and this one didn't disappoint!
Trust me. if you can, play Lost Oddyssey. i don't care if you need to download an emulator to play it. you will not be disappointed if a heavier more mature theme is what you are after.
What? Persona 5 is an incredible game. Sounds to me like you just have shit taste. Seriously P5 deserved to be on this list. It has one of the best stories in any JRPG ever.
@@Yeaster why do you want or need to connect to them at all? It is ROLE PLAYING game, you suppose to ACT as something entirely different. I never understand this point. As if you can relate at 7 to character like Cloud, especially in his later parts of the story.
@Michael LochlannI just love when only argument people have is "cartoonish". The moment this word brought up as something bad, I can only imagine child at the age of 12-17 that can't stop crying and shouting, how he is an adult, so he can't play that good game everyone enjoy and must play that one with blood and realistic graphics just because...
Lol yeah I remember my mind being blown when I found out that Spoilers obviously The tower of babel was the giant spaceship from the intro, the huge superlaser is just a tiny turret from the ship, humans were literally created from the zohar, god is just a machine built by humans.. it's soooo good
It's a double edged-sword, having played Xenogears. I keep looking for other games with a similarly deep but can't find anything that comes anywhere close. Every time I hear about the "could've been" multipart Xenogears series, I die a little bit inside. 😂
@@ninototo1 spoilers: The machine is a flawed, fake god created by humans to imitate a seemingly godlike being which turns out to be a higher dimension phenomena of the Xenogears universe. It's a parallel to the creation myth in Gnosticism that our material human world is created by the works of a lower god (demiurge) trapping the divine of the non-material higher plane of reality (heaven) in a human body.
@@Btotts I would recommend the xenosaga trilogy, i haven't beaten the 3rd game yet, but the first 2 has a pretty deep, complex story,worldbuilding and arguably more fleshed out cast of characters.Gameplay wise, they have problems (especially 1)but they're the only games i've played which gives that xenogears feeling and complexity
@Edel Tamayo Facts. For as much as they added or expanded on FFVII, there are many *many* unneeded changes. Fighting Sephiroth after leaving Midgar and those dementor looking things? Yeah, hard pass.
I really enjoyed this list and would love a part two! I really would love to see JRPGs embrace not only mature topics, but especially mature casts. Lost Odyssey wasn’t perfect, but it was an absolute treat, especially watching the immortal characters deal with issues like family and loss.
I'd definitely like a part 2. I subbed because of this video. I'll mention a few below that I feel deserve a mention and reasons why. Xenoblade chronicles and XC2, Reason: these two games have young protagonists yes, but they do have other characters of varying ages with deep back stories with ability to play them and the writing is brilliant. The last Story Reason Coming in from mistwalker, the studio created by the legendary final fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. This had a very good story behind it with great pacing. Though the characters can come across as being quite young, I felt they struck a good balance of maturity and to me at least, I felt they where quite mature in age. Radiant Historia chronology Reason Now this one I'm still currently playing through, but is most definitely worth a mention. This sits up there with the likes of chrono trigger,ff7 and ff9. It had a time traveling, time line switching mechanic I haven't really seen before. You are presented with a number of choices through out the game and you have the ability to change that present and future, however this may lead you to go back to another timeline and prevent events that in that future, that the original event happened and changed and continued, to change the outcome of the other time line so that you may proceed. So far this has done this on a number of occasions and though that seems tedious, they have some how made it so it never gets boring. They never give any indication of what choice you make be bad or good before you choose. The writing is strong and they music is put of this world (one of my personal favorites along with chrono trigger and XC1 and XC2). Anybody reads my comment should download this on there 3DS now!! Honorable mentions Alliance Alive Oninaki Dragon quest 5 Dragon quest 11 Breath of Fire 1&2 Chrono Cross Trials of Mana (including remake) Ys origin
You're committing the same mistake than the author of this video: you're assuming that just because the protagonist is young ,the the story isn't mature. You can make a mature and deep story with teenagers and young characters. And just because the protagonist is a 40 year old doesn't necessarily mean that the story is mature.
Bro Vandal Hearts 2 is an hidden gem. The story is head and shoulders above 95% of RPGs. Back in the days people complained about the fighting system because it’s harder to play ( both you and the CPU move a unit at the same time)but once you get how it works and you set up traps, it becomes awesome. Vandal Hearts 1 is one of my favorite tactical RPGs, and VH2 is better.
For the part 2 i have to recommend a contender for best handheld rpg ever, Radiant Historia. A beautiful game with almost entirely adults focusing on an infamous special operative soldier in a steampunk fantasy world. Super mature time traveling story about war, rulership, and religion with very relatable characters, realistic dialogue and an ost by Yoko Shimamura. The time traveling is also incredibly well thought out having a timeline and everything. All that AND an in depth combat system that has great strategy to it. I love this game, and heavily recommend!
Agreed on all counts. That game is on my short list of the best in genre games of the past 2 decades. Jrpgs like that don't come around often anymore. In my opinion, it fits in with some of the all time snes greats like chrono trigger and ff6
Came here to recommend this. Literally one of the best traditional JRPGs ever made. One of the few games where it was adults doing adult things and wasn't 'mature' just by being grim dark or gratuitous either.
Ok now I have watched the entire thing - I have to say that I am so happy that Yakuza like a dragon is on this list. It is hands down one of the best RPGs I have played in recent memory. I know a lot of people loved it but it was my legit game of the year in 2020. Outside of that - I always enjoy how educational these videos are....Lost Odyssey was a complete unknown for me and now after watching this video I want to check it out. I see its Xbox backward compatible so I think I am going to pull the trigger! Part 2 would be awesome if you have the time to do it!
Always great to see more love for Like a Dragon. It was my 2020 game of the year as well. I hope you enjoy Lost Odyssey, it’s a fantastic game with a lot of things to love about it. And yeah there does seem to be some good interest for a part 2 so we’ll definitely get around to that soon enough after we cover a few more video topics first!
Here's my list of unfortunately forgotten great rpgs that I hope would be remade or a new entry although not all are mature in story lines -breathe of fire -legend of legaia -jade cocoon -xenogear -arc the lad -radiata knights -suikoden
Suikoden hasn't been forgotten, in fact there's a spiritual successor in the works thanks to a highly successful kickstarter. Look up Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, there's a platformer prequel based in the same world currently out but Hundred Heroes will be a full blown Suikoden style RPG.
I was born in France in 1983, so your words at the beginning of the video saying you will talk about old games brought me joy to my heart. I used to buy imported games like Xenogears, Chrono Cross, Legend of Mana, Valkyrie Profile, etc. ; and yes I said imported because these games were never released in France. I felt like an alien when I was a teenager because I was playing games my friends never heard of while they were playing Fifa. Please, make a part 2 !
I remember talking my mom into letting me buy Vandal Hearts. She didn't like the M rating but I said "look at the guys on the back. It's just cartoon violence" And she never cared about video game violence ever again.
i was glad to see vandal hearts on the list as i have very fond memories of the game. it was the first game i remember that had cursing in it- diego drops an s bomb at a dramatic turn in the story! i know it seems super mild these days, but back in the 90s it was almost shocking. good stuff.
@@youareivan hahaha I think I remember that. I was stoked to see Vandal hearts also. All my friends have never heard of it not Suikoden but those 2 were my favorite RPGs growing up
I loved vandal hearts. It was the second RPG game I got for PS1. The first was beyond the beyond. I was so excited foe vandal hearts 2 and they completely ruined it with the horrendously stupid simultaneous turn movement.
Japan is big on the whole "people vs Gods/Fate" story. A lot of JRPG stories will usually revolve around the main characters defying God, Fate, or Destiny in some way. One game that I do particularly love for it's story is Tales of Xillia. You play as a God that's been stripped of powers, and have to travel through a world that's essentially turned their back on God (you).
That makes nothing but pure sense. If you think about it Japan as an entire country had to, and did defy fate. They defied the fate that every other country & people on earth fell under & before ! The European colonial march destroyed every single grand but backwards empire on earth almost. Japan is the ONE & ONLY country that saw their fate and defied it. It took them no time at all to change themselves from a medieval empire destined to be crushed under the boot of the European powers into one of the greatest industrialized societies on earth. They even far surpassed and outstripped many of the colonizing countries. To this day and for decades Japan has been on the cusp of human ingenuity, doing better then half of Europe !!! Did I mention they went from a medieval society to fully industrialized and on the level of any European power in less then 50 years !? Defying fate is something Japan is good at !
My friends & I created an original RPG in high school using RPG maker 2000. Story was typical high school kids who get transported to a new world and go from trying to get home to being caught between armies and gods. It was a 250+ hour RPG.
@Renwoxing Sorry but your interpretation is very wrong and also your view of history and it is also very generalized against Europeans, whom you vilify. Almost every country and ALL empires did the whole conquest, colony and rule via trade things. Colonialism isn't just something Europeans have done. China expanded a lot and would invade countries refusing to pay the tribute they wanted. The position of the Chinese Emperors was to be ruler over the whole world and refused to accept any official relationship with countries that would not pretend to agree on thd nature of the relationship. Look at how they treated European diplomats. There were no attempts to colonize China or Japan but Portugal tried to gain influence via introducing Catholicism, which spread fast and wide on Kyushu for specific social conditions in Japan of that era, which had just emerged from a long period of infighting. And what did Japan do after that? Invade Korea, which only survived due to Chinese troops. Look at European literature or museums about that time and you will see Euro-Japanese relations were good until the third shogun, who banned Christianity and closed its doors to all but the Dutch at one harbor. Many European countries had no colonies at all. Germany began very late after Bismarck was removed (he was against colonialism) and got only tiny places or deserts (Namibia) and some remote islands. Your name sounds Chinese so I will also mention Tsingtau, where the Germans created the highest living standards in all of mainland Asia and was praised by the KMT/RoC founder Sun Yat-Sen as model for a modern Chinese city. It probably did so well because it was not a colony in the legal sense but mainly created to have a navy harbor in this geopolitically important area. After WWI, it was given to Japan, which would conquer many more countries. I love Japan and don't blame the people. It was also quite funny that America of all places punished Japan for expansionism lol. The UK is now getting colonized in the reverse. One could see it as irony but it just will cause more suffering. Almost forgot : the heroes going out and killing gods is a common JRPG trope but it's not a very old trope in Japanese writing in general. It has no more to do with history than any other trope. Japan did relatively well for quite some time in the isolation but things went down, Japanese people wanted smuggled Dutch knowledge in science. It was actually a blessing in disguise that it was forced to open trade. As Japan has long been a very civilized, industrious and also highly organized culture, it sent large groups of educated people all over the world to learn what is good about other countries and bring it home. It didn't take long for Japan to be on the same level as Western Europe and America.
@@Renwoxing13 They didn't "defy fate" when America atomized their people for being dickheads and invading China and slaughtering 300,000 people. They can't defy fate. They can't even defy the US checking them when they lose their minds with bloodlust.
One of the biggest tragedies is that xenogears is an incomplete game. The reason why the second disk changed to that weird story mode was because they ran out of time and couldn’t do everything they wanted and thus did that weird rush job so that they could have a finished product. It’s so sad.
@@chi7818 rushed at the end, yes. Incomplete, no. The story told is fully complete. But it is true they ran out time to develop disc 2 in the same fashion as disc 1. Thus the narrated stills told to us, instead of playable sequences. This was confirmed in an interview a while back by jason schrier. But the story is complete.
@@von4297 the story might have been complete since it was a finished product at the end but things like playing through the mutation and looking for fei we’re all things they wanted to implement but couldn’t. Thus we got pretty much a cliff notes of disk 2. This to me is incomplete. Don’t get me wrong, xenogears is a top 5 RPG of all time to me and I’ve played it more times than I can count but that’s what makes it so sad to me.
Oh man I gotta play Xenogears, it's been on my list for years but I'm holding out for hopefully a remake that finishes the story with the original presentation that was in mind for the last disc, since the team basically had to do an "okay here are the bare highlights you need to understand the story presented as walls of text, strung together by boss fights."
Following the heavily implied universe connection between Xenogears, Saga, and Blade in Xenoblade 3 Future Redeemed, my hope for this proposed remake has increased
It will never happen, Square soft still has the rights of the game and won t sell it to Monolith like never. You D better play the original instead of waiting
What you said at first had me hooked, born in 86 and so proud of the games we grew up with. Instead of thinking into the future we all need to go backwards. Just recently found your channel great work 👍🏼
If you all feel sad for the whole Xenogears saga, don't fret. Even if it isn't the exact universe/storyline, Takahashi has adapted most episodes of his Perfect Works in the other Xeno games, in essence if not in content. Xenogears is Episode V, Xenosaga 1-3 is Episode II (with a quick recap of Episode I), Xenoblade 2 Torna is Episode IV, and people suspect that Xenoblade 3 is going to be Episode VI.
Cool video! FF VI is a must play. Xenogears is one the most immersive games I've played. I wish I could see Xenogears 2... Now Vagrant Story, my god... the battle system is the real chalenge of the game, so hard that I dropped it, makes sense that is one of the inspirations for the creator of Sous games. Great vídeo, man!
When I got into my mid 20's I had this non-JRPG mentality over the basis of being way older than the protagonists. That I was too old to relate to them anymore. Then I had this epiphany a few years later; I was once this young. Just play and put yourself back in the metal shoes of that age. Then came along FFXV, who's very opening scene begins in the shoes of a character who was once young, but has reached the age and maturity of the gamers who grew up in the 90's. Clearly a nod from the devs to long-time gamers. That solidified my epiphany, and now in my 30's I play Pokemon with that exact mentality; I _was_ "this character," and a videogame is a mental time machine. Oh, and another rant if you'r'e still with me. The Xenoblade series. I love all Xeno works, but I really wish Takahashi would return to darker, more mature storytelling. Some speculate 'blade 3 will return to it, so I have my fingers crossed.
@@ml_serenity There was a fast travel system in the PC version that was some sort of upgrade to the original game. Are you talking about that version or the original game's version?
Absolute banger of a video, the best case I've ever heard made for Xenogears and I'm more tempted than ever before to finally play it. Been a JRPGer for... holy crap, 30 years -- and just never stumbled my way into playing it. All the other games? Some of my absolute favorites (especially including the hints of OB64 ;). Thanks for a great highlights Bro!
Thanks man! I’ve heard a lot of great things about Triangle Strategy so I’ll have to check it out eventually. The petty side of me just wishes they changed the name 😅
Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2 are probably my favourite SMT games over all. I'd love to see a remaster or at least some kind of digital (ha!) release on PSN, like they did with some other PS2 titles.
@@pn2294 yeah but it's the truth tho, most JRPG's nowdays have pretty juvenile plots, even games regarded as masterpieces by the community like Persona 5 are very naive in the way it approaches it's themes.
@@DZ-rt7hb did you actually play Persona 5? Plot may be far from best written, but juvenile? Plot about young people fighting against unjustful stereotypes in society? The one that openly ask older generation to listen to their children, not neglect them, not force them to be someone they can't. The same one that shows actual mental, physical and sexual abuse, corruption, overwork and burnout, speak about artist block, about mental health and showoff Japanese problematic law system and workaholic habits. It may be Persona and second weakest after P4 but it still Megaten and it still speak about ton of dark and serious things.
Lost Odyssey and Digital Devil Saga are a couple of games I've been meaning to play, but just haven't been able to with the consoles I have. I couldn't agree with you more about how amazing Nier's soundtrack is, especially the Replicant remake from last year. I love these suggestions and I'll be bumping up a few on my backlog when I want to dive into a more mature story. I am all for the more common JRPG stories about teenagers saving the world, but more mature stories are always a nice change of pace I think. Thanks for another great video guys!
Thanks for watching as always! Whenever you do get around to LO and DDS I think you’re in for a good time. LO I’m a little less optimistic about ever getting a re-release or port but I could see Atlus rereleasing some of the other older games in the future since Square seems to sorta be doing it now, one can only hope at least
@@GamingBroductions Yeah, I have a similar feeling about a LO port/rerelease. There's always the emulation route, but I'm going to be patient and wait. Thankfully there's so much still to play right now.
You forgot Front Mission 3..amazing story about war with 2 completely different pathways (almost like 2 different games in one)..great job otherwise! Part 2 please 👏👏👏
Lost Odyssey is easily my favorite JRPG ever. The story is really good, the characters are well developed, the game mechanics are fun and rewarding and the soundtrack is simply captivating. I still have good memories of playing this game with my older brother and I remember how much fun we had. If you're an rpg fan, I can't recommend it enough.
Just an addendum to Yakuza 7, these games are written by published crime novelists and vetted by real Yakuza for the accuracy to the world. Paints an even starker contrast to the goofy, bombastic characters and sidequests with that context in mind, and serves to further your point of mature narratives. Also a brilliant exercise in trope subversion with the metacommentary to JRPG fans for things like Ichiban’s ‘legendary sword’ and the explanation for his perception of combat being he grew up playing DQ
it truly makes me SO happy to have my childhood validated w appreciation for shadow hearts. i’ve never met a single person who knows about that series and i still listen to the OST avidly 15 years later
Vandal hearts! Such a fantastic turn based rpg. The class choices upon leveling up was great to see about creating a strong team and made choice feel meaningful. I never played vandal hearts 2, but one day I'll see about it.
Vandal Hearts 2 might have the best tactical battle system, period. It's love or hate and usually hate 'cause people don't get it. Units move simultaneously in ally - enemy pairs so an enemy can move out of your attack in real time. But you can do so as well. If you manage to predict which unit moves you can take advantage of it. And it isn't actually random. This is the tactical rpg that keeps you on your toes with tension every turn you take. Like no other. Do try it if only to make an opinion.
I enjoyed the systems in VH2 as well, it is just that I felt that the actual battle map scenarios seemed to be a bit more interesting in the first one. I recall there were perhaps a lot more larger ones in VH2 but that itself was not an improvement. But VH1 was only the second JPRG I ever played so I am probably a bit biased towards it.
I finished it back in the late 90s (when it was released), and even though I eventually found out how to cheese most battles, I enjoyed it less than VH1. One thing I remember is that you just have to focus your fire on enemies who recently had their turn. That way, since their next turn won't come too soon, there's no way they'll evade your attacks. And I think I also learned how to consistently avoid enemies' attacks.
As I get older more serious stories are becaming a must, outside the list I would say Suikoden 2 and 3 for their war stories; while a minority I really like Dragon Quarter, not only the game, but the story that comes with it, can be somewhat cryptic in some of its details and even somewhat philosophic; and Trails in the Sky the 3rd, the main story is great and kinda dark without being edge, not to mention the side story from a certain Door
100% agree. Those are some solid picks out of the ones I’ve played, never got around to Dragon Quarter though. I was tempted to include a Suikoden game but I was already talking about a lot of games from that era so figured I would just save it
The Xeno games were and still are to some extent my jam, The 3rd seems to get a bad rep among some of the fan, the lack of towns didnt make like the game less, actually is very refreshing for the series. Dragon quarter though I suppose one need to go with open mind lol, is possible to beat without doing a hard restart if you are careful on battle, other wise you might need to do at least 1 time
@@rudidellama3718 Dragon Quarter is my favourite BoF game. In my last two playthroughs, I was able to beat it without dying. The Gensou Suikoden series as a whole is fantastic imo. I love the dark story for IV and Tactics even though I haven't beaten Tactics. I and II are my favourites, but to me, III is only second place to II in terms of design. V having the longest story out of them had a lot of cool places to explore and it was great to see variety in the locations as well as having a great major battle system and regular battle system.
I like how you put the first two games in the thumbnail first, a subtle gesture, but one that made me watch the entire video 👍plus I have basically the same taste in my jrpgs and rpgs. Ffxiv has combined the elements if the story into their expansions and also added many of the former ff storylines to the game. Damn I love that game.
Vandal Hearts 2 is darker with a slant towards realistic rather than fantasy dark elements but has more political intrigue and has some choices early on that decides the ending you get that are not obvious. The Hero is more gritty and flawed, sometimes more an anti-hero. It plays closer to FF Tactics in story, but the hero is of peasant birth I think. Overall good but its not as simple as the original which is both a plus and a minus. No connections to the original that I can recall besides the name.
Yep. In my opinion, Vandal Hearts II would have been the definitive experience if it was visually like the first game (I love the backdrops, but I am referring to the battle animations, character models and character portraits which granted is my opinion) and the gameplay was like the first, but just with additions rather than trying to change it. The story and music are so good.
How old are you, bro? I´ve watched like ten videos of you and I feel deeply represented (I´m 31 in 2023). Thanks for great memories. Help me remember what a great youth I had. My father was a avid JRPG gamer and I played a lot with him first, then alone. He died in december 2022 and this videos bring me so great memories. Thank you!
I really want it to be ported to the pc. So frustrating that this game is being left behind in the dust. I shouldn't have to dust off my old 360 to play this game again.
@@cruelwraith2games926 I don't own an Xbox one. Most xbox games are available on pc as well, but Lost Odyssey has remained forgotten. Besides, backwards compatibility for this game is not the same as having it re-released for modern systems.
Aight, I was enjoying this video, but when Vandal Hearts hit, I subscribed. Loved that one, especially that haunting vocal intro song, and Eleni. Nice content! Didn't play the sequel.
honestly i agree. now im 31 and going back to playing some rpgs and books i've read in my younger years, i've enjoyed them more but in a different way since now im older and have a better understand of life that i appreciate the story that i didnt quite understand the deepness and emotions that truly tied into the story in my earlier years.
That’s why I loved god of war so much. Because I’m a father myself and I definitely related more to Kratos than say a teen JRPG protagonist . Even though I love a bunch of Jrpgs personally.
For sure, I think that aspect resonated with a lot of older gamers. It’s no surprise that stories of that nature like in God of War and The Last of Us were so popular
There are actually no licensing issues with Xenogears. Its creator is no longer at the company, but the property itself is still very much SE's, just as Xenosaga is still Bandai Namco's. SE just isn't interested in pursuing newer entries because they weren't very invested in making more products for IPs that weren't nearly as profitable as FF (this can be attributed to Wada's change in direction back in early 2002 after becoming CEO in late 2001). In more recent years, SE is willing to work on remasters and remakes for more niche titles as of late, but doing full-fledged sequels (especially ones with modern day assets) is an undertaking they probably aren't interested in unless it's some smaller budget production.
I loved Vagrant Story. It had one of the most interesting twists at the end. I remember it being the first time that I can recall that particular twist regarding the overall plot, the motivations of the antagonist, etc. It was REALLY good. I loved that game
Would have liked to have seen Final Fantasy Tactics on the list. It has, in my opinion, the best cast of characters and most thought provoking story in the series. Still a great list though.
i owned "Lost Odyssey" while i never got to finish the game due to unfortunate circumstances, I do not regret this puchace at all. what REALLY makes the game is those memories. let me tell you this. some of these stories made me tear up. it the ambiance of them. the way thya have environmental sound and the music matching the tone of the story, this music changes with the memory as it progresses. All of this combined really brings those memories to life, it is almost as if you are remembering them yourself. Trust me. this game is worth it for the memories alone. Even without the memories, which are a major part of the game and reveal the background of the characters they belong to, the story of the game is very rich and deep. it is a bit meloncoly, but amazing nonetheless.
The Nier replicant version extending past the text box was amazing lol. As a 37 year old who began around the same time as you, I agree with this list. 👍 If I were to tack on some others I'd say Front Mission 3 and FF XII.
Dude, I'm a subscriber to anyone who has two of the most underrated jrpgs of all time (vandal hearts and lost odyssey). I am glad they are getting the recognition they did not get when they first released.
As a man of a certain age I very much enjoyed this list. Such a good list especially seeing FF6 on here. One of the greatest games ever in my opinion. Will be looking forward to a part 2 of this list
As another guy of a certain age I have to say that while I REALLY enjoyed a lot of JRPGs back in the day it was FFVI that REALLY blew me away. Hearing my SNES trying to play opera... That score is lit hands down one of the best OSTs out there. The game is sublime.
6:55 actually, Japan got both versions of the game. The game we got in the west was I believe the Xbox 360 version Japan got called Nier Gestalt. The remaster that came out just recently was Nier Replicent, the Japanese ps3 exclusive.
I'm 16 and a big rpg nerd and i can confidently say Lost Odyssey is easily my favorite game of all time. Dang those thousand years of dreams. And geez the battle system, music, story, dungepns, and side content! Final Fantasy VI is ironically my sixth favorite rpg lol. Such a good game! Probably would be higher if i wasn't a paper mario fanatic haha
man.... final fantasy 6 and parasite eve. what a time to remember. set the bar so high nothing has beaten those ever since. i still go back to those and play em once in a while
Oh yeah I forgot about Panzer Dragoon Saga (I even beat it again last year) definitely a unique game both in design and story, Front Mission 2 I will wait until the Forever Entertainment remake, they might not do something amazing visually, but from their 2 recent remaster/remakes you can tell that they put alot of care into
Will you make a video on the trials in the sky trilogy games in the future? They are the first deep jrpgs I have ever played,and I still have enjoyed any jrpg like the trials in the sky since.
Would love to eventually cover that trilogy in more depth, can’t necessarily promise when as there’s a lot of other RPGs I still wanna cover from that generation as well but it is something we’ll likely do at some point. Those games really impressed me with their incredibly deep lore and world building at a time where I thought I had already played all the classics from that era, I’ll still never forget the ending of the first one and how it totally took me by surprise In the meantime I’ve talked about them in some videos before, our video about RPGs that capture the spirit of adventure being the most recent example
I am here because your thumbnail was vagrant story and lost odyssey, my thoughts, "I'll give you my ear for a moment. 🤔" Edit: IT'S THE SAME IVALICE!? My guy, you got a new sub. 😁 Edit 2: FF6 is the best in the series, I feel, for legit all of the points you presented. So good.
Nice, thanks for watching and subbing! And yeah FFVI is timeless for sure. I don’t have the same nostalgia for it as a lot of others due to not playing it as a kid but I can still fully appreciate not only how groundbreaking it was for the time but how well it still holds up
Xenogears is my All time Favorite JRPG From the Ps1, Maybe even All time??? I get goosebumps just hearing that all too Familiar Music start up, right at the Beginning!! Love that Game!
Lost Odyssey is an underrated gem that needs to be experienced. I only made it up to the electric wurm boss but man was I hooked. Still have my copy complete with no console to play it on. FFXIII and XIII2 also slapped and were underrated.
Vandal Hearts is the game that made me decide buying a PS1. I finished it three times ! As for Xenogears, I had played the japanese demo and fell in love on the spot. The game was not released in Europe, so once I knew the game was released in the USA, I went every morning to the videogame shop to ask if they had recieved it and on the day they got it, they kept it in store for me. I feel truly lucky to have had the chance to play these games at that time.
Great list! I can definitely vouche for Lost Odyssey, Vagrant Story, Nier, Xenogears, FF6, and Yakuza LaD... Vandal Hearts is a fine addition to this list - for what the theme is - but I always preferred FF Tactics and, even more so, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (at least the PSP remaster/remake, never played the SNES original) - of course, you acknowledge why you opted for VH over those two since you've talked about them a lot. The rest have been on my "To Play" lists for years.
@@macielaguilarochoa8832 Dude, come on. I obviously meant the game that is shown a millisecond after the 0:50 mark. If I was referring to FFT, why would I timestamp the very last possible frame of its clip?
I agree with most of these, especially Lost Odyssey, Vagrant Story, & the unfinished Xenogears. I am surprised to not see a few on here (which're connected), and that's Shadow Hearts 1 & 2, & even Koudelka. What's more, is they're based on real places & a few people, such as Roger Bacon. Great choices, as most of these are ones I'd have picked, as well, including Nier. The Digital Devil Saga games have been years. I might hafta re-play 'em to jog my memory.
You nailed that list for sure. I haven't played yakuza yet and I'm about to start bier finally and maybe shin megami soon but the rest is perfect, from ff6 to xenogears and vandal hearth (my fav trpg personally, not too complex, great story and visual, and I loved the blood spray everytime with the sword swings lol). Lost odyssey was great too on Xbox, but man the difficulty was high.. Vagrant story I never managed to finish back on ps1, I loved everything about the visual aspect but the game is too hard and complex for me sadly.. Might watch a full playthrough though 👍
Thank you for watching our videos! Join our Patreon and get access to our chill Discord. ~ www.patreon.com/gamingbroductions~
1:42 - Lost Odyssey
4:07 - Vagrant Story
6:18 - Nier
9:20 - Vandal Hearts
11:37 - Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga 1&2
13:43 - Xenogears
16:16 - Yakuza: Like a Dragon
19:33 - Final Fantasy VI
FF VI was one of the best games ever made, too bad they can't tell stories like that any more due to wanting better graphics or some other nonsense instead.
@@donnyabner8446 I agree final fantasy 6 is my favorite in the series.I played it in the 90s when it came out I was like 8 or 9 n fell in love with it n beat it at the young age.I bought the ps1 version as well.
@@donnyabner8446 FF6 needs a remake so bad
Lost Odyssey was awesome I remember playing it back when it came out and I was so impressed by it.
@@nairbdelrey1561 facts
1:42: Lost Odyssey
4:06: Vagrant Story
6:18 Nier
9:20 Vandal hearts
11:36 Shin Megami Tensei/Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2
13:43 Xenogears
16:16 Yakuza: Like a Dragon
19:32 Final Fantasy 6
Pin this shit @Gaming Broductions
Nice vid btw
Thank you so much
Thank you sir, this needs to be pinned
@@soleil2947 read description
The saddest thing is that Xenogears as great as it is, is incomplete. The reason why the second disk goes into that weird story telling mode is because they ran out of time and were rushed to finish it so they just put something together. They had so much planned but couldn’t implement it and it breaks my heart.
Still think Xenogears was amazing. It is to this day the only RPG I can think of that successfully married Martial Arts, Melee weapons, Guns, Magic, and Gundam style Giant Robots while making it all work. The real shame is that Monolith Soft couldn't pull it off with Xenosaga.
Man what a convoluted mess the story was. They should of rewrote it.
@@LordEcks Monolith soft! the same soft that made xenoblade chronicals?
@@Argonisgema yes its the same people
This is half true. A lot of the staff were also pulled off of the team for _Final Fantasy Ⅷ,_ meaning that they could not complete the game as they originally intended.
Yes, please do a part 2! :)
Maybe, Parasyte Eve in second part? 🤩
I'm down for part 2 toooooo
Looks like there is some decent interest for it so we’ll definitely get to it at some point soon enough! We do have a few other video topics we wanna tackle first though
I second the motion ❤
Up
I wish we could get a Vagrant Story remaster. I feel like this game was almost incomplete story wise but it was so epic once I figured out what was going on. I really wish we could've had a sequel, or a remaster / remake of some sorts but sadly this game is sort of lost to time.
10/10 would recommend this game to anyone looking for an incredibly unique story, battle, and crafting system.
THIS 👆I mean, it screams for a remake with some added quality of life improvements. The story is awesome. They could easily start a series with a remake.
…And Legacy of Kain (not JRPG though).
Could Ashley and Sidney wear clothes this time?
Well it's a part of Ivalice World so it still as a chance as many people loves Ivalice.
Yeah, and with real-time controls. Because the original game's controls suck shit.
The game was incomplete in some ways. There are unused data files that hint at a more expanded game. I agree with you, I would love to see a remaster of Vagrant Story, however, I don't want SquareEnix to have ANYTHING to do with it. It is very conflicting.
I gotta say, Suikoden 2 has been really left behind as time marches on, but it's really one of the pinnacles of the genre, and absolutely one of the most mature stories you can get in a jrpg.
Yes. It's my #1 favorite game of all time, and it should have been on here.
Totally agree. I just watched the video and expected Suikoden 2 (or even 1) till the very end.
Very mature story with plenty of politics, issues of betrayal and loyalty and overall interesting lore and backstory.
@@Luki81990 Suikoden 1 & 2, Tactics Ogre: LUCT and FF Tactics are all amazing mature stories on war!
Yes! And also Suikoden 3
Suikoden 1+2 HD remasters coming Spring 2023!!!!
Lost Odyssey for me was fantastic. Those little stories in the games that you can read are some of the most beautiful short stories I've ever read. Worth playing just to experience the amazing SL.
I agree 100% one made me tear up pretty good tbh
@@Mercilesswon there was one in the beginning that had me in tears
Those were written by a professional Japanese novelist, so yeah, they hit different for sure.
The soundtrack so good too
Mh...yeah it was not bad but most delusional thing was that the story doesn't show how and why the immortals are immortals. I remember that when I finished the game the only thing I was capable to think was:"Yeah, but why the hell there are this immortals? Where da hell they come from?" Man...I was so disappointed
Xenogears is my favorite RPG of all time.
The story is so unique and wild, you can't really compare it to anything else.
What about NGE?
Yeah... and it's still that great despite. If only we could experience it as it should ahve been!
Xenogears deserved to be a remake but actually extended instead of cut short.
Vagrant Story's complexity is subterfuge. As long as you're keeping your weapons upgraded, all you need is (1) a slashing weapon, (2) a crushing weapon, and (3) that attack add-on that increases PP. Keep your two weapons topped off on PP and you can hurt basically anything. In a pinch use gems/spells to increase type/elemental affinity.
Vagrant Story, the semi horror game that behaves like a Parasite Eve game with rpg elements, that also is connected to the Ivalice Universe from Final Fantasy franchise.
@@MyNameisRevenant I believe Lea Monde is mentioned in FFXIV's Ivalice storyline. I believe they are in the same universe, just different timelines.
Still hoping for a remake. This game is easily top 3 in PS1 masterpieces.
@@Sheishi_Games absolutely, same ivalice, different timeliness
Solid video as always! While I would say the large majority of JRPGs feel like they're written more for teens than adults, that doesn't mean there isn't a substantial amount out there that feels more catered towards adults, nor that the ones that are aimed more at teens can't feel mature in their own way. Aside from the games you already mentioned, here are 8 other JRPGs I also think deserve a mention:
- *Radiant Historia*
- *Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean*
- *Triangle Strategy*
- *Suikoden II*
- *Yakuza 0*
- *Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance*
- *Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits*
- *Shadow Hearts: Covenant*
Thank you! Those are some solid picks as well. Some of them I did think about including on this list but a couple others I didn’t even consider like twilight of spirits which is a good one, it does get pretty dark at times from what I remember on Darc’s side
I would love a part 2!
I’m currently playing Lost Odyssey having known nothing about it (but very quickly recognizing the Inoue character designs as I am a HUGE fan of his manga). As soon as I got to the first short story, I could tell I was in for a special game like nothing else I’d played or might ever play.
God, some of those stories really break your heart, that little girl in the first story is fun, but sad.
It is like nothing you will ever play. Especially since Mistwalker is making mobile games only now.
Recently been wanting to play some JRPGs that deal with heavier + more mature themes, and this was just the video I needed. I always look forward to your videos and this one didn't disappoint!
Love to hear that, glad we were able to come in with the clutch timing. Also we just saw that you joined the Patreon as well, thanks a lot dude!
Trust me. if you can, play Lost Oddyssey. i don't care if you need to download an emulator to play it. you will not be disappointed if a heavier more mature theme is what you are after.
After Persona 5, I was afraid I was maybe outgrowing the genre, but Yakuza 7 pretty much reignited my love for RPGs. One of my favorite casts ever
@Michael Lochlann I mean Dragon Quest is literally like a fairy tale, you're not supposed to take it seriously. I appreciate it for what it is
What? Persona 5 is an incredible game. Sounds to me like you just have shit taste. Seriously P5 deserved to be on this list. It has one of the best stories in any JRPG ever.
@Michael Lochlann Persona 5 was wonderful but at 34, it's getting harder for me to connect to high schoolers
@@Yeaster why do you want or need to connect to them at all? It is ROLE PLAYING game, you suppose to ACT as something entirely different. I never understand this point. As if you can relate at 7 to character like Cloud, especially in his later parts of the story.
@Michael LochlannI just love when only argument people have is "cartoonish". The moment this word brought up as something bad, I can only imagine child at the age of 12-17 that can't stop crying and shouting, how he is an adult, so he can't play that good game everyone enjoy and must play that one with blood and realistic graphics just because...
To this day, Xenogears still has the best story I have ever played
Lol yeah I remember my mind being blown when I found out that
Spoilers obviously
The tower of babel was the giant spaceship from the intro, the huge superlaser is just a tiny turret from the ship, humans were literally created from the zohar, god is just a machine built by humans.. it's soooo good
It's a double edged-sword, having played Xenogears. I keep looking for other games with a similarly deep but can't find anything that comes anywhere close. Every time I hear about the "could've been" multipart Xenogears series, I die a little bit inside. 😂
@@ninototo1 spoilers:
The machine is a flawed, fake god created by humans to imitate a seemingly godlike being which turns out to be a higher dimension phenomena of the Xenogears universe. It's a parallel to the creation myth in Gnosticism that our material human world is created by the works of a lower god (demiurge) trapping the divine of the non-material higher plane of reality (heaven) in a human body.
@@Btotts I would recommend the xenosaga trilogy, i haven't beaten the 3rd game yet, but the first 2 has a pretty deep, complex story,worldbuilding and arguably more fleshed out cast of characters.Gameplay wise, they have problems (especially 1)but they're the only games i've played which gives that xenogears feeling and complexity
@@ninototo1 well human is sparepart to fix deus aka a rogue ai mixed with higher dimensional being.
Vagrant Story is one of the greatest games of all time. Hope they'll make a remaster one day.
@Edel Tamayo what a terrible Take
@Edel Tamayo nothing to do with that. Calling it terrible is Just plain wrong, sry
@Edel Tamayo you left it out for the world to Read, friend ^^
The pacing was god awful but everything else ?
The Best
@Edel Tamayo Facts.
For as much as they added or expanded on FFVII, there are many *many* unneeded changes.
Fighting Sephiroth after leaving Midgar and those dementor looking things? Yeah, hard pass.
Parasite Eve 1 definitely deserve to be on the next list. I love this list, and hope for more content
I remember my mom watching me fight against Eve in her final form (which is completely nikked) in around 2000s lol when I was like 6th grader
I really enjoyed this list and would love a part two! I really would love to see JRPGs embrace not only mature topics, but especially mature casts. Lost Odyssey wasn’t perfect, but it was an absolute treat, especially watching the immortal characters deal with issues like family and loss.
I'd definitely like a part 2. I subbed because of this video. I'll mention a few below that I feel deserve a mention and reasons why.
Xenoblade chronicles and XC2,
Reason:
these two games have young protagonists yes, but they do have other characters of varying ages with deep back stories with ability to play them and the writing is brilliant.
The last Story
Reason
Coming in from mistwalker, the studio created by the legendary final fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. This had a very good story behind it with great pacing. Though the characters can come across as being quite young, I felt they struck a good balance of maturity and to me at least, I felt they where quite mature in age.
Radiant Historia chronology
Reason
Now this one I'm still currently playing through, but is most definitely worth a mention. This sits up there with the likes of chrono trigger,ff7 and ff9. It had a time traveling, time line switching mechanic I haven't really seen before. You are presented with a number of choices through out the game and you have the ability to change that present and future, however this may lead you to go back to another timeline and prevent events that in that future, that the original event happened and changed and continued, to change the outcome of the other time line so that you may proceed. So far this has done this on a number of occasions and though that seems tedious, they have some how made it so it never gets boring. They never give any indication of what choice you make be bad or good before you choose. The writing is strong and they music is put of this world (one of my personal favorites along with chrono trigger and XC1 and XC2). Anybody reads my comment should download this on there 3DS now!!
Honorable mentions
Alliance Alive
Oninaki
Dragon quest 5
Dragon quest 11
Breath of Fire 1&2
Chrono Cross
Trials of Mana (including remake)
Ys origin
You're committing the same mistake than the author of this video: you're assuming that just because the protagonist is young ,the the story isn't mature. You can make a mature and deep story with teenagers and young characters. And just because the protagonist is a 40 year old doesn't necessarily mean that the story is mature.
@@eduardorpg64 no
Bro Vandal Hearts 2 is an hidden gem. The story is head and shoulders above 95% of RPGs. Back in the days people complained about the fighting system because it’s harder to play ( both you and the CPU move a unit at the same time)but once you get how it works and you set up traps, it becomes awesome. Vandal Hearts 1 is one of my favorite tactical RPGs, and VH2 is better.
I was one of those people... and I still am lol the combat
I absolutely love it. Don't really know why, but the love story there moved me deeply.
For the part 2 i have to recommend a contender for best handheld rpg ever, Radiant Historia. A beautiful game with almost entirely adults focusing on an infamous special operative soldier in a steampunk fantasy world. Super mature time traveling story about war, rulership, and religion with very relatable characters, realistic dialogue and an ost by Yoko Shimamura. The time traveling is also incredibly well thought out having a timeline and everything. All that AND an in depth combat system that has great strategy to it. I love this game, and heavily recommend!
Agreed on all counts. That game is on my short list of the best in genre games of the past 2 decades. Jrpgs like that don't come around often anymore. In my opinion, it fits in with some of the all time snes greats like chrono trigger and ff6
@@jmarx3943 oh hell yeah, big agree
Came here to recommend this. Literally one of the best traditional JRPGs ever made. One of the few games where it was adults doing adult things and wasn't 'mature' just by being grim dark or gratuitous either.
Ok now I have watched the entire thing - I have to say that I am so happy that Yakuza like a dragon is on this list. It is hands down one of the best RPGs I have played in recent memory. I know a lot of people loved it but it was my legit game of the year in 2020.
Outside of that - I always enjoy how educational these videos are....Lost Odyssey was a complete unknown for me and now after watching this video I want to check it out. I see its Xbox backward compatible so I think I am going to pull the trigger!
Part 2 would be awesome if you have the time to do it!
Always great to see more love for Like a Dragon. It was my 2020 game of the year as well.
I hope you enjoy Lost Odyssey, it’s a fantastic game with a lot of things to love about it. And yeah there does seem to be some good interest for a part 2 so we’ll definitely get around to that soon enough after we cover a few more video topics first!
@@GamingBroductions Lost Odyssey was good, and Like A Dragon was amazing. I'm glad the main series will be continuing as turn based games as well.
A shame grind was needed
@@Exel3nce You must not have played many JRPGs, asd it's a rare one that doesn't require grinding at least in a small way, if not in a major way.
@@thelastmotel seems like you never played a yakuza game, which isnt part of your typical rpg that needs grind
Digital devil saga are some of the best mature RPGs of all time....I want them to start these back...so damn good
I’d rather Nocturne be showcased instead of DDS.
Here's my list of unfortunately forgotten great rpgs that I hope would be remade or a new entry although not all are mature in story lines
-breathe of fire
-legend of legaia
-jade cocoon
-xenogear
-arc the lad
-radiata knights
-suikoden
I wish radiates stories had a remaster. So fun having 176 recruitable characters
Suikoden hasn't been forgotten, in fact there's a spiritual successor in the works thanks to a highly successful kickstarter.
Look up Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, there's a platformer prequel based in the same world currently out but Hundred Heroes will be a full blown Suikoden style RPG.
@@flarpman2233 Yeah I know. but the lore is different. The suikoden games were all connected
I was born in France in 1983, so your words at the beginning of the video saying you will talk about old games brought me joy to my heart.
I used to buy imported games like Xenogears, Chrono Cross, Legend of Mana, Valkyrie Profile, etc. ; and yes I said imported because these games were never released in France. I felt like an alien when I was a teenager because I was playing games my friends never heard of while they were playing Fifa.
Please, make a part 2 !
Feel you. So many great games were not released in Europe. Missed completely out on Chrono Trigger.
I remember talking my mom into letting me buy Vandal Hearts. She didn't like the M rating but I said "look at the guys on the back. It's just cartoon violence" And she never cared about video game violence ever again.
i was glad to see vandal hearts on the list as i have very fond memories of the game. it was the first game i remember that had cursing in it- diego drops an s bomb at a dramatic turn in the story! i know it seems super mild these days, but back in the 90s it was almost shocking. good stuff.
@@youareivan hahaha I think I remember that. I was stoked to see Vandal hearts also. All my friends have never heard of it not Suikoden but those 2 were my favorite RPGs growing up
I loved vandal hearts. It was the second RPG game I got for PS1. The first was beyond the beyond. I was so excited foe vandal hearts 2 and they completely ruined it with the horrendously stupid simultaneous turn movement.
Japan is big on the whole "people vs Gods/Fate" story. A lot of JRPG stories will usually revolve around the main characters defying God, Fate, or Destiny in some way.
One game that I do particularly love for it's story is Tales of Xillia. You play as a God that's been stripped of powers, and have to travel through a world that's essentially turned their back on God (you).
That makes nothing but pure sense.
If you think about it Japan as an entire country had to, and did defy fate.
They defied the fate that every other country & people on earth fell under & before !
The European colonial march destroyed every single grand but backwards empire on earth almost.
Japan is the ONE & ONLY country that saw their fate and defied it.
It took them no time at all to change themselves from a medieval empire destined to be crushed under the boot of the European powers into one of the greatest industrialized societies on earth. They even far surpassed and outstripped many of the colonizing countries. To this day and for decades Japan has been on the cusp of human ingenuity, doing better then half of Europe !!!
Did I mention they went from a medieval society to fully industrialized and on the level of any European power in less then 50 years !?
Defying fate is something Japan is good at !
My friends & I created an original RPG in high school using RPG maker 2000. Story was typical high school kids who get transported to a new world and go from trying to get home to being caught between armies and gods. It was a 250+ hour RPG.
@Renwoxing Sorry but your interpretation is very wrong and also your view of history and it is also very generalized against Europeans, whom you vilify. Almost every country and ALL empires did the whole conquest, colony and rule via trade things. Colonialism isn't just something Europeans have done. China expanded a lot and would invade countries refusing to pay the tribute they wanted. The position of the Chinese Emperors was to be ruler over the whole world and refused to accept any official relationship with countries that would not pretend to agree on thd nature of the relationship. Look at how they treated European diplomats. There were no attempts to colonize China or Japan but Portugal tried to gain influence via introducing Catholicism, which spread fast and wide on Kyushu for specific social conditions in Japan of that era, which had just emerged from a long period of infighting. And what did Japan do after that? Invade Korea, which only survived due to Chinese troops. Look at European literature or museums about that time and you will see Euro-Japanese relations were good until the third shogun, who banned Christianity and closed its doors to all but the Dutch at one harbor. Many European countries had no colonies at all. Germany began very late after Bismarck was removed (he was against colonialism) and got only tiny places or deserts (Namibia) and some remote islands. Your name sounds Chinese so I will also mention Tsingtau, where the Germans created the highest living standards in all of mainland Asia and was praised by the KMT/RoC founder Sun Yat-Sen as model for a modern Chinese city. It probably did so well because it was not a colony in the legal sense but mainly created to have a navy harbor in this geopolitically important area. After WWI, it was given to Japan, which would conquer many more countries.
I love Japan and don't blame the people. It was also quite funny that America of all places punished Japan for expansionism lol.
The UK is now getting colonized in the reverse. One could see it as irony but it just will cause more suffering.
Almost forgot : the heroes going out and killing gods is a common JRPG trope but it's not a very old trope in Japanese writing in general. It has no more to do with history than any other trope.
Japan did relatively well for quite some time in the isolation but things went down, Japanese people wanted smuggled Dutch knowledge in science. It was actually a blessing in disguise that it was forced to open trade. As Japan has long been a very civilized, industrious and also highly organized culture, it sent large groups of educated people all over the world to learn what is good about other countries and bring it home. It didn't take long for Japan to be on the same level as Western Europe and America.
@@Renwoxing13 They didn't "defy fate" when America atomized their people for being dickheads and invading China and slaughtering 300,000 people.
They can't defy fate.
They can't even defy the US checking them when they lose their minds with bloodlust.
Xenogears is a masterpiece. Still one of my favorite games.
One of the biggest tragedies is that xenogears is an incomplete game. The reason why the second disk changed to that weird story mode was because they ran out of time and couldn’t do everything they wanted and thus did that weird rush job so that they could have a finished product. It’s so sad.
One of the greatest stories ever told! Been over 20 years and I still remember every story beat with stark clarity.
@@chi7818 rushed at the end, yes. Incomplete, no. The story told is fully complete. But it is true they ran out time to develop disc 2 in the same fashion as disc 1. Thus the narrated stills told to us, instead of playable sequences. This was confirmed in an interview a while back by jason schrier. But the story is complete.
@@von4297 the story might have been complete since it was a finished product at the end but things like playing through the mutation and looking for fei we’re all things they wanted to implement but couldn’t. Thus we got pretty much a cliff notes of disk 2. This to me is incomplete.
Don’t get me wrong, xenogears is a top 5 RPG of all time to me and I’ve played it more times than I can count but that’s what makes it so sad to me.
@@von4297 the main story you mean. Since if we play through the gameplay there will be a load detail and more dialogue that expand the story even more
Fantastic video and definitely hope there is a part two! I love the topic!
Thank you! We’ll definitely get around to a part 2 after we tackle a few more video topics first
Great video guys. As always the editing, music choice, and overall presentation is on point.
Appreciate it my dude 💯
Another great video, and amazing list. To this day, xenogears still my favorite game, i'm glad you included it.
Same here! Best RPG of all time!
Oh man I gotta play Xenogears, it's been on my list for years but I'm holding out for hopefully a remake that finishes the story with the original presentation that was in mind for the last disc, since the team basically had to do an "okay here are the bare highlights you need to understand the story presented as walls of text, strung together by boss fights."
Following the heavily implied universe connection between Xenogears, Saga, and Blade in Xenoblade 3 Future Redeemed, my hope for this proposed remake has increased
It will never happen, Square soft still has the rights of the game and won t sell it to Monolith like never. You D better play the original instead of waiting
What you said at first had me hooked, born in 86 and so proud of the games we grew up with. Instead of thinking into the future we all need to go backwards. Just recently found your channel great work 👍🏼
If you all feel sad for the whole Xenogears saga, don't fret. Even if it isn't the exact universe/storyline, Takahashi has adapted most episodes of his Perfect Works in the other Xeno games, in essence if not in content. Xenogears is Episode V, Xenosaga 1-3 is Episode II (with a quick recap of Episode I), Xenoblade 2 Torna is Episode IV, and people suspect that Xenoblade 3 is going to be Episode VI.
Cool video! FF VI is a must play. Xenogears is one the most immersive games I've played. I wish I could see Xenogears 2... Now Vagrant Story, my god... the battle system is the real chalenge of the game, so hard that I dropped it, makes sense that is one of the inspirations for the creator of Sous games. Great vídeo, man!
When I got into my mid 20's I had this non-JRPG mentality over the basis of being way older than the protagonists. That I was too old to relate to them anymore. Then I had this epiphany a few years later; I was once this young. Just play and put yourself back in the metal shoes of that age.
Then came along FFXV, who's very opening scene begins in the shoes of a character who was once young, but has reached the age and maturity of the gamers who grew up in the 90's. Clearly a nod from the devs to long-time gamers. That solidified my epiphany, and now in my 30's I play Pokemon with that exact mentality; I _was_ "this character," and a videogame is a mental time machine.
Oh, and another rant if you'r'e still with me. The Xenoblade series. I love all Xeno works, but I really wish Takahashi would return to darker, more mature storytelling. Some speculate 'blade 3 will return to it, so I have my fingers crossed.
you have no idea for how long i wanted a list of mature JRPGs i can get into. Thank you sm
Dragon's Dogma might fit on the next list.
And yeah, having Xenogears/saga completely re-done with the planned stories would be an awesome thing.
I love Dragons Dogma.
Played it for years and been thinking to go back to it.
I will now
It’s not a jrpg in _almost_ any way.
It’s certainly a true diamond in the rough, though. I love that game so much.
DD is so good but it hardly has a deep story and definitely doesn’t have typical jrpg elements at all lol
DD would be great if not all of the running around without reliable fast travel system.
@@ml_serenity There was a fast travel system in the PC version that was some sort of upgrade to the original game. Are you talking about that version or the original game's version?
Absolute banger of a video, the best case I've ever heard made for Xenogears and I'm more tempted than ever before to finally play it. Been a JRPGer for... holy crap, 30 years -- and just never stumbled my way into playing it. All the other games? Some of my absolute favorites (especially including the hints of OB64 ;). Thanks for a great highlights Bro!
Yes to a part 2 and, for a more recent game, Triangle Strategy *HAS* got to be on there!
Great job as always gentlemen!
Thanks man! I’ve heard a lot of great things about Triangle Strategy so I’ll have to check it out eventually. The petty side of me just wishes they changed the name 😅
Triangle Strategy's writing is horrendous
@@Ze0nite if you think it's horrendous I'm afraid to see what you think of the writing of the majority of other JRPGs 😅
Xenoblade is the successor of Xenogears. Series is thriving.
Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2 are probably my favourite SMT games over all. I'd love to see a remaster or at least some kind of digital (ha!) release on PSN, like they did with some other PS2 titles.
the memories in Lost odyssey are so well written.... and i don't feel ashamed for admiting i actually cried in some of those.
"Grew up with the genre, but the genre didnt grow up with me". Great quote.
Its a videogame not a novel
Well this sounds pretentious
@@pn2294 yeah but it's the truth tho, most JRPG's nowdays have pretty juvenile plots, even games regarded as masterpieces by the community like Persona 5 are very naive in the way it approaches it's themes.
@@DZ-rt7hb I’ve found most adult media to be “juvenile” so I’m not really seeing what you’re saying
@@DZ-rt7hb did you actually play Persona 5? Plot may be far from best written, but juvenile? Plot about young people fighting against unjustful stereotypes in society? The one that openly ask older generation to listen to their children, not neglect them, not force them to be someone they can't. The same one that shows actual mental, physical and sexual abuse, corruption, overwork and burnout, speak about artist block, about mental health and showoff Japanese problematic law system and workaholic habits.
It may be Persona and second weakest after P4 but it still Megaten and it still speak about ton of dark and serious things.
Lost Odyssey and Digital Devil Saga are a couple of games I've been meaning to play, but just haven't been able to with the consoles I have. I couldn't agree with you more about how amazing Nier's soundtrack is, especially the Replicant remake from last year.
I love these suggestions and I'll be bumping up a few on my backlog when I want to dive into a more mature story. I am all for the more common JRPG stories about teenagers saving the world, but more mature stories are always a nice change of pace I think. Thanks for another great video guys!
PS2 is easy to emulate.
Thanks for watching as always! Whenever you do get around to LO and DDS I think you’re in for a good time. LO I’m a little less optimistic about ever getting a re-release or port but I could see Atlus rereleasing some of the other older games in the future since Square seems to sorta be doing it now, one can only hope at least
@@GamingBroductions Yeah, I have a similar feeling about a LO port/rerelease. There's always the emulation route, but I'm going to be patient and wait. Thankfully there's so much still to play right now.
DDS and SMT3 😭
You forgot Front Mission 3..amazing story about war with 2 completely different pathways (almost like 2 different games in one)..great job otherwise! Part 2 please 👏👏👏
im with you Front Mission games are underated
Lost Odyssey is easily my favorite JRPG ever.
The story is really good, the characters are well developed, the game mechanics are fun and rewarding and the soundtrack is simply captivating.
I still have good memories of playing this game with my older brother and I remember how much fun we had.
If you're an rpg fan, I can't recommend it enough.
Just an addendum to Yakuza 7, these games are written by published crime novelists and vetted by real Yakuza for the accuracy to the world. Paints an even starker contrast to the goofy, bombastic characters and sidequests with that context in mind, and serves to further your point of mature narratives. Also a brilliant exercise in trope subversion with the metacommentary to JRPG fans for things like Ichiban’s ‘legendary sword’ and the explanation for his perception of combat being he grew up playing DQ
Always good to see vandal hearts getting some love! Another great video as usual bros
it truly makes me SO happy to have my childhood validated w appreciation for shadow hearts. i’ve never met a single person who knows about that series and i still listen to the OST avidly 15 years later
If it helps, the series is actually well known, even Koudelka. I still have to play it. My BFF is a fan of the franchise.
Vandal hearts! Such a fantastic turn based rpg. The class choices upon leveling up was great to see about creating a strong team and made choice feel meaningful. I never played vandal hearts 2, but one day I'll see about it.
Vandal Hearts 2 might have the best tactical battle system, period. It's love or hate and usually hate 'cause people don't get it. Units move simultaneously in ally - enemy pairs so an enemy can move out of your attack in real time. But you can do so as well. If you manage to predict which unit moves you can take advantage of it. And it isn't actually random. This is the tactical rpg that keeps you on your toes with tension every turn you take. Like no other. Do try it if only to make an opinion.
I enjoyed the systems in VH2 as well, it is just that I felt that the actual battle map scenarios seemed to be a bit more interesting in the first one. I recall there were perhaps a lot more larger ones in VH2 but that itself was not an improvement. But VH1 was only the second JPRG I ever played so I am probably a bit biased towards it.
I finished it back in the late 90s (when it was released), and even though I eventually found out how to cheese most battles, I enjoyed it less than VH1. One thing I remember is that you just have to focus your fire on enemies who recently had their turn. That way, since their next turn won't come too soon, there's no way they'll evade your attacks. And I think I also learned how to consistently avoid enemies' attacks.
this yt is gonna pop off! Great vids consistently!
As I get older more serious stories are becaming a must, outside the list I would say Suikoden 2 and 3 for their war stories; while a minority I really like Dragon Quarter, not only the game, but the story that comes with it, can be somewhat cryptic in some of its details and even somewhat philosophic; and Trails in the Sky the 3rd, the main story is great and kinda dark without being edge, not to mention the side story from a certain Door
100% agree. Those are some solid picks out of the ones I’ve played, never got around to Dragon Quarter though. I was tempted to include a Suikoden game but I was already talking about a lot of games from that era so figured I would just save it
I have to try Dragon Quarter. I liked Trails 1 and 2 but didn't play 3 yet.
Did U ever play Xenogears ps1 or Xenosaga 1-3 on ps2??? Excellent games.
The Xeno games were and still are to some extent my jam, The 3rd seems to get a bad rep among some of the fan, the lack of towns didnt make like the game less, actually is very refreshing for the series. Dragon quarter though I suppose one need to go with open mind lol, is possible to beat without doing a hard restart if you are careful on battle, other wise you might need to do at least 1 time
The main BoF games are also fairly dark and mature in contrast to the often bright and colorful graphics. BoF4 in particular.
@@rudidellama3718 Dragon Quarter is my favourite BoF game. In my last two playthroughs, I was able to beat it without dying. The Gensou Suikoden series as a whole is fantastic imo. I love the dark story for IV and Tactics even though I haven't beaten Tactics. I and II are my favourites, but to me, III is only second place to II in terms of design. V having the longest story out of them had a lot of cool places to explore and it was great to see variety in the locations as well as having a great major battle system and regular battle system.
I like how you put the first two games in the thumbnail first, a subtle gesture, but one that made me watch the entire video 👍plus I have basically the same taste in my jrpgs and rpgs. Ffxiv has combined the elements if the story into their expansions and also added many of the former ff storylines to the game. Damn I love that game.
"Western audiences would respond better to a more masculine main character" how times have changed lmao
You immediately get my subscription! You have exactly the same game taste as me and reeled off all of my favourites! Outstanding taste, sir!
Btw, Suikoden 1&2 and Breath of Fire 3 could be on this list too! :)
Vandal Hearts 2 is darker with a slant towards realistic rather than fantasy dark elements but has more political intrigue and has some choices early on that decides the ending you get that are not obvious. The Hero is more gritty and flawed, sometimes more an anti-hero. It plays closer to FF Tactics in story, but the hero is of peasant birth I think. Overall good but its not as simple as the original which is both a plus and a minus. No connections to the original that I can recall besides the name.
Yep. In my opinion, Vandal Hearts II would have been the definitive experience if it was visually like the first game (I love the backdrops, but I am referring to the battle animations, character models and character portraits which granted is my opinion) and the gameplay was like the first, but just with additions rather than trying to change it. The story and music are so good.
How old are you, bro? I´ve watched like ten videos of you and I feel deeply represented (I´m 31 in 2023). Thanks for great memories. Help me remember what a great youth I had. My father was a avid JRPG gamer and I played a lot with him first, then alone. He died in december 2022 and this videos bring me so great memories. Thank you!
I’d like to replay Lost Odyssey someday it had unique story and gameplay.
A separate book for the dreams would be nice lol I treat it like triple triad in ff8 and I forget the main game 😂.
I really want it to be ported to the pc. So frustrating that this game is being left behind in the dust. I shouldn't have to dust off my old 360 to play this game again.
@@josephjoe4180 what are you talkin about this game Lost Odyssey is backwards compatible digital and physical
@@cruelwraith2games926 I don't own an Xbox one. Most xbox games are available on pc as well, but Lost Odyssey has remained forgotten. Besides, backwards compatibility for this game is not the same as having it re-released for modern systems.
Aight, I was enjoying this video, but when Vandal Hearts hit, I subscribed. Loved that one, especially that haunting vocal intro song, and Eleni. Nice content! Didn't play the sequel.
Love the video!
Thank you!
honestly i agree.
now im 31 and going back to playing some rpgs and books i've read in my younger years, i've enjoyed them more but in a different way since now im older and have a better understand of life that i appreciate the story that i didnt quite understand the deepness and emotions that truly tied into the story in my earlier years.
That’s why I loved god of war so much. Because I’m a father myself and I definitely related more to Kratos than say a teen JRPG protagonist . Even though I love a bunch of Jrpgs personally.
For sure, I think that aspect resonated with a lot of older gamers. It’s no surprise that stories of that nature like in God of War and The Last of Us were so popular
There are actually no licensing issues with Xenogears. Its creator is no longer at the company, but the property itself is still very much SE's, just as Xenosaga is still Bandai Namco's. SE just isn't interested in pursuing newer entries because they weren't very invested in making more products for IPs that weren't nearly as profitable as FF (this can be attributed to Wada's change in direction back in early 2002 after becoming CEO in late 2001).
In more recent years, SE is willing to work on remasters and remakes for more niche titles as of late, but doing full-fledged sequels (especially ones with modern day assets) is an undertaking they probably aren't interested in unless it's some smaller budget production.
Of course, a part 2 is needed, I missed a few classics. Thanks, great selection!
Bruh! the moment I heard Muladhara on the SMT DDS Avatar Tuner review, you instantly got a sub!
Thanks for recognizing vandal hearts that game brought me into strategy RPGs. It also came out before Tactics
I loved Vagrant Story. It had one of the most interesting twists at the end. I remember it being the first time that I can recall that particular twist regarding the overall plot, the motivations of the antagonist, etc. It was REALLY good. I loved that game
Vagrant Story is super underrated, anybody on the fence about trying it out should definitely give it a go.
Would have liked to have seen Final Fantasy Tactics on the list. It has, in my opinion, the best cast of characters and most thought provoking story in the series. Still a great list though.
i owned "Lost Odyssey" while i never got to finish the game due to unfortunate circumstances, I do not regret this puchace at all. what REALLY makes the game is those memories. let me tell you this. some of these stories made me tear up. it the ambiance of them. the way thya have environmental sound and the music matching the tone of the story, this music changes with the memory as it progresses. All of this combined really brings those memories to life, it is almost as if you are remembering them yourself. Trust me. this game is worth it for the memories alone.
Even without the memories, which are a major part of the game and reveal the background of the characters they belong to, the story of the game is very rich and deep. it is a bit meloncoly, but amazing nonetheless.
The Nier replicant version extending past the text box was amazing lol.
As a 37 year old who began around the same time as you, I agree with this list. 👍 If I were to tack on some others I'd say Front Mission 3 and FF XII.
Most excellent choices, I've played most of these and enjoyed their mature stories immensely back in the day.
Now I feel nostalgic...
Dude, I'm a subscriber to anyone who has two of the most underrated jrpgs of all time (vandal hearts and lost odyssey). I am glad they are getting the recognition they did not get when they first released.
Hell yeah, they’re both amazing games for sure that deserve some more love. Thanks for subscribing!
As a man of a certain age I very much enjoyed this list. Such a good list especially seeing FF6 on here. One of the greatest games ever in my opinion. Will be looking forward to a part 2 of this list
I hope you hold Chrono Trigger, that high.
As another guy of a certain age I have to say that while I REALLY enjoyed a lot of JRPGs back in the day it was FFVI that REALLY blew me away. Hearing my SNES trying to play opera... That score is lit hands down one of the best OSTs out there. The game is sublime.
6:55 actually, Japan got both versions of the game. The game we got in the west was I believe the Xbox 360 version Japan got called Nier Gestalt. The remaster that came out just recently was Nier Replicent, the Japanese ps3 exclusive.
I'm 16 and a big rpg nerd and i can confidently say Lost Odyssey is easily my favorite game of all time. Dang those thousand years of dreams. And geez the battle system, music, story, dungepns, and side content!
Final Fantasy VI is ironically my sixth favorite rpg lol. Such a good game! Probably would be higher if i wasn't a paper mario fanatic haha
man.... final fantasy 6 and parasite eve. what a time to remember. set the bar so high nothing has beaten those ever since. i still go back to those and play em once in a while
Great video. FYI It is officially know as the 'press turn battle system' in SMT games.
Panzer Dragoon Saga & Front Mission 2 are my top 2 for this type of storytelling in JRPGs.
Oh yeah I forgot about Panzer Dragoon Saga (I even beat it again last year) definitely a unique game both in design and story, Front Mission 2 I will wait until the Forever Entertainment remake, they might not do something amazing visually, but from their 2 recent remaster/remakes you can tell that they put alot of care into
Will you make a video on the trials in the sky trilogy games in the future? They are the first deep jrpgs I have ever played,and I still have enjoyed any jrpg like the trials in the sky since.
Would love to eventually cover that trilogy in more depth, can’t necessarily promise when as there’s a lot of other RPGs I still wanna cover from that generation as well but it is something we’ll likely do at some point. Those games really impressed me with their incredibly deep lore and world building at a time where I thought I had already played all the classics from that era, I’ll still never forget the ending of the first one and how it totally took me by surprise
In the meantime I’ve talked about them in some videos before, our video about RPGs that capture the spirit of adventure being the most recent example
I am here because your thumbnail was vagrant story and lost odyssey, my thoughts, "I'll give you my ear for a moment. 🤔"
Edit: IT'S THE SAME IVALICE!? My guy, you got a new sub. 😁
Edit 2: FF6 is the best in the series, I feel, for legit all of the points you presented. So good.
Nice, thanks for watching and subbing! And yeah FFVI is timeless for sure. I don’t have the same nostalgia for it as a lot of others due to not playing it as a kid but I can still fully appreciate not only how groundbreaking it was for the time but how well it still holds up
love like a dragon. A modern Classic imo
Makes sense why as I got older, I really started loving the Metal Gear series
I love Yakuza: Like a Dragon and you’re correct it’s absolutely in the top 3 JRPGs for the generation with dq11 and p5.
Xenogears is my All time Favorite JRPG From the Ps1, Maybe even All time???
I get goosebumps just hearing that all too Familiar Music start up, right at the Beginning!!
Love that Game!
Lost Odyssey is an underrated gem that needs to be experienced. I only made it up to the electric wurm boss but man was I hooked. Still have my copy complete with no console to play it on. FFXIII and XIII2 also slapped and were underrated.
The Shadow Hearts series for the PS2 is one of my favorites. Also, the Suikoden games were good too.
Heh I only clicked on this video to see if shadow hearts was on the list.
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete.
Great artwork and characters. Amazing, if somewhat standard story and gameplay. Also, noods!
Not so mature, tho. But great game nonetheless
Vandal Hearts is the game that made me decide buying a PS1. I finished it three times ! As for Xenogears, I had played the japanese demo and fell in love on the spot. The game was not released in Europe, so once I knew the game was released in the USA, I went every morning to the videogame shop to ask if they had recieved it and on the day they got it, they kept it in store for me. I feel truly lucky to have had the chance to play these games at that time.
Vagrant Story is still among my most beloved games of yore. I really liked the battle system with all its intricacies. Definitely needs a remake!
Great list! I can definitely vouche for Lost Odyssey, Vagrant Story, Nier, Xenogears, FF6, and Yakuza LaD...
Vandal Hearts is a fine addition to this list - for what the theme is - but I always preferred FF Tactics and, even more so, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (at least the PSP remaster/remake, never played the SNES original) - of course, you acknowledge why you opted for VH over those two since you've talked about them a lot.
The rest have been on my "To Play" lists for years.
BTW TO on PSP, I would especially highlight the Azelstan story.
A second part? Hell yeah :)
Lost Odyssey and The Last Remnant were 2 of the games that I stayed up playing until morning.
Talking about Vagrant Story and digital devil saga 1+2 got me to sub. Cant wait for part 2
Awesome list! I still have the FF3 baseball cap that was pictured in the back of the strategy guide. I forgot where I got that until you video.
First of all, love the inclusion of Vandal Hearts. It's so underappreciated. Second, what game is shown at 0:50? I feel like I've seen it before.
final fantasy tactics: war of the lions.
@@macielaguilarochoa8832 Dude, come on. I obviously meant the game that is shown a millisecond after the 0:50 mark. If I was referring to FFT, why would I timestamp the very last possible frame of its clip?
I agree with most of these, especially Lost Odyssey, Vagrant Story, & the unfinished Xenogears. I am surprised to not see a few on here (which're connected), and that's Shadow Hearts 1 & 2, & even Koudelka. What's more, is they're based on real places & a few people, such as Roger Bacon. Great choices, as most of these are ones I'd have picked, as well, including Nier.
The Digital Devil Saga games have been years. I might hafta re-play 'em to jog my memory.
You nailed that list for sure. I haven't played yakuza yet and I'm about to start bier finally and maybe shin megami soon but the rest is perfect, from ff6 to xenogears and vandal hearth (my fav trpg personally, not too complex, great story and visual, and I loved the blood spray everytime with the sword swings lol). Lost odyssey was great too on Xbox, but man the difficulty was high.. Vagrant story I never managed to finish back on ps1, I loved everything about the visual aspect but the game is too hard and complex for me sadly.. Might watch a full playthrough though 👍