Hmmm... It's been almost a year since I've done this. Things have changed, for sure. I think I would rank Arc the Lad, Legend of Mana, Lunar 1, Lunar 2, Tales of Eternia, Persona 2 and DQ7 on the B tier. I was too harsh on them for no reason :(
Persona 2 was the only one i kinda disagree. One of my TOP5 rpgs on PS1 for sure. The rest i kinda of agree with you on all, except maybe suikoden, but i understand why people love him, live ff7 and others. Really digging your channel man, keep the good job.
I basically agree with everything on this list except for Parasite Eve 2 and FF7. My deal with Parasite Eve 2 is it handled roguelite and in pretty good way but repetitive, so I would do C tier. FF7, yea so to me it's S but a minimum A. It's hard to find an RPG where the story is great, the gameplay is stellar, the length is perfect, and like every single item is meticulously placed so the whole game is perfectly balanced, plus the game epitomized secret bosses. Thanks for the list overall, Xenogears for life lol
I'm now just replaying the entire series. About midway through I. Can't wait for II. I still have Suikoden I, II and Tactics discs for PSX (although I only play ROMs these days - Can't beat Save Anywhere and Turbo Mode).
I'm buying the whole series. I recently purchased I, II, and V online. Soon enough I will get III, IV , and Tactics as well. I'll probably skip the DS game though. I can't wait to play these games. I love RPGs but never experienced Suikoden in my life.
Xenogears, Tactics ogre and FF tactics are S rank to me, then again DQ7 would be S as well, freaking love that game. But everything is subjective, crazy how many of those rpgs i look back and say man that's a great game.
@@justinc882 I remember getting at a big box store (maybe walm?) when I saw it there many years ago. I cannot remember how much it was but I know it wasn't a lot. A couple of years ago I thought I had lost disc one... I was devastated because I feel I take very good care of my games, music and movies. My wife went on ebay and unbeknownst to me, got me another copy. Not too long after, I found the disc... But now I have two copies and I love them both. I can't part with either one... 🙂
the only reason i dont think xenogears deserves to be an s tier is due to it being incomplete, and not incomplete in the "its too short", but in the "dont bother playing the second disc, its just not worth it".
Xenogears not being S rank sure surprised me, but everything else makes more than enough sense to me. I can't imagine how hard a PS2 list would be to choose/decide on.
This would be a great thing for many people to play around with. I would wonder if you could turn this into some sort of promotion for the channel with rating JRPGs and such. This video also shows how many of these games you have played and also shows how many of these games there really are for the system.
@@JoaoVictor-hh9dx Yup. Which is why I think Xenogears deserves a remake more than any other title ever released. What they did to disc 2 was borderline a crime... Even if it made sense from a financial perspective. Kinda wish they had gone the Trails in the Sky route and separated their game into two finished releases instead of one butchered one, tough.
@@justincarlozmaxino1100 What happened was that they didn't have enough time and resources to get it done in schedule, so they rushed at the end to do what they could. The devs left square later.
Nice video bro! Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy 9 are S rank to me also. FF7, Xenogears, FFT, Lunar, Lunar 2, and Brave Fencer Musashi are also S rank in my opinion.
Just in case you didn't know, Front Mission 3 has two completely different storylines. I played it multiple times when I was younger and had absolutely no clue about the second storyline until years later lol
Totally with you. The Battle System alone in FFT is a Masterpiece. At least should be A Level. But, like Erick said, it's all opinion. But still, theres so many I so agree with him.
That was my reaction also. I was like, really?? FFVII in B!? It's an S tier for me, no doubt. it's my favorite RPG of all time. What Chrono Cross is to Erick, FFVII is to me, but I understand everybody has their opinions and I respect his.
S Tier: Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy IX, Suikoden II, Valkyrie Profile A Tier: Kartia, Parasite Eve, Star Ocean: The Second Story, Suikoden, Xenogears, Vandal Hearts, Vanguard Bandits, Wild Arms 2 B Tier: Alundra, Arc the Lad II, Breath of Fire III, Breath of Fire IV, Final Fantasy Tactics,Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Front Mission 3, Grandia, Legend of Dragoon, Legend of Legaia, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, Wild Arms C Tier: Alundra 2, Arc the Lad I, Brave Fencer Musashi, Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena, Dragon Quest VII, Dragon Valor, Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu, Koudelka, Legend of Mana, Lunar: Eternal Blue, Lunar: The Silver Star Harmony, Mega Man Legends 2, Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, Person 2: Eternal Punishment, Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, Saga Frontier 2, Saiyuki: Journey West, Tales of Destiny, Tales of Destiny II (Tales of Eternia), Thousand Arms, Vagrant Story, Vandal Hearts II D Tier: Arc the Lad III, Azure Dreams, Battle Hunter, Beyond the Beyond, Digimon World, Digimon World 2, Digimon World 3, Eternal Eyes, Final Fantasy Origins (Final Fantasy I & II), Guardian's Crusade, King's Field, King's Field II, Mega Man Legends, Parasite Eve 2, Revelations: Persona, Saga Frontier, The Granstream Saga, Torneko: The Last Hope E Tier: Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth, Monster Seed, Shadow Tower
I reccomend that you dont look at any reviews for digimon, and try digimon world 3 for yourself, its a traditional turn based rpg unlike world 1, high encounter rate but still amazing in my opinion 😁👍
It's one of my favorite games on the PS2 but I still wouldn't recommend it to him. He should probably play the two Cyber Sleuth games instead as they are more like the modern Persona than Digimon World.
You went from a content creator that I saw on my recommended list from time to time. Now you are one of my favourite content creators. Straight to the S tier list man! Keep it up!!
ff7 would be s tier for me , nice of you to show valkyrie profile some love. Valkyrie is my favourite rpg of all time , a completely new expirience , and freyas lazyness (porting everywhere) made me laugh several times. Hope they revigorate the series in classic 2d fashion.. And lot of thanks to you an your channel , found many great rpg on different systems through your lists . One gripe though , sand of destruction ist quite a mess of a game , the battle system espacially , keep up the great work sir. Greetings from a dutch guy
This type of video is great, Erick. I wish this would have been made around 5 years ago, when I was buying PS1 games. This would have been VERY useful to get a rough idea of which JRPGs are really worth getting for the system, or at least, seeing all of them and being able to decide if a game would be worth it or not. You have overall been very objective and fair, and this is very useful. Sadly the prices for physical copies of some of these games are through the roof, but luckily, you can play some of these in the PSN store or other methods. Out of this list, some games I am still missing to get a physical copy (that don´t cost outrageous prices): Breath of Fire IV , Koudelka, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics and brave fencer musashi. I only have Suikoden 1 and 2 pirated copies, but those suffice to me, and I have persona and 2 on PSN. I have Valkerie Profile: Leneth of PSP. Other than that, my PS1 collection (for me) is almost complete. I managed to get all the Digimon world games, which are kind of expensive and were a pain to get.
Yeah the pandemic priced a lot of folks out of older games. I bought a complete copy of Suikoden II in November 2021 for $250 + tax, and that's a "steal" at that price. A lot of these games are available physically on PSP, but even many of those games are shooting up (see Persona, Ys). It's crazy. Fortunately, I completed my PSP collection years ago. Happy hunting bro.
S tier for me is legend of dragoon personally, grew up with it and it's my favourite game of ALL TIME. Hope a remake or remaster comes out, followed by a sequel 🙏
Same for me. Also the battle system was really unique. I spent hours getting each new attack and I remember saying it along with them "Gust of wind dance! Volcanoooo!" It was so cool haha
Does anyone know a ps1 game where (from what i can remember) you start off in a garden/courtyard with some pottery (vases i think) , as i kid i couldnt even escape the 1st room, I imagine it was a RPG, i recall being able to stack the vases on top of each other but i couldnt figure out how to get passed that starting area.
FU for FF7, FU for Xenogers. It became obvious to me that the author has duckling syndrome in relation to FF9. In the future, I am no longer interested in his opinion, because it is obvious that the top is compiled exclusively on teenage impressions. For those who are older, his enthusiastic speeches about, obviously, teenage games in the top will cause a lot lmao.
I love Lunar more than any other RPG series but I definitely don't like seeing the "cancel culture style apology" at the top of the comments section. It SHOULD say "This is how I see things. Don't like it? Get fucked."
@@connorwaltman4966 Working Designs poured more love into their translations than anyone. Weebs who dislike when something strays from the original Japanese version can learn Japanese and play that.
I own all of these games and I agree with a majority of your list, you should have just included all of the remaining rpg's for the PS1, there are only a few more. Shadow Madness Darkstone Chocobo Dungeon 2 Castlevania Symphony of the Night Tecmo's Deception Kagero: Deception II Deception III: Dark Delusion Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain Monkey Hero Dragon Seeds Diablo RPG Maker Master Of Monsters
Ive been messing around with the emulator pcsxr-pgxp and OMG you can make PS1 look modern. It esentially takes away all the jagged edges off 3D models. Great video BTW!
Star Ocean 2 is my favorite of the system. The design and music is so dreamful, the gameplay is great, the characters are amazing and this is one of the fue rpgs you will enjoy playing it twice. I also like the endgame, when you are totally overpowered. Sadly, no other SO release could be nearly as good, even if I like the first and third game (SO4 was average and SO5 felt like they should make a game with few resources in a short amount of time). Not in your list was Blaze and Blade. Not a particulour good game, but we had fun in playing this together.
If they did a better job with the character design and character development, it would've been an S-tier JRPG for me. The fun factor was definitely 10/10. It had a very useful item creation system, optional characters, awesome sidequests, nice OST, it was a very balanced game. And definitely the best Star Ocean. Star Ocean 3 is probably the second best. SO4 and onward were garbage.
This is a great video for someone like me that didn't get to play many JRPGs on PS1 and a lot of them just flew past me. I would love to go through some of these since I feel like I missed out on quite a lot. Like I don't know who's that character on the thumbnail. Anyways, love your channel. Have been bingeing about 4 or 5 videos a day.
I think that if the last third of the game had been fully finished and not that visual novel crap, I think the game would be absolutely S tier. But given as it is, A tier seems reasonable.
Oh, wow! Such a memory to remember how good all these games are! Thank you man! Also, cool you liked Front Mission 3! Noticed the Xenogears easter eggs? xD
You rank tactical rpgs way higher than straight up jrpgs. I will never understand this. In a tactical there's so many characters that you don't get to know them as intimately as you do with traditional jrpgs. I don't want to have to worry about 20 different characters. I am shocked that you put FF9 over FF7. FF9 is really good, but FF7 is the greatest JRPG of all time IMO. The emotion, the music, the side games, the materia system, the characters, grabs you from the very beginning. Best game ever! Also, such low scores for Lunar and Dragon Warrior? Come on! Those are some of the best games in the entire genre!
AMAZING idea and content, I hope you can make more videos like this but for other consoles/portables. I am sharing with my friends. About the video, I just don't agree with you putting Digimon World games on D, you said that you played a little of Digimon World 1 and put him on D it's ok but I don't think it's fair to put a game you didn't play on D tier (Digimon World 2 and 3) because of some reviews or because you think these games are bad, in my opinion, if you didn't play them (and they are very different from each other) they could be at least at "C" tier. Anyway I respect your opinion, plus you said that you are not a fan of the franchise. It's great to see that you have a different look in rpgs, don't like the populars only.
I know this is asking a lot, given how many there are, but you should do a JRPG tier list for the PS2. PS2 had so many JRPGs, many of them being very obscure and a ton of hidden gems.
I always appreciate things like this, because every once in while you’ll see a game you never heard of or played before and get introduced to a old new game. For me that would be Valkyrie profile and the suikoden games. They look real fun just stupid expensive.
Vagrant Story for me has the same thing of the Valkyrie Profile games: i appreciate the work behind them, the settings and mechanics but i have never finished them, i often watch others playing because i stop after some time when i do myself, something doesn't push me forward. Still i would rate VS a bit higher here ;) The Shadow Tower for PS2 is quite more distinct than the original and makes more sense compared to King's Field series. I love Front Mission 3 because they got a good balance between the story and not dragging too long each map, plus i like the characters (kinda reminds me about Vandal Hearts pacing wise). The 2D one is a bit more dragged on, the PS2 ones are nice but far too slow turns wise.
It doesn't push you forward because it is a downright heavy comitment to properly invest in. It is a problem with a every game that is like this but it's not a problem in a bad way. You need to be clear of everything bothering you in your mind OR you just have an amazing urge to play something like this for you to properly invest in and enjoy. For me, the S tier of PS1 RPG games and in no particular order, though if you push me i will say it's Xenogears, are of course Xenogears, Suikoden 2, Vagrant Story, Valkyrie profile, Final Fantasy Tactics and Breath of Fire 3.
This channel F'ING rocks.... love the passion for RPGs. I am still new to the genre... played a few. Love xenoblade chronicles 2 and suikoden 2. I had to pick up chrono cross. You spent no time on it.... your favorite. Playing now. Can't wait to know what you know. Thanks and keep ROCKING!
So surprised that you put ff tactics and ff vii in B tier, but is fine, i really appreciate your honesty. Also, i discover you channel yesterday and i love your content!
He also put FF9 and Chrono Cross in S tier as well. What I've found over time is that anyone who ranks FF9 highest FF on the PS1 will also rank Cross right next to it (cell shade lovers), but the majority of seasoned RPG players (story and game mechanics lovers) will rank FFVII highest, and put Tactics right next to it. He's a type 2, so I saw where this was going after the first 10 games. If you lean more towards a type 1, look for my comment denoting the changes I would have made. (Please note if you rank FFVIII highest on the PS1, you're a real odd duck and there's no helping you!)
@@dethaddr Personally I like 8 more than 7 just because I like love stories so the Squall/Rinoa story hooked me in but frankly I'd put all 3 on S tier with Tactics being S+. I think the story in Tactics is the best ever written for an FF game. By the end of chapter one I was gripped.
@@chriswhinery925 See, you got a good reason for 8, and most don't play the RPG's for the Love Story. You're the odd duck. Nothing wrong with that, but totally does prove the point. I also agree, Tactics is likely the best story in a FF, unless you get the "hidden" story of FFXV (P.S. it's not love, it's brotherhood, only truly felt and experienced by doing a bunch of the side missions).
I love this! I watched you for so long and you have so much knowledge of JRPGs, it's always a pleasure to hear about your thoughts on PS1 JRPGs. Super interesting to see what you consider top tier and your knowledge of each is so amazing!
Definitely! That's funny, but I think that playing Vandal Hearts II as my first rpg ever during my childhood made me love it in a way that even though I recognise the first game (that I could only play at 14) as something easier to get and more robust, I still think the second game is better and a flawless tactics title.
Oh same! Suikoden and Vandal Hearts were my first jrpg and tactic rpg (and some of my most loved and replayed ones haha). I had played Terranigma and Zelda before on the oldie nintendos but it's not quite the same... the idea that I could have a whole team of playable characters with me and more time to think during battles and all was new to me. After Suikoden and FFVII, JRPGs became my fav genre and it's still so to this day!
FFT should be S tier. I'm very sad to hear that you didn't even beat it. It has a fantastic story and it has a darker theme that most other games I've played. Such a great story and gameplay.
I will tell you, if Square had put as much money and effort in Xenogears as they did in their final fantasy franchise, that game would have been a freaking triple SSS tier game. The fact that it s considered to be one of the best RPG on the system, if not ever made, by a lot of people, despite that they got to deal with so many difficulties during the game creation, means so much in the balance.
I still don't know what about Alundra makes it an RPG. I'll admit, I haven't played it myself, but it looks every bit like a Zelda clone. Maybe it's like Illusion of Gaia, in which you increase your stats without receiving experience points?
Hey Erick You used to be in my A tier as a rpg game youtuber But after seeing your recent video I decided you deserve a B tier rpg youtuber Reasons are only cuz of you putting final fantasy 10 in B tier Final fantasy 10 was one of the best and first fully voiced and fully 3d rendered And almost 52 best cgi scenes And one of the best story plus secret ending Along with best fight and summoning of that time SORRY ERICK U JUST KILLED THE RESPECT U GOT FROM ME YOU ARE A ( B) TEER ( TIER ) FOR ME
Looking forward to this list. I’ve been working on the ps one collection for some time and just added megaman legends 2 to it. My collection is finally at a point where I have more ps1 games than I need to collect :). Still need a lot though lol. Love your content man.
Can we just talk about 4:15 when he says it's in my top 5, probably top 6 or even 7. I mean this guy makes top 10s all the time. Lol just thought it was a funny detail much love for Erick great vid like always
Btw digimon world 3 is actually great fun, I think I've heard you say don't trust critics to know your opinion, however it still is very much a competitor to pokemon and you probably wouldn't be into it even though it is way different from the 1st 2. Nostalgia plays a big factor so I'd only place it in A tier
A lot of this guy's opinions are almost reflective of recent blog posts. If they put FF2 as the greatest JRPG of all time, he'd probably agree. These kinds of criteria should be taken into account when judging a JRPG: storyline, decent twists, character development, character design, battle system, quality of sidequests, etc. But arguments tantamount to "This JRPG is S/A/B tier because XYZ is my favorite protagonist" is kind of lame and defeats the purpose of comparisons in the first place.
nice video :) of course it's difficult to agree completely since we all have different liking about all these games. i cant complain seeing Valkyrie Profile and Suikoden 2 in S rank :D
Interesting video. I think the majority of your B ratings and C ratings should be shifted up a letter because a lot of these are just incredible. PSX was a JRPG goldmine.
Honestly, back in 1996, I would have given Beyond the Beyond a D or E ranking because it did seem terrible back then, but in retrospect it's really not that bad an RPG given it was one of the first traditional JRPG's on Playstation. It's one of those that if you play it a second or third time, it actually seems better. I would give it a C rank now.
I got bored of it around Arawn Palace back in 97, definitely would have given it a D. A few years ago I replayed it with a walkthrough, it was fun. If you want to use a guide (mostly for the maps), I'd give it a solid C too
Nicely done. Thanks for bringing some new games to my attention with this. Wondering also what the second to last track is from? Sort of a magical sound to it.
Brigandine that release on global lack 1 thing... story... 2nd lack is battle mechanism... it's hard The unreleased brigandine is better... but still lack of story XD So yeah i agree with erick... global brigandine is c... but unreleased brigandine should be b is max
the only ministory in saga frontier that i thought was confusing for how to progress was red's near the end before you get to the final dungeon. if you want weird progression, try older stuff like FF2 and romancing saga 3. or how about ff12 i got stuck on that one really fast.
I've never disagreed stronger with anything on TH-cam 😅 We clearly share nothing in matters of taste... Still, respecting your choices, as wrong as they are 😁
I knew this is going to be a bloodbath in both the rankings and the reaction 😂. but the thing about the PS1 era was that, even the ones you ranked from C and below are still amazing games.
Hmmm... It's been almost a year since I've done this. Things have changed, for sure. I think I would rank Arc the Lad, Legend of Mana, Lunar 1, Lunar 2, Tales of Eternia, Persona 2 and DQ7 on the B tier. I was too harsh on them for no reason :(
Alundra to the A tier as well!
Persona 2❤
Persona 2 was the only one i kinda disagree. One of my TOP5 rpgs on PS1 for sure. The rest i kinda of agree with you on all, except maybe suikoden, but i understand why people love him, live ff7 and others.
Really digging your channel man, keep the good job.
Try Digimon World 3. Its actually good.
I basically agree with everything on this list except for Parasite Eve 2 and FF7. My deal with Parasite Eve 2 is it handled roguelite and in pretty good way but repetitive, so I would do C tier. FF7, yea so to me it's S but a minimum A. It's hard to find an RPG where the story is great, the gameplay is stellar, the length is perfect, and like every single item is meticulously placed so the whole game is perfectly balanced, plus the game epitomized secret bosses. Thanks for the list overall, Xenogears for life lol
When Suikoden 2 go straight to the S tier I was like, "Oh yeah that's where my beloved belong!!!" 😄😄😄
I'm now just replaying the entire series. About midway through I. Can't wait for II. I still have Suikoden I, II and Tactics discs for PSX (although I only play ROMs these days - Can't beat Save Anywhere and Turbo Mode).
I'm buying the whole series. I recently purchased I, II, and V online. Soon enough I will get III, IV , and Tactics as well. I'll probably skip the DS game though. I can't wait to play these games. I love RPGs but never experienced Suikoden in my life.
Xenogears, Tactics ogre and FF tactics are S rank to me, then again DQ7 would be S as well, freaking love that game. But everything is subjective, crazy how many of those rpgs i look back and say man that's a great game.
DQ7 very much yes! Love love love
@@Faustustopheles I got DQ7 for like $10 at a yard sale. I've dumped easily 4-500 hours into that game over the years
@@justinc882 I remember getting at a big box store (maybe walm?) when I saw it there many years ago. I cannot remember how much it was but I know it wasn't a lot. A couple of years ago I thought I had lost disc one... I was devastated because I feel I take very good care of my games, music and movies. My wife went on ebay and unbeknownst to me, got me another copy. Not too long after, I found the disc... But now I have two copies and I love them both. I can't part with either one... 🙂
the only reason i dont think xenogears deserves to be an s tier is due to it being incomplete, and not incomplete in the "its too short", but in the "dont bother playing the second disc, its just not worth it".
@@marcosdheleno Bullshit, the 2nd disc is full of greatness!
People will have disagreements, but you are a legend for this attempt regardless
except hoshigami, everything was right. dude hoshigami in E tier was a big disagreement for me.
@@dreostudio3503 I just can’t believe he put 8 on the same level of 7 and Tactics.
@@MarvinNutter FF8 is the best FF game
@@XicorVT no 6 is da best
Neither FF7, FF8 nor FFT are inferior to FF9. @@MarvinNutter
Xenogears not being S rank sure surprised me, but everything else makes more than enough sense to me. I can't imagine how hard a PS2 list would be to choose/decide on.
This would be a great thing for many people to play around with. I would wonder if you could turn this into some sort of promotion for the channel with rating JRPGs and such. This video also shows how many of these games you have played and also shows how many of these games there really are for the system.
Xenogears first CD is SS, but the 2nd goes striaight to D.
@@JoaoVictor-hh9dx Yup. Which is why I think Xenogears deserves a remake more than any other title ever released. What they did to disc 2 was borderline a crime... Even if it made sense from a financial perspective.
Kinda wish they had gone the Trails in the Sky route and separated their game into two finished releases instead of one butchered one, tough.
@@JoaoVictor-hh9dx This exactly. It was obvious the 2nd disc was unpolished and unfinished didn't something happen to the devs who made it? i forget
@@justincarlozmaxino1100 What happened was that they didn't have enough time and resources to get it done in schedule, so they rushed at the end to do what they could. The devs left square later.
Nice video bro! Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy 9 are S rank to me also. FF7, Xenogears, FFT, Lunar, Lunar 2, and Brave Fencer Musashi are also S rank in my opinion.
I think FFT is the best in the FF series the story is similar to suikoden 2
Xenogears Lunar Two, Tales of Eternia are S tier
Just in case you didn't know, Front Mission 3 has two completely different storylines. I played it multiple times when I was younger and had absolutely no clue about the second storyline until years later lol
Erick: Puts FF7 and FFT in B tier.
Me: Imma have to fight you.
Totally with you. The Battle System alone in FFT is a Masterpiece. At least should be A Level. But, like Erick said, it's all opinion. But still, theres so many I so agree with him.
FFT is the best psx game. Ever.
@@armyofninjas9055 Nah :) It's good but saying it's the best is a huge stretch.
I agree, FF7 shouldn't be higher than a C and FFT should be an A for sure!
That was my reaction also. I was like, really?? FFVII in B!? It's an S tier for me, no doubt. it's my favorite RPG of all time. What Chrono Cross is to Erick, FFVII is to me, but I understand everybody has their opinions and I respect his.
S Tier:
Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy IX, Suikoden II, Valkyrie Profile
A Tier:
Kartia, Parasite Eve, Star Ocean: The Second Story, Suikoden, Xenogears, Vandal Hearts, Vanguard Bandits, Wild Arms 2
B Tier:
Alundra, Arc the Lad II, Breath of Fire III, Breath of Fire IV, Final Fantasy Tactics,Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Front Mission 3, Grandia, Legend of Dragoon, Legend of Legaia, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, Wild Arms
C Tier:
Alundra 2, Arc the Lad I, Brave Fencer Musashi, Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena, Dragon Quest VII, Dragon Valor, Jade Cocoon: Story of the Tamamayu, Koudelka, Legend of Mana, Lunar: Eternal Blue, Lunar: The Silver Star Harmony, Mega Man Legends 2, Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, Person 2: Eternal Punishment, Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure, Saga Frontier 2, Saiyuki: Journey West, Tales of Destiny, Tales of Destiny II (Tales of Eternia), Thousand Arms, Vagrant Story, Vandal Hearts II
D Tier:
Arc the Lad III, Azure Dreams, Battle Hunter, Beyond the Beyond, Digimon World, Digimon World 2, Digimon World 3, Eternal Eyes, Final Fantasy Origins (Final Fantasy I & II), Guardian's Crusade, King's Field, King's Field II, Mega Man Legends, Parasite Eve 2, Revelations: Persona, Saga Frontier, The Granstream Saga, Torneko: The Last Hope
E Tier:
Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth, Monster Seed, Shadow Tower
Thanks I was looking for this, should be pinned
I see Valkyrie Profile in S tier Ill give automatic thumbs up!
i would too if he didnt put grandia in b-tier.
grandia at least belongs in a-tier if not higher.
FF9 in S - no more to say about my fav FF of all time.
Hell yeah
I reccomend that you dont look at any reviews for digimon, and try digimon world 3 for yourself, its a traditional turn based rpg unlike world 1, high encounter rate but still amazing in my opinion 😁👍
The card game too :D
@@lilbirdmuse8938 yeah card battle is very underrated 😄
High encounter is such turn off
it has an amazing world design, not the typical box buildings, if only you could avoid the random encounters.
It's one of my favorite games on the PS2 but I still wouldn't recommend it to him. He should probably play the two Cyber Sleuth games instead as they are more like the modern Persona than Digimon World.
You went from a content creator that I saw on my recommended list from time to time. Now you are one of my favourite content creators. Straight to the S tier list man! Keep it up!!
Man, i dont agree with many of your choices in this video, but thats what made it interesting for me, great work Erick!
ff7 would be s tier for me , nice of you to show valkyrie profile some love. Valkyrie is my favourite rpg of all time , a completely new expirience , and freyas lazyness (porting everywhere) made me laugh several times. Hope they revigorate the series in classic 2d fashion.. And lot of thanks to you an your channel , found many great rpg on different systems through your lists . One gripe though , sand of destruction ist quite a mess of a game , the battle system espacially , keep up the great work sir. Greetings from a dutch guy
Man, these kind of videos are so good!
This type of video is great, Erick. I wish this would have been made around 5 years ago, when I was buying PS1 games. This would have been VERY useful to get a rough idea of which JRPGs are really worth getting for the system, or at least, seeing all of them and being able to decide if a game would be worth it or not. You have overall been very objective and fair, and this is very useful. Sadly the prices for physical copies of some of these games are through the roof, but luckily, you can play some of these in the PSN store or other methods.
Out of this list, some games I am still missing to get a physical copy (that don´t cost outrageous prices): Breath of Fire IV , Koudelka, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics and brave fencer musashi.
I only have Suikoden 1 and 2 pirated copies, but those suffice to me, and I have persona and 2 on PSN. I have Valkerie Profile: Leneth of PSP. Other than that, my PS1 collection (for me) is almost complete. I managed to get all the Digimon world games, which are kind of expensive and were a pain to get.
Yeah the pandemic priced a lot of folks out of older games. I bought a complete copy of Suikoden II in November 2021 for $250 + tax, and that's a "steal" at that price. A lot of these games are available physically on PSP, but even many of those games are shooting up (see Persona, Ys). It's crazy. Fortunately, I completed my PSP collection years ago.
Happy hunting bro.
S tier for me is legend of dragoon personally, grew up with it and it's my favourite game of ALL TIME. Hope a remake or remaster comes out, followed by a sequel 🙏
Same for me.
Also the battle system was really unique.
I spent hours getting each new attack and I remember saying it along with them "Gust of wind dance! Volcanoooo!" It was so cool haha
Does anyone know a ps1 game where (from what i can remember) you start off in a garden/courtyard with some pottery (vases i think) , as i kid i couldnt even escape the 1st room, I imagine it was a RPG, i recall being able to stack the vases on top of each other but i couldnt figure out how to get passed that starting area.
I've never even had a PS1 and I still enjoyed this video so much.
FU for FF7, FU for Xenogers.
It became obvious to me that the author has duckling syndrome in relation to FF9. In the future, I am no longer interested in his opinion, because it is obvious that the top is compiled exclusively on teenage impressions. For those who are older, his enthusiastic speeches about, obviously, teenage games in the top will cause a lot lmao.
i cannot argue the S list at all. the A list was pretty good games. so many great games on the PS1 :)
Bro i finished last night Xenogears so when i saw your thumbnail i had to enter, give you a like and comment 😂
Wasn't expecting Lunar on C, but still a pretty informative tier list. good video
If the translation was at least better or got redone, it would've been higher on the list
I love Lunar more than any other RPG series but I definitely don't like seeing the "cancel culture style apology" at the top of the comments section. It SHOULD say "This is how I see things. Don't like it? Get fucked."
@@connorwaltman4966 Working Designs poured more love into their translations than anyone. Weebs who dislike when something strays from the original Japanese version can learn Japanese and play that.
I own all of these games and I agree with a majority of your list, you should have just included all of the remaining rpg's for the PS1, there are only a few more.
Shadow Madness
Darkstone
Chocobo Dungeon 2
Castlevania Symphony of the Night
Tecmo's Deception
Kagero: Deception II
Deception III: Dark Delusion
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
Monkey Hero
Dragon Seeds
Diablo
RPG Maker
Master Of Monsters
Legend of Dragoon was my favorite on the PS1 and I didn't notice you had its music on in the background until like 30 minutes in.
Thanks for including Vanguard Bandits on your list. One of my best tactics Jrpg i played 😊. I agree to you too in the A section
Like the fact you are playing Front Mission 3.
Ive been messing around with the emulator pcsxr-pgxp and OMG you can make PS1 look modern. It esentially takes away all the jagged edges off 3D models. Great video BTW!
yeah pretty much
I wonder how that’d look with a crtv filter
Great video and concept! Please consider making a similar video for other consoles as well.
I hope we have more videos like this, showing all rpgs that we might not tried and his opinion o/
Beautiful video. Please do a PSP one next!
PSP is gonna be great.
Please make a list for ps2 as well, I like hearing your opinions!
Wait until Erick discovers that he has to beat Front Mission 3 twice... also, I am sorry, but I can't seem to agree in so much XD
FF9 S tier
I see you're a man of culture as well
Xenogears is my personal favorite ps1 jrpg.
(Skips ahead to see where Tales of Destiny ranks) "The encounter rate and puzzles are ridiculous" .....you know what....he's right...
Star Ocean 2 is my favorite of the system. The design and music is so dreamful, the gameplay is great, the characters are amazing and this is one of the fue rpgs you will enjoy playing it twice. I also like the endgame, when you are totally overpowered.
Sadly, no other SO release could be nearly as good, even if I like the first and third game (SO4 was average and SO5 felt like they should make a game with few resources in a short amount of time).
Not in your list was Blaze and Blade. Not a particulour good game, but we had fun in playing this together.
If they did a better job with the character design and character development, it would've been an S-tier JRPG for me. The fun factor was definitely 10/10. It had a very useful item creation system, optional characters, awesome sidequests, nice OST, it was a very balanced game. And definitely the best Star Ocean. Star Ocean 3 is probably the second best. SO4 and onward were garbage.
This is a great video for someone like me that didn't get to play many JRPGs on PS1 and a lot of them just flew past me. I would love to go through some of these since I feel like I missed out on quite a lot. Like I don't know who's that character on the thumbnail.
Anyways, love your channel. Have been bingeing about 4 or 5 videos a day.
That's Elly from Xenogears. Thanks, man!
I see Xenogears in A, I still don't downvote but I'm devastated.
I think that if the last third of the game had been fully finished and not that visual novel crap, I think the game would be absolutely S tier. But given as it is, A tier seems reasonable.
Why are you devastated, lol? Don't take my videos too personal, man, just enjoy your games and be happy with them.
@@ErickLandonRPG I realised the nuance of over exaggerating in jest gets lost in writing, I'm sorry.
Currently playing through Xenogears for the first time and this list will help me go through my old school jrpg cravings.
Oh, wow! Such a memory to remember how good all these games are! Thank you man!
Also, cool you liked Front Mission 3! Noticed the Xenogears easter eggs? xD
Would love to see a tier list of PS2 JRPGs as well
You rank tactical rpgs way higher than straight up jrpgs. I will never understand this. In a tactical there's so many characters that you don't get to know them as intimately as you do with traditional jrpgs. I don't want to have to worry about 20 different characters. I am shocked that you put FF9 over FF7. FF9 is really good, but FF7 is the greatest JRPG of all time IMO. The emotion, the music, the side games, the materia system, the characters, grabs you from the very beginning. Best game ever! Also, such low scores for Lunar and Dragon Warrior? Come on! Those are some of the best games in the entire genre!
AMAZING idea and content, I hope you can make more videos like this but for other consoles/portables. I am sharing with my friends.
About the video, I just don't agree with you putting Digimon World games on D, you said that you played a little of Digimon World 1 and put him on D it's ok but I don't think it's fair to put a game you didn't play on D tier (Digimon World 2 and 3) because of some reviews or because you think these games are bad, in my opinion, if you didn't play them (and they are very different from each other) they could be at least at "C" tier.
Anyway I respect your opinion, plus you said that you are not a fan of the franchise.
It's great to see that you have a different look in rpgs, don't like the populars only.
"Beyond the Beyond is trash. It is one of the worst RPGs on the system. I don't think its that bad. It's full of problem" WHAAAAT does this even mean?
Wild that you got to over ten entries before going below C, even with you not liking a couple as much as some people.
PS1 really was the rpg king.
I know this is asking a lot, given how many there are, but you should do a JRPG tier list for the PS2. PS2 had so many JRPGs, many of them being very obscure and a ton of hidden gems.
I agree
Will do, once I play a few that I'm missing.
I always appreciate things like this, because every once in while you’ll see a game you never heard of or played before and get introduced to a old new game.
For me that would be Valkyrie profile and the suikoden games. They look real fun just stupid expensive.
emulate my friend
How can you not love Torneko as a character? He's the consummate everyman.
I really like the idea behind this video and I hope you do this for other consoles as well Erick. Keep up the good work.
Vagrant Story for me has the same thing of the Valkyrie Profile games: i appreciate the work behind them, the settings and mechanics but i have never finished them, i often watch others playing because i stop after some time when i do myself, something doesn't push me forward. Still i would rate VS a bit higher here ;)
The Shadow Tower for PS2 is quite more distinct than the original and makes more sense compared to King's Field series.
I love Front Mission 3 because they got a good balance between the story and not dragging too long each map, plus i like the characters (kinda reminds me about Vandal Hearts pacing wise). The 2D one is a bit more dragged on, the PS2 ones are nice but far too slow turns wise.
It doesn't push you forward because it is a downright heavy comitment to properly invest in. It is a problem with a every game that is like this but it's not a problem in a bad way. You need to be clear of everything bothering you in your mind OR you just have an amazing urge to play something like this for you to properly invest in and enjoy.
For me, the S tier of PS1 RPG games and in no particular order, though if you push me i will say it's Xenogears, are of course Xenogears, Suikoden 2, Vagrant Story, Valkyrie profile, Final Fantasy Tactics and Breath of Fire 3.
@@ikaruga24 how good is BOF 3?
I played 1 and 2 on the snes and loved them but couldn't get into 3 or 4.
@@marcorc5167 it's really good as well. Requires time to get the story going but it gets there. Gameplay is also good and involving.
@@ikaruga24 thanks mate. I'll give it a try .
This channel F'ING rocks.... love the passion for RPGs. I am still new to the genre... played a few. Love xenoblade chronicles 2 and suikoden 2. I had to pick up chrono cross. You spent no time on it.... your favorite. Playing now. Can't wait to know what you know. Thanks and keep ROCKING!
tales of destiny 2 really shines when you play with friends , it become so much more fun to battle .
he could've at least made it B and i'll be cool with it
Hey Erick do you have a switch yet?! It’s become an amazing console for the genre and I love to see you cover it!
So surprised that you put ff tactics and ff vii in B tier, but is fine, i really appreciate your honesty. Also, i discover you channel yesterday and i love your content!
He also put FF9 and Chrono Cross in S tier as well. What I've found over time is that anyone who ranks FF9 highest FF on the PS1 will also rank Cross right next to it (cell shade lovers), but the majority of seasoned RPG players (story and game mechanics lovers) will rank FFVII highest, and put Tactics right next to it. He's a type 2, so I saw where this was going after the first 10 games. If you lean more towards a type 1, look for my comment denoting the changes I would have made. (Please note if you rank FFVIII highest on the PS1, you're a real odd duck and there's no helping you!)
@@dethaddr Personally I like 8 more than 7 just because I like love stories so the Squall/Rinoa story hooked me in but frankly I'd put all 3 on S tier with Tactics being S+. I think the story in Tactics is the best ever written for an FF game. By the end of chapter one I was gripped.
@@chriswhinery925 See, you got a good reason for 8, and most don't play the RPG's for the Love Story. You're the odd duck. Nothing wrong with that, but totally does prove the point. I also agree, Tactics is likely the best story in a FF, unless you get the "hidden" story of FFXV (P.S. it's not love, it's brotherhood, only truly felt and experienced by doing a bunch of the side missions).
You missed a few I’ve got sitting in my basement off the top of my head...Shadow Madness and Monkey Hero.
Nice Elly Artwork
I love this! I watched you for so long and you have so much knowledge of JRPGs, it's always a pleasure to hear about your thoughts on PS1 JRPGs. Super interesting to see what you consider top tier and your knowledge of each is so amazing!
Nice to see Vandal Hearts get some recognition! That game started my love of rpgs.
Definitely! That's funny, but I think that playing Vandal Hearts II as my first rpg ever during my childhood made me love it in a way that even though I recognise the first game (that I could only play at 14) as something easier to get and more robust, I still think the second game is better and a flawless tactics title.
Oh same! Suikoden and Vandal Hearts were my first jrpg and tactic rpg (and some of my most loved and replayed ones haha). I had played Terranigma and Zelda before on the oldie nintendos but it's not quite the same... the idea that I could have a whole team of playable characters with me and more time to think during battles and all was new to me. After Suikoden and FFVII, JRPGs became my fav genre and it's still so to this day!
FFT should be S tier. I'm very sad to hear that you didn't even beat it. It has a fantastic story and it has a darker theme that most other games I've played. Such a great story and gameplay.
THE ABSOLUTE MADMAN PUT FF7 IN B-TIER. RAISE THE PITCHFORKS LADS!
That's where I'd put it! However, VIII and IX S-rank for sure!
Its over-hyped like Witcher 3.
FF9 definitely deserves a S tier what a masterpiece
Absolute make a list like this from other consoles! I'd love to see vita, ds, 3ds etc
I certainly agree with you giving Suikoden II an S ranking.
Thanks for the video. This was was a fun idea. :)
Front Mission 3 is S Tier for me, amazing game! Xenogears too, one of the best rpg on the franchise!
I will tell you, if Square had put as much money and effort in Xenogears as they did in their final fantasy franchise, that game would have been a freaking triple SSS tier game. The fact that it s considered to be one of the best RPG on the system, if not ever made, by a lot of people, despite that they got to deal with so many difficulties during the game creation, means so much in the balance.
I still don't know what about Alundra makes it an RPG. I'll admit, I haven't played it myself, but it looks every bit like a Zelda clone. Maybe it's like Illusion of Gaia, in which you increase your stats without receiving experience points?
"Alundra" is actually classified as an "action adventure" game (as are the "Zelda" games), so you're not wrong in your questioning...
Yeah not really an RPG
It’s 100% a Zelda-like. Whatever you classify Zelda as, alundra is the same.
His talk about Front Mission 3 was quite relatable.
My first time playing Doom was on the GameBoy Advance version.
Hey Erick
You used to be in my A tier as a rpg game youtuber
But after seeing your recent video I decided you deserve a B tier rpg youtuber
Reasons are only cuz of you putting final fantasy 10 in B tier
Final fantasy 10 was one of the best and first fully voiced and fully 3d rendered
And almost 52 best cgi scenes
And one of the best story plus secret ending
Along with best fight and summoning of that time
SORRY ERICK U JUST KILLED THE RESPECT U GOT FROM ME
YOU ARE A ( B) TEER ( TIER ) FOR ME
Looking forward to this list. I’ve been working on the ps one collection for some time and just added megaman legends 2 to it. My collection is finally at a point where I have more ps1 games than I need to collect :). Still need a lot though lol.
Love your content man.
Also, balamb ❤️
Great video! but I think you missed Dragon Seeds.
is that the one where you play as the descendents of the character before?
@@marcosdheleno I think you're describing Dragon Valor. Dragon Seeds is a game where you raise dragons and train them to fight.
@@JoshyGoodtime1 oh crap i remember now. man its been so long since i played that game, lol.
Some I agree, some I disagree, but having Suikoden 2 in the S-tier gains a thumbs up from me.
Most people would agree suikoden 2 is one of the best rpgs ever made
ff7 is really good, at least an A, but I think an S. I played it again recently and theres so much work put into it, it's great. It's not over rated.
Yeah, this tier list lost all credibility when he put that in B.
It's the best jrpg of all time in my opinion! So many incredible elements all working together.
@@LoveJungle420 Why are you afraid paul? There's nothing to fear..
@@aeixo2533 The Fears crest actually means fearLESS.
Omg, I can't believe this video exists. Hats off to you, sir. Persona 2 is forever underrated
This was a very fair and we'll put together tier list. Love it man! 👾
You're missing Chocobo Dungeon 2, also Ehrgeiz RPG mode and Castlevania SotN.
My list would be a bit different, but I still like and respect your opinion. Interesting video.
It's pretty crazy seeing a from software game in a E tier list. They've came a long way since then.
They were great back then. They made the Armored Core series.
Congrats on the work here. But man do we have different opinions on jrpg quality here. Still. This deserves a thumbs up buddy!
One of your best videos yet, imo. Good job.
Fantastic job man!!! Like it so much... 😄
Nice work here. Gives me some idea of how I want to tackle this giant backlog I have
Can we just talk about 4:15 when he says it's in my top 5, probably top 6 or even 7. I mean this guy makes top 10s all the time. Lol just thought it was a funny detail much love for Erick great vid like always
Btw digimon world 3 is actually great fun, I think I've heard you say don't trust critics to know your opinion, however it still is very much a competitor to pokemon and you probably wouldn't be into it even though it is way different from the 1st 2. Nostalgia plays a big factor so I'd only place it in A tier
A lot of this guy's opinions are almost reflective of recent blog posts. If they put FF2 as the greatest JRPG of all time, he'd probably agree. These kinds of criteria should be taken into account when judging a JRPG: storyline, decent twists, character development, character design, battle system, quality of sidequests, etc. But arguments tantamount to "This JRPG is S/A/B tier because XYZ is my favorite protagonist" is kind of lame and defeats the purpose of comparisons in the first place.
This video was super entertaining!! Have you done something similar with other consoles? Do the SNES!!!
SNES or PSP will probably be next :)
@@ErickLandonRPG Yessssss!
nice video :) of course it's difficult to agree completely since we all have different liking about all these games. i cant complain seeing Valkyrie Profile and Suikoden 2 in S rank :D
Interesting video. I think the majority of your B ratings and C ratings should be shifted up a letter because a lot of these are just incredible. PSX was a JRPG goldmine.
Wild arms 1,ff7,ff8 suikoden 2 are my S. Which means i can play them over and over without getting bored
Honestly, back in 1996, I would have given Beyond the Beyond a D or E ranking because it did seem terrible back then, but in retrospect it's really not that bad an RPG given it was one of the first traditional JRPG's on Playstation. It's one of those that if you play it a second or third time, it actually seems better. I would give it a C rank now.
I got bored of it around Arawn Palace back in 97, definitely would have given it a D. A few years ago I replayed it with a walkthrough, it was fun. If you want to use a guide (mostly for the maps), I'd give it a solid C too
Nicely done. Thanks for bringing some new games to my attention with this. Wondering also what the second to last track is from? Sort of a magical sound to it.
Brigandine that release on global lack 1 thing... story... 2nd lack is battle mechanism... it's hard
The unreleased brigandine is better... but still lack of story XD
So yeah i agree with erick... global brigandine is c... but unreleased brigandine should be b is max
loved this style of video, make ps2 next please!
The video would take like 6 hours hahahaha
the only ministory in saga frontier that i thought was confusing for how to progress was red's near the end before you get to the final dungeon. if you want weird progression, try older stuff like FF2 and romancing saga 3. or how about ff12 i got stuck on that one really fast.
FF12 is S teir for me.
I've never disagreed stronger with anything on TH-cam 😅 We clearly share nothing in matters of taste... Still, respecting your choices, as wrong as they are 😁
eternal blue in c tier?!?!?
I did cringe a few times, but I still respect your opinions.
Ahhhhh DOMINA... Music to my nostalgic ears.
Did you include fan translation, remakes/re-release and untranslated ones or just the officially localized games?
I knew this is going to be a bloodbath in both the rankings and the reaction 😂. but the thing about the PS1 era was that, even the ones you ranked from C and below are still amazing games.