10 Underrated JRPGs That Deserve More Recognition

10 Best JRPGs Nobody Talks About Terranigma image of ark surrounded by blue swirls

By Yuliya Geikhman Published 23 minutes ago Yuliya Geikhman has been writing professionally for over 17 years. She started out in the MMO scene with Pando Media Booster and now dives into everything gaming at Screen Rant. She's a lifelong gamer, a relentless industry sleuth, and a passionate follower of everything happening in the games industry. Sign in to your ScreenRant account Summary Generate a summary of this story follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap

When you see the genre "JRPG," a very specific image probably pops into your mind. At its very basic, a JRPG is a role-playing game that was made in Japan. Over the years, the JRPG has come to mean so much more than where a game is made, evoking an image of anime-like protagonists, story-driven plots, and character development.

Redditor butterfly1763 penned an excellent definition of JRPGs 11 years ago that remains true: "A JRPG usually has less focus on gameplay and more on story, plot, characters, etc. A [Western RPG] usually has more focus on player interaction with the world and less on the actual story."

Some JRPG names—like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Persona, etc.—have become synonymous with the genre. Many other JRPGs, while still fantastic titles, don't get nearly as much recognition as they deserve.

Breath Of Fire Games Flew Under The Radar

Morally Gray Sagas

Breath of Fire promotional image from Japan

The first Fire Emblem game, released by Nintendo in 1993, was groundbreaking for its time, featuring animated sprites and a day and night cycle. But it was the third game that really cemented the series as equal to Square Enix's games from the same era. Released in 1997, it was overshadowed by the more successful Final Fantasy 7.

The game (and the series overall) featured much more difficult themes, with morally ambiguous characters and no clear good and bad, unlike many other JRPGs. It didn't shy away from tackling some pretty dark concepts and deserves a lot more recognition for pushing boundaries.

Radiant Historia Plays With Timelines

A Reminder That Your Decisions Have Consequences

Atlus had some fantastic titles for the Nintendo DS, including the well-known Shin Megami Tensei series. One of the most underrated JRPGs from that era of Atlus games was Radiant Historia.

The game used an innovative feature that enabled players to return to key moments in the story and change their decisions. This would allow the lead character, Stocke, to see how different realities would play out and even influence the ending.

The result was a storytelling depth not usually reached by similar JRPGs. It was a truly unique game that could have made a big impact, but instead has been mostly lost to time.

Skies of Arcadia Legends Is A Sky Pirate Adventure

With A Score Of Over 90 On Metacritic

Skies of Arcadia characters on a pirate ship

Not many games have received the coveted score of over 90 on Metacritic, and those that do are mostly well-known titles. Skies of Arcadia Legends is an outlier, with its impressive 93 on Metacritic, despite being relatively unknown (compared to other hits in the over-90 club like Zelda and Final Fantasy.

Developed by Overworks and published by Sega for the Dreamcast in 2000, the game had all the elements of a JRPG—turn-based combat, experience points, a seriously epic tale, and strong characters central to the story. On top of those, the game borrowed a love of exploration from its Western counterparts, creating a unique blend that helped the JRPG stand out.

Skies of Arcadia had limited success due to its deceptively cartoonish style and being restricted to the Dreamcast at launch. Unfortunately, a 2002 GameCube port wasn't enough to elevate it to the same renown as some contemporaries.

The Legend of Dragoon Has A Unique Combat System

It Also Looked Stunning

Legend of Dragoon protagonists standing in the dark

The Legend of Dragoon was released in 1999 by Sony's in-house development team. The game was visually stunning, pushing the original PlayStation to the limits of its rendering capabilities.

Besides being visually stunning, the game also introduced a more active combat style that incorporated combo- and timing-based fighting. It even included voice acting—it wasn't very good voice acting, but it was still a novel idea at the time.

Sadly, many unfairly compared the title to 1997's Final Fantasy 7. With the release of the PS2 looming right around the corner, The Legend of Dragoon didn't get nearly as much recognition as it deserved, and is generally left out of discussions today.

Mana Games Are A Classic Series Still Going Strong

The Most Talked-About Remains Secret Of Mana

Visions of Mana screenshot of two characters surrounded by villagers

The 1993 Secret of Mana was Square's first attempt to revamp the traditional turn-based combat system into a more exciting real-time action-bar-based mechanic. The game is still beloved today, but the many titles that followed in the franchise aren't as widely known.

Like the crystals that unify the Final Fantasy series, the Mana series, known as Seiken Densetsu in Japan, is united by a central World Tree. While most of the other titles in this list fizzled out and were forgotten by the mid-2000s, the Mana series is still going strong.

The Mana series started as a companion game to Final Fantasy, called Final Fantasy Adventure.

The most recent title, Visions of Mana, was released in 2024 without much fanfare—despite still being an excellent JRPG worthy of praise, according to Screen Rant's own review of it.

Radiata Stories Is Quirky And Full Of Personality

Positivity In The Face Of The Apocalypse

Radiata Stories three characters side by side-1

End-of-the-world stories are often dark and melancholy, but 2005's Radiata Stories, created by tri-Ace and Square Enix, took the idea in a different direction. It was a game about the apocalypse, sure, but it was also packed full of quirky and memorable NPCs.

These characters didn't exist solely to serve up dialogue for the protagonists and progress the central story. Rather, they were living, breathing personalities that had their own lives, jobs, and schedules that corresponded to the game's day-night cycle. Today, this is fairly standard, but it was a fairly new concept in the early 2000s and made Radiata Stories a dynamic title.

Besides that, you could kick pretty much anything, adding even more to the memorable nature of the game. Somehow, this charming game didn't manage to make it quite that big, only reaching cult classic status.

Azure Dreams Blends Several Genres Perfectly

Turn-Based, Roguelike, Monster-Hunting Dating Sim

Konami's Azure Dreams was another unfortunate 1997 release that fell victim to Final Fantasy 7's huge success. The two titles couldn't be any more different, though, with Azure Dreams throwing every possible kind of genre into a melting pot and spitting out a unique JRPG.

Azure Dreams was a dungeon-crawling roguelike that let players capture and raise monsters as fighting companions. It was also a dating sim that let you romance everyone from your neighbor to your rival. When you weren't busy doing all that, you could also decorate your home. And somehow, the combination of all these genres worked well, providing a fun break from the serious and brooding RPGs of the time.

Star Ocean Was Ahead Of Its Time

Pairing Sci-Fi With Fantasy

The Star Ocean series started in 1996 as tri-Ace's debut title. It featured a novel combination of sci-fi and fantasy and abandoned the JRPG turn-based combat system for semi-active battles. It also had a robust item creation system and a central story that continued throughout all the series entries.

Star Ocean sent players into outer space with their choice of two protagonists, each of which had a different twist on the main story. They could then recruit unique characters from around the galaxy, and learn about every planet's deep lore and stories—a tradition which continued through subsequent entries.

Nier Gestalt Was Criminally Underrated

It Pulled In Elements From Other Genres

Nier character faces off against large monster-1

Nier: Automota is well-known, as is its famously masked director, Yoko Taro. Much less appreciated is the game's 2010 predecessor, Nier (known as Nier Gestalt outside the US).

Nier, in turn, arose from the equally underrated and equally quirky action RPG series, Drakengard.

Nier looked like a traditional JRPG on the surface, but it had elements of cozy gaming thrown in, like fishing and gardening, at a time when that wasn't common yet. Furthering its identity crisis, the game frequently switched playstyles. Sometimes, you'd find yourself playing through entire bullet hell sections, and other times you land in a scene straight from Resident Evil, right down to the color tone and camera shifts.

The game became even more memorable on its second playthrough, which reframed the entire first playthrough and made you question your actions. It was a stellar game that flew under the radar despite being a fantastic, unique title.

Terranigma Lets You Rebuild The World

The Entire Quintet Trilogy Is Worth A Play

Terranigma image of Ark sitting cross legged over the world

Terranigma was a 1995 SNES title from the now-defunct development studio, Quintet. It was never released in the United States, which means it never got a chance to become as well-known as Chrono Trigger and other early trailblazing JRPGs.

Terranigma was an action JRPG romp through the history of a pseudo-Earth. Fiery-haired protagonist Ark is tasked with rebuilding the world, starting with the birds and animals, and progressing to humans. As Ark, players got to play a hand in expanding cities and advancing technology.

The things you did—or didn't do—directly impacted how cities developed as in-game time passed. It was an impactful game that would have soared to the heights of gaming's classics if it had ever gotten a chance to reach a truly worldwide audience. Instead, Terranigma remains a JRPG that's left out of the conversation more often than not.

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JRPG

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