What's Your Favorite Console JRPG From the Last Generation? (PS3, 360, Wii)

Looking back, I actually didn't playing that many JRPGs last gen. Seems like the genre was still fairly poppin' on the handhelds but being generally a console player, I didn't get a chance to play any of those portable games and I also let most of the console offerings pass me by. There are games like Ni No Kuni and Xenoblade Chronicles I still have to get to, on my shelf but is there another title that immediately strike you as your favorite?

It's telling I wasn't really up on the scene when my thought goes to a game that wasn't even a JRPG, Valkyria Chronicles.

I have to say, out of the handful of JRPGs I played last gen, Lightning Returns: FF13 is my favorite. Running around the open spaces, doing the side quests, trying out different combinations of Garbs, engaging in probably my favorite RPG combat, the game absolutely got its hooks into me. I found the game supremely addictive and the writing might be at "it's so bad, it's good" level, I'm not sure. Anyway, doesn't matter and who cares, the game is super fun.

Nier if that counts, if not... Resonance of Fate or FF13-2.

Probably Xenoblade Chronicles. Even though I went into it as a big fan of Xenosaga I was not expecting to like it as much as I did. It didn't quite reach the same highs as Xenogears or Xenosaga, but it was a much more consistently good game than any other "Xeno" game to date.

Trails of Cold Steel.

Fuck, I knew I was forgetting something. Okay, I might have to give it to ToCS instead. That was definitely one that blew away my expectations more than any other.

Nier for me. It was a game I initially had no interest in whatsoever. Drakengard and Bullet Witch were all poorly received, and Cavia just seemed like a C-tier studio I had no reason to pay attention to. It was Mark from Classic Game Room that convinced me to pick it up with his glowing review, saying it was a serious contender for his GOTY. I thought I must be missing something here, so I gave it a try, and it now sits in my top 5 of all-time favorite games.

Definitely a series I need to get in to. I've seen too many people saying these are some of the best RPGs ever. Just can't decide whether I should get these on Vita or wait for the PS4 ports...

The steam port is really good.

@liquiddragon: Oh, you mean during the dark times. I remember having a lot of fun with Tales of Graces f during my "play nothing but JRPGs" phase with the PS3. Tales of Vesperia and Lost Odyssey were awesome on the 360. On the Wii, I remember enjoying my time spent with Xenoblade Chronicles and Last Story, though I played with a pro controller because I'm a "dinosaur" (according to my younger brother).

There were a few JRPG gems during the seventh generation, but it is arguably where many of the great franchises lost their way. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Star Ocean, even Tales all put out titles that were either highly divisive compared to their predecessors or widely panned. A few of the big franchises retreated to handheld, some yet to be seen on home console again. Japan has been in a state of flux since the PS3 failed to maintain the market lead for Sony and Nintendo's forays into non-conventional controllers. It didn't help that the launch window of 07-08 also corresponded with a massive global economic meltdown and accompanying crash in the anime market. Hopefully the Switch is able to revitalize Japanese third parties in a way we've not seen, yet. Though unless the laws change in Japan, I doubt we'll see most of them come back from mobile and it's lucrative gachapon mechanics.

I've played some JRPGs on my 360, some which I still have unopened. I'm currently playing Tales of Vesperia, though I'm not sure when I'll finish it because I barely have any time left for it. Other games include the FFXIII trilogy - I know many people think it's terrible but I want to experience it for myself -, Lost Oddysey, and a couple of days ago I wanted to buy Eternal Sonata but I had my doubts about how much I would enjoy it.

Probably there are some other JRPG games in my library, but those sit at the top of my mind right now.

It's interesting to limit it to those platforms because it's kind of tough for me. There are probably a lot of great PS3 releases I haven't yet played (a ton of the Tales games, the Trails of Cold Steel games I hear people rave over) but generally speaking just looking at it from a time perspective of 2005-2013 only on the 360, Wii, and PS3, I don't have many to think of that knocked it out of the park for me.

Xenoblade Chronicles is often mentioned in this kind of conversation but personally it was a huge miss for me. It's pretty good, especially for the standards of the platform, but going into it after hearing the import-game crowd rave about how it was a landmark, one-of-the-greatest-of-all-time JRPG I came away from it thinking "This is pretty good but nothing about this is some huge revolution for the genre." It's a totally solid JRPG in a beautiful world with neat systems but had way too much padding. Haven't played Last Story, but really want to.

Tales of Vesperia is a really high ranking one for me I guess, almost primarily because the main character is just so great, with a pragmatic sort of edge that contrasts so memorably against other character archetypes in the genre, but I feel weird about saying it's my "favorite" because I have barely even touched other Tales games as far as I remember. That weird hot moment (like 07-09) when Microsoft was funding JRPGs was sort of cool, but mostly the games I've played (Infinite Undiscovery, The Last Remnant) from that wave of releases weren't anything but "Well, there's some cool ideas in here" buried under technical issues and terrible voice work. The FFXIII trilogy was a hot mess. Honestly with few exceptions the last generation was kind of bad for JRPGs up until the end of the generation. (Restricting it to consoles, at least. I know DS and 3DS folks will probably chime in with handheld JRPGs that were good but I rarely play handheld titles.)

I would probably say Lost Odyssey, restricted to those platforms and my self-imposed year window. It represents more or less the meat and potatoes of what I love in a good JRPG and I think the pacing of it is superb. I love turn based combat with high production value (which has become a vanishingly rare combo), the music of it is incredible (being Uematsu, why wouldn't it be), the characters (barring the children) are fairly down to earth with pretty restrained designs, I just really enjoy it a lot and would happily replay it right now.

Demon's Souls

Tales of Vesperia. It had a great cast of characters, and while a lot of them fell into the anime stereotypes, they were at least fairly well written and had good voice acting. It also actually took the time to tell the story, so there were actual arcs to what was going on, as opposed to a lot of other JRPGs these days, which railroad the plot to the point it's incomprehensible. Needless to say, I was really disappointed in Zesteria.

That said, I only had an XBOX last gen. I recently was able to discover Valkyria Chronicles when it came to PS4, so it might have been that if I'd had a PS3.

Persona 4 came out in 2008 and its playable on PS3, so that. Xenoblade if we have to be absolutely beholden to the rules. As stated, the genre fell out of popularity pretty hard for consoles and most studios moved to handhelds. Endless Frontier is my favorite JRPG period, its a handheld one, but I will plug that game whenever humanly possible.

Lost Odyssey, Tales of Vesperia, and Xenoblade. All really good games.

Eternal Sonata was pretty awesome - graphics, sound, story, pretty much everything. I really liked Blue Dragon, too.

If I'm counting PS2 titles playable on PS3, Persona 4.

If not, Ni No Kuni takes the crown and runs with it.

Lost Odyssey is an extremely cool game that I loved every hour of. The story, art direction, characters, lively battles and beautiful graphics made it one of the most memorable JRPGs for me. The intro is epic as fuck, too.

Ni No Kuni absolutely nailed the Miyazaki/Ghibli charm, and weaved a tale worthy of their oeuvre to boot. Even had a Joe Hisaishi soundtrack! I have no qualms in calling it a masterpiece, and one of the strongest examples of a video game obviously being art.

Valkyria Chronicles is another great one. It should be an anime, that's how attached to the characters I got, and the gameplay is a deeply rewarding, less-restrictive tweak on the genre. Not a straight-up JRPG, but close enough to consider.

Last Remnant (PC Version), Ni No Kuni, Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2, VC1; Compared to the golden age of PS1/PS2 there just weren't very many; still put like 140 hours into Remnant though. I'm sure Xenoblade kind of destroys all the competition but I don't have a Wii/Wii U. PS4 has a similar number of JRPGs at this rate but I think they're on average better, much like the entire generation. Remnant has the weirdest combat out of any JRPG I've played, super fun to poke at and try to figure out what the fuck is going on; Final Fantasy XIII has the best combat system out of any JRPG period; probably any RPG altogether.

For the finest of cans of worms: Souls was made in Japan right?

@fredchuckdave: It was but spirit of the law probably applies more here.

I think I only played Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Dark Souls II and Dragon's Dogma. The Souls games are a lot better than Dragon's Dogma. I think Demon's Souls is still my favorite, but I'm not sure.

The past generation of JRPGs was a steaming pile of shit. JRPGs went from my favorite genre to "Oh, another Final Fantasy? Who gives a fuck?". It seems like just when they were growing up, the stories took a backwards turn into immature nonsense (looking at you XIII trilogy!) And the combat systems became a mixed bag of experimental weirdness. Ni No Kuni tried really hard and had a lot of the elements of a great JRPG, but the ally AI was so incredibly terrible I found myself quitting in frustration. Xenoblade Chronicles was the only true exception, and it was phenomenal. Why oh why must you be so attached to Nintendo Monolith?!?

Persona Q

edit: oh I didn't notice that you were excluding handhelds in the question. That makes it a lot more difficult for me. Every JRPG I love in the last 10 years started life on either the DS, 3DS, PSP or Vita. I guess I'll have to give it to the Final Fantasy X remaster lol

It's either Tales of Vesperia or Final Fantasy XIII-2 for me. I really liked each one, though in my mind they both have their knocks against them. In the case of Tales, even after playing like 60 hours of that game, I still have no idea how the combat works or is supposed to flow. FF has some baaaaaaaad story issues, but I think the gameplay/battle system are refined from the first one really well, and even if the story is garbage, I'm a sucker for any story involving time travel and branching timelines. I'd probably pick FF, but they're both great IMO.

EDIT: Saw someone above me list out the Souls games. Not sure if those are JRPG's (I think of turn based combat and the like when think of JRPGs), but if they are, it's easily Dark Souls for me.

Last gen almost(or may have) killed my love of JRPG's, i can't think of one good one i played atm. Unless you count Dragons dogma and the souls games.

Well maybe it was Final Fantasy 13 that did it, that game disappointed me so bad maybe i lost interest in the genre lol.

I didn't really get into JRPG's until close to the end of last generation and when I did, it was thanks to Chrono Trigger and the Shin Megami Tensei series, nothing current. Almost everything from the PS3/360 generation, in terms of JRPG's, looked like a waste of time compared to the SNES through PS2 greats I could have been playing, so I didn't play many of them. Ten or so hours of FFXIII and Ni No Kuni each and I think that's it? Unless you count Valkyria Chronicles - not really, that's a turn-based strategy game, and I played that on PC. And didn't finish it.

I bought a copy of Lost Odyssey a month or two ago that I haven't cracked into yet. That, Xenoblade Chronicles, and Ni No Kuni seem to be the only real "bright spots" of last generation when it comes to JRPG's. Everything else, even stuff that some people enjoyed, seems to come with a few big caveats. Tales of Vesperia seemed all right for a lot of people, too, I guess.

Either Lost Odyssey or Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. Close behind those two was Last Remnant which had some really fantastic DLC that almost no one played apparently. Very, very good stuff.

I play hardly any JRPG's so my picks are relatively simple, i see some people suggesting Dragon's Dogma which would be my pick too, but it doesn't fit into the JRPG genre in my mind, it's more "an action RPG that was made in Japan"... with one of the best menu themes of all time. I could also try to argue that Shenmue is a form of JRPG and that would be one of my picks too, but i won't.
So instead i pick Eternal Sonata, the game is beautiful, the story strange but not overbearingly so, its exploration simple, combined with active combat mechanics featuring depth without being too taxing. I have absolutely no idea why i didn't finish it but for many people that's how most JRPG's go, i hope it gets re-released some day so that i might have another opportunity to play through it.

NieR is probably the one that stuck with me the most from that era. A lot of JRPGs at that time went for gloom and melodrama, but NieR is the only one I can think of that had balls about it. I picked it up on sale for about $10 back when I used to just blindly buy games like that, with the only thing to go on being the Quick Look that showed off the worst part of the game. The thing that took me by surprise the most though was the soundtrack, which is amazing compared to the usual JRPG affair, and I'm still not sick of listening to it half-a-decade later. The gameplay was average but it didn't bother me too much since the atmosphere and story sunk their hooks in deep.

There are definitely a lot of them that I enjoyed, Ni No Kuni, Tales of Vesperia/Xillia and Dragon's Dogma are the other favourites. They're just... pretty far down the list of ALL my favourite JRPGs.

I wish I had more time for more JRPGs. This thread made me realize I haven't played through a proper one in a long time. The closest game that meets those qualifications is Valkyria Chronicles, which I loved aside from some of the silly story and anime bits.

I did start Tales of Vesperia on Xbox 360 a few years ago. Unfortunately, I took a short break from it which turned into a several-years break and now I'd probably have no idea where to go, what to do, or how to play.

And it's not modern, but I played through the first Wild Arms for PS1 about 3 years ago. I enjoyed it.

I do own Final Fantasy XIII on PS3, but it's still in shrinkwrap.

Tales Of Xillia was a standout JRPG for me. It doesn't do anything new that the rest of the series didn't already do but I enjoyed the cast of characters enough to finish it. I also enjoyed the story as well by the time the credits rolled. Plus the traditional Tales combat is fun even if it is a bit repetitive.

Leaning towards Demon's Souls, Dragon's Dogma and Valkyria Chronicles, assuming either of them are counted as JRPG's by the masses. I certainly do.

Resonance of Fate is and will probably always be an overlooked classic of the genre.

@redhotchilimist: tales of Vesperia is a GOAT for me.

I should also note that I don't consider Demon's/Dark Souls or Dragon's Dogma to be JRPGS. They are western RPGs developed by Japanese developers...if that makes sense. Otherwise they would be up there with Resonance.

@fisk0: I don't. For me, JRPGs always referred to games with combat on a separate screen, a party focus, and predefined characters. I personally think anime-inspired graphics are also required, but I'm open to debate on that. Games in that style were pioneered by the Japanese in the 90s (and contrasted with their Western counterparts at the time), and so the genre inherited the country of origin as part of the name. It's never been the intention that every RPG made in Japan is a JRPG. Don't take the label so literally.

Ni no Kuni, without question. Beyond that, it's Xillia in a very distant second and Vesperia as a third. There were a bunch of good 3DS RPGs too. The Dragon Quest re-releases in particular were spectacular.

Final Fantasy XIII-2. The Wii U is in a weird place, so if you count that then it's Tokyo Mirage Sessions.

I played three JRPGs last gen. Eternal Sonata and Tales of Vesperia were both fantastic. Lost Odyssey was shite. I bought Ni No Kuni but never played it.

Tales of Vesperia

It's a really fun game, but it doesn't reach those levels for me because it hasn't really stuck with me after the fact. I think one of the main reasons I enjoyed it so much was that it was "Tales of Symphonia, but better playing and beautiful, not as serious, and also we changed around the archetypes we like to use a little". But because of that, it also didn't manage to make a strong emotional connection with me, and I rarely think about it unless it's brought up. Still a super easy game to recommend to people. Vesperia is just a joy to play.

There's always a debate about whether or not the Souls series is a JRPG series, but I consider it as one. If we're including it, I'd have to say Dark Souls was my favorite JRPG from last gen.

I also really liked Valkyria Chronicles and Ni no Kuni. :)