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Nowadays, JRPGs are making a powerful comeback to the mainstream. And while I say mainstream, I mean game events, community discussions, and even impressive sales numbers.
However, in the process of adaptation and modernization of the gaming industry, many series that once existed have ended up disappearing. Some come back in the form of remasters or collections, but others don’t.
Worse yet, there are games that are truly wonderful but ended up being forgotten, either because their developers stopped giving them attention or because, even at launch, there wasn’t enough buzz around them to make them known.
Here, I’ll explore some turn-based JRPGs that were forgotten by time but shouldn’t have been, because in one way or another, they present incredible systems that would please many fans of the genre.
10 Voice of Cards
Voiceless Games
Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars was quietly announced by Square Enix, failing to grab players’ attention until it was revealed that Yoko Taro, creator of the Drakengard and NieR series, would be the creative director of this new franchise. Then, marketing failed to explain to fans that Voice of Cards had nothing to do with those series, but was instead a brand-new IP.
Both Voice of Cards: The Isle Dragon Roars and its follow-up titles, Voice of Cards: The Forsaken Maiden and Voice of Cards: The Beasts of Burden, play the same way. They simulate a tabletop world where we control cards representing characters and interact with the environment while a narrator tells the tale.
The battle system is turn-based and uses mechanics seen in card games. Each character has a deck setup, and these cards are used according to their effects. Leveling up increases each party member’s stats and also allows them to learn skills. To spice things up, we also have some dice mechanics that add a random factor. They are good games, but not remarkable enough, and were soon forgotten by the community.
9 Дикие Оружия
Giddy Up, Armed Fantasia
To be fair, Wild Arms wasn’t entirely forgotten, since Armed Fantasia is currently cooking in the oven, the spiritual successor to the series being developed by Akifumi Kaneko, the producer of the original Wild Arms games. However, considering that Armed Fantasia is struggling to find a publisher, that shows the industry isn’t too keen on seeing the return of the Wild West-inspired JRPG.
Wild Arms was produced by Media.Vision (which recently developed Digimon Story Time Stranger) and published by Sony. It was one of the few first-party JRPGs Sony had back then, which explains its disappearance. The settings of all games were based on the Wild West, where characters used ARMs to face the dangers of Filgaia.
The first three games featured straightforward turn-based gameplay, while Wild Arms 4 and 5 introduced the creative HEX battle system. Seven hexagons made up the battlefield, and both allies and enemies occupied that space. This defined not only the attack range of abilities but also their reach, adding a deeper layer of strategy than in simpler games.
8 Дитя Света
When Ubisoft Liked Games
Although Child of Light was produced by Ubisoft, it’s one of those games inspired by classic JRPGs while also using the template that defines the genre, checking all the marks to be called a JRPG not developed in Japan. A good one at that, mind you.
Child of Light follows the story of Aurora as she tries to escape from the continent of Lemuria. The biggest highlights of the game are its iconic art style and its story filled with rhymes and verses. I know this may turn some people off, but I do love some rhymes, especially when they’re as poetic as in Child of Light.
The combat system follows a turn-based model with real-time elements. Depending on Aurora’s actions, or the actions of the player-controlled firefly Igniculus, we can alter the flow of battle, preventing enemies from acting or striking before them. Since it was one of Ubisoft’s smaller and more innovative projects, it’s no surprise the publisher has no interest in the IP nowadays.
7 Грандиа
GungHo, Do Your Magic
In 2019, the Grandia HD Collection was released to little fanfare. Even I, who is always up-to-date with the latest JRPG news, barely noticed its release because it was so low-profile and lacked marketing. It’s no surprise that the series once again faded into obscurity, despite being considered one of the best JRPGs back on the Saturn and PlayStation systems.
Coincidentally, Grandia features a battle system quite similar to Child of Light, a sort of turn-based combat with real-time elements. A timeline dictates when a character will act, and when their turn comes, we must choose a command. Each command has a weight, deciding how fast or slow it will be executed, which can leave the character vulnerable if an enemy is closing in.
As for its story, Grandia didn’t present, at least initially, a world-ending plot or godlike enemies. We were just adventurers setting out on grand journeys. Of course, being a JRPG, the stakes grew as the player progressed. The first two games are gems, while Grandia 3 isn’t half bad and Grandia Xtreme is often forgotten even by the most enthusiastic fans.
6 Dungeon Encounters
Hiroyuki Ito’s Swan Song
Between 2021 and 2022, Square Enix went on a roll, releasing game after game and catching many fans off guard. The aforementioned Voice of Cards was one of these new titles, as was Dungeon Encounters, another turn-based dungeon-crawling RPG with a minimalist presentation that bet entirely on its gameplay.
The biggest announcement surrounding Dungeon Encounters was that it was directed by Hiroyuki Ito, the creator of the famous ATB system. Thus, the game obviously featured this style of gameplay as well. It presents itself with a minimalist design, from its UI to its interactive elements. However, don’t confuse simplicity with poor quality, even if its presentation certainly didn’t attract as much attention as players would expect from a Square Enix title.
And while on the surface the game may seem simple, its gameplay has surprising depth. You form a party and embark on a dungeon, exploring its tiles for monsters, treasures, and events. Battles use the ATB system, customized according to your weapons and abilities learned. Every action must be diligently taken because it’s possible to permanently lose a party member. Your objective is to reach floor 99, and it won’t be a walk in the park, trust me.
5 Синий Дракон
Xbox 360’s First JRPG
When the Xbox 360 launched, Microsoft slowly tried to win over the Japanese audience by investing in several JRPGs. One of the ways they did that was by pouring money into Mistwalker, Hironobu Sakaguchi’s company, to create new IPs. In addition to the usually remembered Lost Odyssey, the first game developed by Mistwalker was Blue Dragon, a turn-based JRPG with character designs by Akira Toriyama.
Blue Dragon, for better or worse, is structured as a traditional JRPG. That both drew praise from critics and fans and sparked complaints, as some claimed the game didn’t bring anything new compared to previous releases. The turn-based battle system, for instance, uses a Shadow system that simulates classes. Each character can equip a Shadow, level it up, and learn new abilities, some of which can be equipped even after switching Shadows.
The story isn’t exactly remarkable either. Every year, global disasters preceded by purple clouds occur at the hands of a beast called the Land Shark. When the protagonist Shu and his friends try to stop this creature from destroying their village, they get caught up in the main plot and embark on a journey to defeat the villain Nene.
Blue Dragon met Microsoft’s sales expectations, but its reviews were all over the place. It’s a good game for those chasing a bit of nostalgia, but not recommended for players seeking something new. Yet, it wasn’t exactly memorable, as Blue Dragon is often forgotten nowadays, especially since it remains stuck on the Xbox 360 (backwards compatible, though).
4 Связанных Эхо
Deserving of Way More Love
It pains me to write this, but it was only after I reviewed Chained Echoes: Ashes of Elrant that I realized how this JRPG, although wonderful and heartfelt, seems to have already fallen into oblivion. Chained Echoes was released in December 2022, and I remember many fans complaining that it wasn’t nominated for the following year’s TGAs.
However, since then, I rarely hear anyone talking about it outside JRPG-dedicated spaces, whether on Reddit or other forums. And that’s a shame, because Chained Echoes is an amazing indie game that truly celebrates the JRPGs of old. Following Glenn and a colorful cast, we dive into a political plot filled with unexpected twists and turns; perhaps a few too many twists for my taste.
The battle system is where Chained Echoes really shines. The turn-based combat features the Overdrive, a meter that determines whether our party deals and takes less damage, or the opposite. Controlling this meter is the heart of combat, defined by the different types of skills. Sometimes it throws a wrench in your plans, and you’re forced to ditch that skill you’ve been saving up, or risk going into overheat just to deal massive damage.
There’s also a beautiful overworld, plenty of sidequests, and even optional party members that encourage exploration and experimentation. If you’re a fan of JRPGs from yesteryear, you should absolutely play Chained Echoes and spread the word. It deserves way more love than it’s gotten.
3 Легенда о Легайе
Slot Machine Was The Best Part
There’s a reason many call the PS1 era the golden age of JRPGs, and it pretty much boils down to the sheer volume of titles and their overall quality (or maybe the community was simply more welcoming to new games). Legend of Legaia was one of them, a game published by Sony.
In the world of Legend of Legaia, our protagonists wield the power of Ra-Seru to fight other Seru going haywire due to a mysterious Mist. As the only ones capable of using this power, it’s up to them to uncover the mysteries behind the Mist and save the world. Watching the Ra-Seru evolve as we progressed was one of my favorite parts of the game.
Another element that kept me glued to the screen was its combo-based battle system. In it, we choose directional inputs that determine each party member’s attacks, and depending on the combination, we unleash Arts. Legend of Legaia was released in 1998, and back then, the Internet wasn’t as common as it is today, so we had to discover new Arts through trial and error, by finding books in-game, or by discussing them with friends.
Legend of Legaia even got a sequel, Legaia 2, but it wasn’t nearly as beloved as the first and soon the series faded into obscurity, just like most JRPGs Sony published back then.
2 Легенда о Драгуне
The Legend of Being Overlooked By Sony
Speaking of JRPGs published by Sony, we have the beloved The Legend of Dragoon. Granted, I don’t think it’s as forgotten as the others on this list — especially since Shuhei Yoshida himself once told me it’s one of the most requested remakes he hears about. However, considering the direction the industry has taken, I decided to include it because it’s been forgotten by Sony itself.
For some odd reason, many believe Sony marketed The Legend of Dragoon as a Final Fantasy killer, which sounds pretty counterintuitive if we remember it was thanks to Final Fantasy VII that the PlayStation became a global powerhouse. Still, that didn’t stop the community from constantly (and wrongly) comparing The Legend of Dragoon to Final Fantasy.
The thing is, The Legend of Dragoon is an insanely good game on its own and had a massive budget for its time. Its visuals were great, its four-disc adventure offered solid length, the story, starting with revenge against an army and the rescue of a friend, evolves into classic yet engaging JRPG proportions, and the battle system is still cited as a benchmark for turn-based games.
In battle, we have the Additions system, a sort of quick-time event that dictates how many combos our attack will land. As we level up, we learn new Additions with trickier timing but greater power. It was a simple yet creative way to keep players engaged in every battle instead of just pressing a button and waiting for the action to unfold. We’ll probably never get a remake, but we can at least keep The Legend of Dragoon to our hearts.
1 Radiant Historia: Идеальная хронология
Perfect Overall
There are countless JRPGs that try to grab fans’ attention by citing Chrono Trigger as an inspiration, but few manage to live up to that claim. There is one, however, that never even mentioned Trigger as a reference, yet is constantly compared to it in both quality and theme: Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology.
Radiant Historia was initially released for the Nintendo DS in 2010, while its enhanced version, Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology, arrived on the 3DS in 2018, the version I played. It’s such an intricately designed game, with smart writing, witty dialogue, and a clever battle system, that it shocks me how overlooked it remains.
As mentioned, Radiant Historia revolves around time travel, and this feature is constantly explored throughout the game. Our protagonist, Stocke, acquires the White Chronicle book, which allows him to travel through time and between parallel timelines. With this power and the knowledge gained across different eras, he keeps turning the wheels of time and saving the world in the process. Time travel in games is a tricky theme, but Radiant Historia nails it.
The combat also deserves praise. Upon entering a battle, we’re presented with a grid-based field that determines both character positioning and skill effects. We can push or pull enemies, determining the range of our attacks and whether we’ll get hit in return. It’s highly strategic, especially during boss fights. If you’ve got a 3DS lying around, you should definitely find a way to play Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology.
