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[fedexpeon]

I didn't want to post because choosing between the 16bit and polygon era was too hard.
But then I read:
http://www.destructoid.com/the-golden-age-of-jrpgs-273485.phtml
PSX era: Xenogears, Final Fantasy VIII, Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy Tactics, the Persona games, Breath of Fire, Suikoden, Valkyrie Profile, Star Ocean, Parasite Eve..

And I agree with him.
So many great classics that can equally match, or even surpass the best of SNES JRPG ie: FF3/CT
The Polygon era got more of everything within the subgenre of JRPG.

 

[Prototype]

16-bit/SNES era easily.

FF4 & 6, Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG are enough to call it imo.

These games, especially Chrono Trigger, shaped my view of what an RPG, hell, of what even a game could be and has stayed with me ever since I was a child.

 

[Burt]

I guess this depends on whether you know Japanese or not. We got more games localized from the PS2 era onwards, but in terms of quality 32 and 16 bit eras seem to have the most classics, but Europe missed a huge chunk of those.

I don't think that requires a mastery of Japanese though. What games are you talking about? The SNES alone had more than enough RPGs to make a legitimate claim for the RPG throne on its own, and I only have experience with games that had an English version. What games are you referring to? Granted, as an American, I'm not familiar with which games didn't see release in Europe, but I'd love to see a list/hear about them.

 

[Cyrano]

I don't know about fluff. The characterisation was excellent, particularly that of ryu, rei and garr. ryu's "coming of age" arc with balio and sunder is one of my favourite things in video games

But again, this is a hasty transition. And what I remember most about it are stuff like the fishing minigame, the rope-pulling minigame, the follow the star minigame, the "masters" minigame... plus the fact that you get abilities that break the game wayyyyy too early.

Again, the game has lots of stuff to do but I don't feel like Ryu's coming-of-age was all that substantive. Or at least, no more or less substantive than Link pulling the Master Sword out and suddenly "becoming" older. The most substantive thing about that game, I would say,

Spoiler

is the fact that you kill Teepo at the end and that Myria is a horrible snake-monster... thing.

But again, that's subject to a young mind. I don't feel like those kinds of stories are really things you remember exceptionally, but rather become part of other stories you commonly hear more of as you get older (given that we're all subject to experiencing a larger narrative over time). Not so much that it is necessarily common, just that it isn't particularly breathtaking. I still can't think of anything more cerebral than the Coffee Break in Earthbound, though there is some stuff in Yume Nikki and Proteus that comes close. Knytt or Immortall are some other mindful games. Hyperbound is utterly fantastic, and more people should give it a shot.

Rabble rabble rabble...

Yeah, but the mega drive didn't have as many as the saturn.

Warsong was one of my favorite sRPGs ever, and stuff like Beyond Oasis/Phantasy Star/Shining Force are definitely classics.

 

[Jucksalbe]

I don't think that requires a mastery of Japanese though. What games are you talking about? The SNES alone had more than enough RPGs to make a legitimate claim for the RPG throne on its own, and I only have experience with games that had an English version. What games are you referring to? Granted, as an American, I'm not familiar with which games didn't see release in Europe, but I'd love to see a list/hear about them.

It's a bit harder to call which good Japanese-only games we missed, at least from the SNES era we now know we missed some true classics with DQ5 and the SMT games plus the Fire Emblem games if you count SRPGs.
As for which games Europe missed, we didn't get the SNES versions of FF4, FF6, Chrono Trigger and Earthbound (we got Terranigma, though, at least). In the PSX era we missed Xenogears, Dragon Warrior VII, Chrono Cross, Legend of Mana, the Lunar games, for example.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Is there even a contest? 16-bit wins by a landslide, and that's not even counting the amazing JRPGs that were left Japan-only at the time, like Romancing SaGa 3, Seiken Densetsu 3, FFV, Live a Live, etc.

 

[The Praiseworthy]

FF7 came out on PS1.

If another RPG was never released on that console, it would STILL be the Golden Age. Just from that one title alone!

You are my new best friend

PS1 without any doubt... The golden era for JRPG AND for Square Soft.

 

[Midnight Bliss]

Sega saturn era

 

[Nohar]

I would say 16-bit era, with the Polygon era following not far behind.

 

[Zakalwe]

Wherever FFVII-IX and Vagrant Story were.

 

[manueldelalas]

If we count the Japanese only games, then 16 bit without a doubt.

32 bit era was great because of all those games released in the west, but slow ass animations and transitions, and mountains of text sucked. Also disc swapping, major sin, since it limited the games.

The cartridges helped the genre, because they limited writers and they had to get to the point, instead of wasting everybody's time with long ass stories and 100 hour games...

 

[Kalamoj]

Polygon era was the best, especially for PAL gamers. The majority of the 8 and 16-bit rpgs were nonexistent here.

 

[Olli128]

Hard choice between snes and ps1 lineup. I'll give ps1 the edge for Ff7 and wild arms though.

 

[Ganondorfo]

I think we will never get a jrpg era again anymore. The PS2 was the last great one, you will never relieve that magic feeling of jrpgs anymore I think. Sorry jrpg fans, I feel the pain.

 

[raven777]

my choice would be PS1 (32-bit) era. It was simply amazing era in terms of JRPGs.
But I can see people arguing SNES (16-bit) era as well.

 

[Lyonaz]

For me it's the PSX-era, during that time I played a ton of jrpgs and srpgs.
During the 16-bit era, I only really played Terranigma, Illusion of Time and Zelda: Lttp, only after the PSX-era did I go back and play 16-bit era rpgs like Lufia, Chrono Trigger and FFIV and FFVI.

 

[Brawly Likes to Brawl]

I think we will never get a jrpg era again anymore. The PS2 was the last great one, you will never relieve that magic feeling of jrpgs anymore I think. Sorry jrpg fans, I feel the pain.

Eh, if you like handhelds things have just been peachy keen. There's been a resurgence of hardcore FPRPGs that has been nice.

 

[terrisus]

My top 4 favorite games ever - regardless of genre - are Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Lufia 1, and Lufia 2...

So, yeah... 16-bit, by far.

 

[Shion]

People that pick 16-bit have nostalgia goggles. RPGs were more available and more innovative in the 32-bit era.

"Nostalgia" is such a lazy argument. It's also a silly argument in this case because:

1. It's 2014, the 32-bit era was a very long time ago.
2. The vast majority of people didn't play JRPGs until the FFVII phenomenon took place. If anything, they're nostalgic for the era that got them into the genre, not for the era they experienced LTTP (if at all).

With very few exceptions (like Phantasy Star and Shining Force), JRPGs were almost nonexistent here in Europe back in the 80s and early 90s.
I got into the 16-bit era JRPGs during the early 00s and, despite the fact that I was late to the party, I liked them better.

16-bit > 32-bit >>>> 6th gen

 

[Randam]

1 thing is for sure, it wasnt the PS360 area.

 

[Jucksalbe]

1 thing is for sure, it wasnt the PS360 area.

Well, if you count the two handhelds of that era (DS, PSP), you could make a good argument for that generation as well.

 

[Puru]

1 thing is for sure, it wasnt the PS360 area.

PSP/DS era was pretty good to be honest.

 

[Rhazer Fusion]

PS1
PS2
16 bit era

 

[Zafir]

I guess PS2/Gamecube, but I suppose that isn't too surprising. Europe got more localisations anyway, and any that didn't, it was the era I finally got sick of Europe getting screwed over, and I made it so my console could play imports.

 

[Dr. Buni]

The PS2/Gamecube era. Because:

Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne
Paper Mario The Thousand-Year Door
Digital Devil Saga and Digital Devil Saga 2

Those four games are fucking amazing.

 

[120v]

16 bit

i'm sort of disgusted this is even a question

 

[kevm3]

I fail to see how anyone can say one generation wins by a 'landslide' or wins easily

SNES had games like Chrono Trigger, FF6, Bof2, Super Mario RPG and Terranigma
PSX had games like FF7, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy Tactics, Xenogears, Suikoden 2, Valkyrie Profile, BOF 3, Alundra

 

[Kacho]

16 bit era. FF6, FF4, Super Mario RPG, Earthbound, Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore, Illusion of Gaia, Lufia, Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen, and Chrono Trigger.

 

[CrazyArcadia]

I fail to see how anyone can say one generation wins by a 'landslide' or wins easily

This. Many tough calls...

1) Modern era (PS3, 360, Wii, DS, 3DS, PSP, Vita)
Tough call, but I feel like we had every style of JRPG in the Modern era. Handheld JRPGs is a colorful mix between 16, Polygon and New-ish era style games and IMO, handhelds are just perfect for my JRPG needs (got everything covered between stuff like Trails in the Sky, Etrian Odyssey-series, Radiant Historia, Ys, the FF/DQ remakes, the grand SRPGs coming out). Consoles provided things such as Xenoblade, Last Story, Valkyria Chronicles, some of the recent Tales of... and so on.
2) 16-bit era
Tough call between this and Polygon era, but there were just so many classics and the genre really came into bloom here. Terranigma, Chrono Trigger, FFV/VI, Lufia, Breath of Fire, Phantasy Star IV are all among the best there are.
3) New-ish era
This era was gold for Shin Megami Tensei fans, had grand games such as Shadow Hearts II and Skies of Arcadia, Final Fantasy X and XII, DQ8 and many more. But it also heavily emphasised on spritebased waifu-simulations later on... kinda hit and miss, but great times.
4) Polygon era
Yeah, this was a peak in complexity and themes and technological advance for the genre. Unfortunately, many games from that era did not age gracefully, but there's no point in arguing against the likes of Grandia, FF9, FFT, Persona 2 and so on. (I... only had an N64 so I only played some games later on. Missed out on stuff like Xenogears, Suikoden and stuff so I have no strong connection to that time in regard to JRPGs)
5) 8-bit era
I think one had to be there to appreciate it fully. There was some great stuff coming up (Ys, Final Fantasy I/III, Dragon Quest III/IV) but yeah... it's difficult to grind through the originials these days if not for nostalgia sometimes. (Europe representing here... there was hardly anything in the genre coming out for us :/)

I'm thirty btw. and I find the notion that JRPGs are not a great genre anymore to be strange.

 

[MLH]

There is currently only one point in time in which we can play all the best JRPGs and that is now So my answer is obvious.

But if I had to pick a generation in which these games where released, that would be more difficult; I would say SNES since it has most of my favourites but I didn't play most of them until many years later (and on different platforms DS/GBA/PSP) since they weren't localised in Europe or even in English for some games.

 

[kswiston]

I thought about this question last night after going to bed, and I am going to revise my answer to the 16bit generation based on the entire library, and the PS1 generation based on what was actually localized. When you throw in the few Sega Genesis/CD classics to the entire SNES library, it's pretty hard to beat. I still agree that the PS1 generation was the best that US gamers without a knowledge of Japanese ever had it.

At the same time, I can definitely respect those picking the PS2 or current (largely handheld) generation. I think my age has something to do with those generations not resonating as strongly, despite liking a lot of titles from that era.

 

[sörine]

PSX Era slightly beats out the SNES era to me.
FF6 and Chrono Trigger are some of the best RPGs made period, but for the most part, it was Square making the majority of the classics

however, on PSX, we have games like
Vandal Hearts, Suikoden series, Final Fantasy Tactics, Xenogear,s Breath of Fire 3, Lunar Remakes, Grandia, Arc the Lad series, Alundra, Valkyrie Profile, Front Mission 3, Vagrant Story, etc.

Yes all those Square classic franchises like Phantasy Star, Ogre Battle, SoulBlazer, Earthbound, Shining Force, Legend of Zelda, Monster World, LandStalker, Lufia, Lunar, Ys, Popful Mail, Breath of Fire, Exile, etc.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

16-bit. The spirit and priorities of that time for JRPGs bled over into the early PSX games, like Suikoden. The generation past 16-bit will have to settle for being the Silver Age of JRPGs.

 

[P90]

"Newish"

PS2 and DS were monsters. The PSP had scads of RPGs. The GameCube had Baiten Kaitos. The Xbox had KOTOR.

 

[Augemitbutter]

16-bit era had Shining Force I,II, FF VI, CT, Phantasy Star IV, Lunar etc.

great games. just not enough of them for western gamers. if you realize that europe got shafted by square on pretty much every release, it's clear.

PSX/SAT era had Grandia, Suikoden I, II, Panzer Dragoon Saga, Valkyrie Profile, Persona 2, Xenogears, Shining Force III, FFTactics, Lunar Remakes, Ogre Battle, Tactics Ogre, Dragon Force. 16-bit can't win against this onslaught. at least square started to localize FF in europe, lol.

PS2/DC was great as well. you had Skies of Arcadia, Grandia 2, Ys 6 etc. not gonna list them all. just let me tell you that Atlus had a lot to do with the success of this era. plenty of other good games on PS2.

aftet this, good jrpgs got split over too many platforms. that's one of many reasons why the perception of this genre has changed. hell, people started playing tales games because they got desperate.

obviously, the japanese view on these things is different. i would have killed to play langrisser straight without obstacles back in the day.

32-bit wins.

 

[Neifirst]

I honestly can't pick an era. My favorite RPGs of all time are thematically and structurally similar: optimistic hero, turn-based or hybrid turn-based/positioning battle system, and an emphasis on overworld exploration.

For the record, those games are Lunar: The Silver Star (Sega CD), Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast), Dragon Quest VIII (PS2), and Xenoblade Chronicles (Wii).

 

[butman]

16 bits. No question.

 

[Daouzin]

I still think Dragon Quarter was the best BoF.

Thank you! I think it's one of the best games of that generation. So sad that some people just couldn't get over how different it was.

I replayed it about a year ago and it held up without any issues.

 

[zenosparadox]

I prefer the 16-bit era since that is the one I am most familiar with, but I can see arguments being made for the PS1/PS2 eras as well. The PSP has a solid library, too.

 

[kswiston]

So, I suppose we can agree that the worst generation for JRPGs was the first one

 

[K.Sabot]

PS2 era easy pick although I grew up with the PS1 RPGs.

 

[Eusis]

I think we will never get a jrpg era again anymore. The PS2 was the last great one, you will never relieve that magic feeling of jrpgs anymore I think. Sorry jrpg fans, I feel the pain.

Depends on what you wanted out of them really. If you were looking for bigger console RPGs you're out of luck, but honestly even on PS1 it was more like it spiked a little bit while Squaresoft reliably put games out. I doubt the average JRPG costs anywhere near as much as the average AAA title, even back then, so the biggest disappointment will be for those that actually want that.

So, I suppose we can agree that the worst generation for JRPGs was the first one

Yeah, we can argue about the latter ones but the only way this last generation can actually be worse is if you (foolishly) wrote off handhelds entirely, and even then there's an argument to be made that what we got on PS3/360/Wii outweighs the entire NES output. Certainly some unlocalized gems aside I think only DQIII and IV have a real chance of standing up to them.

 

[kswiston]

Depends on what you wanted out of them really. If you were looking for bigger console RPGs you're out of luck, but honestly even on PS1 it was more like it spiked a little bit while Squaresoft reliably put games out. I doubt the average JRPG costs anywhere near as much as the average AAA title, even back then, so the biggest disappointment will be for those that actually want that.

The average JRPG in the PS1 era wasn't the equivalent of what we now call a AAA game, but the ones that were cost a lot of money. The Final Fantasy titles had budgets in the $40-50M range even then.

Yeah, we can argue about the latter ones but the only way this last generation can actually be worse is if you (foolishly) wrote off handhelds entirely, and even then there's an argument to be made that what we got on PS3/360/Wii outweighs the entire NES output. Certainly some unlocalized gems aside I think only DQIII and IV have a real chance of standing up to them.

I'd throw Phantasy Star 1 and maybe Final Fantasy III onto that list, but it's still pretty short.

 

[Eusis]

The average JRPG in the PS1 era wasn't the equivalent of what we now call a AAA game, but the ones that were cost a lot of money. The Final Fantasy titles had budgets in the $40-50M range even then.

That's kind of the thing though, only Square's ever been able to do that, and even then we saw how development time screwed up for them going into the PS2 and especially PS3. We had some other outliers like Legend of Dragoon (an SCE title, one of the only other companies both able and willing to have attempted similar) but that was it, though I guess the likely disparity in budgets stood out less.

I'd throw Phantasy Star 1 and maybe Final Fantasy III onto that list, but it's still pretty short.

Ah right, forgot PS1, and FFIII's kind of debatable to me but it and FF1 hold up better than many others likely do. If you extend it to Zelda that helps too, though even with my disappointments from TP and SS those more readily cancel out the NES Zeldas than FF cancels out the NES games.

 

[Arthea]

no era compares to PS1 era for me, so many my favourite games are from that era and many of them doesn't have any following in later eras, and certainly not now.

 

[kswiston]

That's kind of the thing though, only Square's ever been able to do that, and even then we saw how development time screwed up for them going into the PS2 and especially PS3. We had some other outliers like Legend of Dragoon (an SCE title, one of the only other companies both able and willing to have attempted similar) but that was it, though I guess the likely disparity in budgets stood out less.

Ya, I was going to say that "AAA" games weren't really a thing back then outside of a small handful of titles. I'm not sure any other games had the budgets of the Final Fantasy titles. Presentation-wise, I guess Metal Gear Solid, Tekken 3, Gran Turismo 2/3, Resident Evil 2/3 and a few others would count. Nintendo's A-list on N64 as well.

 

[Eusis]

Ya, I was going to say that "AAA" games weren't really a thing back then outside of a small handful of titles. I'm not sure any other games had the budgets of the Final Fantasy titles. Presentation-wise, I guess Metal Gear Solid, Tekken 3, Gran Turismo 2/3, Resident Evil 2/3 and a few others would count.

I was ready to list examples too IE how Grandia might not stand out THAT badly relative to other Squaresoft games, but in hindsight I can't really underestimate how obsessed some people can be over this stuff. I can readily jump between handhelds and consoles and details like Dark Souls games not having mouth movement for the most part I just note as a (cheap) quirk and find some odd charm in badly repeating textures. Meanwhile for some people those are outright deal breakers, nevermind the lighting change snafus.

Well, I'm also guessing most people of that mentality or with that high bar for visuals aren't likely to bother with JRPGs for the most part, at an extreme even FFVII's popeye arms and bland models probably made them throw it aside when it came out.

 

[Sacrimoni]

i'm going with last gen as well

consoles had a few dregs. last story, last remnant, xenoblade, tales of v, ni no kuni

ds and psp were killer though

 

[Nokagi]

Easily the PS1. SNES had a few really great ones but my god the PS1 was just loaded down with great JRPGs.

Suikoden 1,2
Xenogears
Final Fantasy 7,8,9
Breath of Fire 3,4
Wild Arms 1,2
Chrono Cross
Valkyrie Profile
Star Ocean 2

I know I'm probably forgetting a lot more but ugh that system was just amazing for JRPG lovers.

 

[Magusx]

PS1, with Snes coming close second