There’s a lot to writing in JRPGs (story, plot, pacing, characters, narration, worldbuilding, etc.) and some games excel at some of those aspects and not so much at others. It’s also a subjective topic.

So, I’d like to know. How do you rank JRPGs looking foremost at writing over other aspects like gameplay, visuals, music and so on? You can talk about your top JRPGs, or maybe highlight some high and low points writing-wise or hell if you want to rank every single JRPG you have played in regards to its writing I’ll read ya! I did find this massive JRPG Tiermaker for those of you that want to rank a couple (or hundreds) of JRPGs in a more graphic form.

Or if you don’t care about ranking but want to share some insights about this topic I’m all ears.

  • @echo64
    3•7 months ago

    The Trails games have ruined worldbuilding in other jrpgs for me forever.

    Oh, I can’t have a conversation with this random npc about something that happened in a different country in a game that came out 20 years ago but those actions lead to global ramifications worldwide and this I guess gardener was impacted by that in some way that reflects in them today? It’s just a gardener who gardens, and they just have one line talking about the weather… okay.

    The actual stories in the trails games range from okay to very good, but everything else comes below them when it comes to a built world

  • StarDreamerEnglish
    1•7 months ago

    Final Fantasy Tactics is going to be a hard one to beat. Sadly the grindy bits (jp ver) break up the flow of the story way too much, and if you overlevel you finish all the fights before seeing any of the fun banter…

    Rune Factory 2 and 3 hold a special place in my heart due to them being some of the first JRPGs I’ve ever played. Story is nice and relatively low stakes, but wow does RF2 have some weird plot twists in terms of where the final boss is…

    I’ve always thought Fire Emblem: Gaiden/Echoes’ story could have been better. There’s a lot of potential if they flesh it out a bit more, there’s too many moments where something emotional happens and it gets resolved before you even get a chance to process it.