8 Great JRPGs That Never Left Japan!

The JRPG genre has delivered us many classic titles over the years. With that said, there's still a large amount out there that have yet to receive any type of English translation, whether official or fan based. This video aims to shine some light on many of these quality games. There's so many we didn't get to cover in this one, but maybe that will leave room for a part 2 and 3 if the interest is there!
Thanks for watching everyone! As always, links to our Patreon/Instagram/Twitter are below for those that wish to follow or support us there.
Patreon: / gamingbroductions
Instagram: / gamingbroductions
Twitter: / gbroductions
Edited by: Evan Pierson
Written and Narrated by: Corbin Pierson
Intro Songs
Hakyu - Skyline • [SOLD] OldSchool x Lof...
Marcus D - Airporter • Airporter (Instrumental)
Outro Song
LofiDavid - Milkshakes • [FREE] Upbeat Lofi Typ...
'Til next time everyone!
0:00 - Intro
2:18 - Tengai Makyō Zero | Far East of Eden Zero
5:06 - Star Ocean: Blue Sphere
7:21 - Bahamut Lagoon
9:30 - Tales of Rebirth
11:08 - Shin Megami Tensei II
13:02 - Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and Trails to Azure
14:50 - Magic School Lunar
16:23 - Farland Story series
18:13 - Outro
#JRPGs #JapaneseRPGs #JapaneseGames

[@LeonardoBramante]

Tales of Rebirth is a big one that definitely needs to be remade. It's apparently one of the darkest Tales games ever made, as well as one of the hardest.

[@SuperSupersoda]

For trails fans, who love the Crossbell games, our prayers to Aidios have been answered and both games will get full English localizations in the near future. Thanks be to the Geofront team, whose incredible hard work and persistence made the entire thing possible.

[@dustingonzalez8080]

I can’t wait to buy them.

[@Yup712]

I mean, the fan translation has been out for years. But good for everyone who missed them I guess?

[@Andrew-Gomez904]

Imma need that part 2 and 3

[@GamingBroductions]

Will definitely come in due time, plan on covering a few other topics first though

[@Andrew-Gomez904]

@@GamingBroductions I'm down with that!

[@femtrooper]

Love this list and would absolutely be down to see more of these videos!!! It sucks how many great JRPGs we have missed over here!!! Thank goodness for fan translations!

[@GamingBroductions]

Thank you for watching and all the support! There are soooo many JRPGs that didn't make it to the west that we are eager to share when we revisit this topic. Those fan translations back in the day were clutch!

[@Rhetzelle]

you keep getting better and better I love this so much ... create a part 2

[@GamingBroductions]

Thank you! We’ll definitely be making a part 2 eventually after we cover a few other topics first

[@m3llytan]

Happy to see Blue Sphere and Lunar Magic School love! Great video. One quibble--You forgot to mention that the GameGear version of Magic School, Lunar Walking School, does indeed have a great English fan translation. :) It's definitely worth checking out for Lunar fans, and anyone who can appreciate what is possibly the best GameGear RPG.

[@GamingBroductions]

Thank you! You’re right, I should have mentioned that about Lunar Walking School. I know the Game Gear isn’t the most popular system but the obscurity of it might have intrigued some to check out a JRPG for it. Oh well, maybe in part 2 or 3!

[@gamerex9378]

Damn, only 39 views? This is a great quality video and deserves significantly more.

[@GamingBroductions]

The KZbin algorithm isn’t too kind to smaller/newer channels unfortunately lol. While it hasn’t been the fastest, thanks to people like you taking notice we have been seeing some more steady growth lately though. So thank you 🙏

[@gamerex9378]

@@GamingBroductions My dude. You deserve it. It was a wonderful list. The prequel to Lunar 1 caught me off guard the most. That series and it's rarity in the late 90s are some of my most nostalgic memories. Fantastic times. Wish I didn't lose that Lunar 2 pendant in jr high lol

[@m3llytan]

@@GamingBroductions Sorry to hear that, I feel like you have a great channel and you just need a chance. I'm sure if you did you'd really take off. Here's hoping!

[@GamingBroductions]

Definitely feel you there. The Lunar series just screams 90s charm and nostalgia to me, there’s something so magical about it. Loved all the packaging, the extra stuff and the colorfully detailed instruction booklet that came with the games, you could tell how much they really cared. Luckily I still have my Lunar 2 pendant! lol

[@Zectifin]

1 year later and I'm glad to see it sitting at 31k views.

[@CRedd9830]

Shining Force III Scenario 2 & 3, Sakura Wars 1 - 4, The Crossbell games and Front Mission 2 & 5 are the best ones to not make it out of Japan yet IMO.

[@GamingBroductions]

Definitely agree with most of those. The Shining Force III games are the ones I’ve always been wanting to play the most. Also would throw Tales of Destiny Director’s Cut in there, can’t wait for the translation that supposedly is almost finished. Live A Live and Treasure of the Rudras are also great but we’ve had those fan translated for awhile now

[@nikitasytnik2]

Almost all of these games are fan-translated. And Crossbell games are coming in 2022-23.

[@CRedd9830]

@@nikitasytnik2 This video and my comment are talking about games that haven't had official releases yet. I've played all the fan translations for these games, so I know they exist. Zero & Azure ain't out yet so I'm counting them until Fall of this year.

[@MrLBSilveira]

Eldorado Gate, for Dreamcast.

[@CRedd9830]

@@MrLBSilveira It's crazy how little info on the internet there is for that series, especially it being a Capcom IP.

[@larl4554]

*Tales of Destiny: Director's Cut* is my favorite RPG not released in the west. Mainly due to its battle system and the fun possibilities it offers. Also one of my all time fave games in general. Wish more people could enjoy it - nice video!

[@GamingBroductions]

Interesting... We'll have to look into scoring a physical copy of it. Thanks for watching!

[@SeikiRikodou]

There's a fan translation already for TOD:DC and TOD2 the last time i checked TOD:DC is 90% complete translation but playable already.

[@cookingastronaut4429]

My mission is to learn Japanese to have access to this wonderful games. The first one on my top list is Treasure of the Rudras (or Rudra no hihou in original japanese). I only heard very good things about the game. I also bought Bahamut Lagoon when i was in Japan, i liked the cover 😊

[@juanalbertoroigpalacios6911]

Gaming broductions I Trust

[@GamingBroductions]

haha thank you for the support!

[@nunyanunya4147]

i keep thinking there is this lost hidden mythic JRPG I haven't played twice that will be the Holy Grail ov RPGs. the one forgotten Ring found by an innocent soul on his birthday, a game so good it was played nonstop for years lovingly by one mysterious hermit who after completing all there is to complete returns to their earthly duties and tells us about ( ) but alas... there is no such nation.

[@bryanfrye8770]

Subbed, always love a good RPG channel.

[@GamingBroductions]

Thank you for watching and your support!

[@HenshinFanatic]

Is always better than dubbed.

[@oneinathousand2156]

If you ever get around to a part 2 even after all this time, you should check out Linda3 (aka Linda Cubed). I can only describe it as the edgy cousin of Pokémon and Earthbound, it’s about the main character and his girlfriend collecting a bunch of animals to put on an Ark before their planet gets destroyed from a meteor, and the game is split into three different scenarios where the characters’ personalities and roles completely switch, so for example in one scenario the protagonist’s twin brother is totally evil, and in another he’s a very nice guy. I haven’t played it yet, but the character designs were down by an artist named Tatsuyuki Tanaka, an animator on AKIRA among many other things who has an awesome art style. The game did get translated this year by fans so I plan on checking it out eventually.

[@acidwizard6528]

I have played Bahamut Lagoon and Zero/Ao no Kiseki from this list and can vouch for them being good games, although at the times I played all three of them, the translations were not very good. There is going to be an official English release for the Crossbell games some time this year or next year though and I understand that there is a quality English patch done by the Geofront team that has come out in the last year or so. Other good JRPGs that never came out of Japan could include Rudra no Hihou, Treasure Hunter G, and The Magical Land of Wozz. There's tons more too if you do some research.

[@GameArts1]

Bahamut Lagoon deserves a true remake, I would buy it on day one.

[@ZeroHayabusa]

Really good list. 3 other games I would add are the ONI rpgs. They're 3 feudal japan themed rpgs that I've always wanted to play and I'm hoping eventually get translated. Bakumatsu Kourinden Oni Kishin Kourinden Oni Oni Zero: Fukkatsu

[@AngeVNs]

As someone who played tales of rebirth, it's a decent solid game in a series and as you correctly predicted, has some fairly dark and mature themes on a racism I thought the three line of battle system was kind of weird but still mostly enjoyable but definitely not up to the standard of the modern battle systems

[@adrakor5449]

You are doing a real service here. Thanks

[@Zectifin]

One game that I'm still upset never got a translation is Front Mission 5. I've heard its the best in the series, and 4 is my favorite as the series just got better and better with better tech at their disposal. I would love to play an officially translated version. With them remaking FM1-3 right now, I hope those do well enough that they either re-release or remake 4 and 5. I've already played 1 to death, and its the most simple in combat and story, so I can't wait for them to release the 2 and 3 remakes.

[@rchassereau2]

Nice video! Glad to have found the channel

[@nr2676]

Sakura Wars 1-4 + PS2 Remake (if u count those games as jrpg) Valkyria Chronicles 3 Grandia (Saturn) Shining Force III Scenario 2 + 3 Megami Tensei 1 & 2 Majin Tensei 1 & 2 Shin Megami Tensei 1, 2 & If Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner (Saturn) Shin Megami Tensei Devil Summoner Soul Hackers (Saturn / PSX version) Many ,,Tales of ... '' games Trials of Cold Steel Crossbell games Disgaea 6 (PS4 version) Persona 2 Innocent Sin (PSX version) Persona 2 Eternal Punishment (PSP version)

[@rubensvsx]

Your content is always excellent, congratulations.

[@michaelgarbett3099]

Great video. Keep it up🙌👌 Well done!

[@GamingBroductions]

Thank you, glad you enjoy the content!

[@redalchemy7322]

Feed Dragon > Super Vodka = 🔥 👌 Also, definitely checking out some of these JRPGs

[@GamingBroductions]

Giving a dragon some alcohol to make it stronger.. only in JRPGs 😅 I’ll keep that in mind next time I play it!

[@csm236]

I still want to be able to play Fire Emblem Geneaology of the holy war, thracia 776, and mystery of the emblem 🥲

[@davedesdre]

Great video. First time hearing about Farland story.

[@ohdaUtube]

Was gonna say shocked Live A Live wasn't there but you mentioned square in the end so I assume it was on purpose. I really enjoyed the very fun Ranma RPG on the SFC

[@rimmymindplease8120]

Love your musical taste!

[@ManOutofTime913]

Apparently the difficulty in Magic School Lunar is severely overtuned to pad out the game length to 20 hours by demand of the publisher, Game Arts. It is actually a remake of the Game Gear title in that the plot is the same which made it shorter than a traditional console RPG, so they cranked up the encounter rate so high that you get into a battle every 2 steps. Without a drastic readjustment, it's probably not worth playing even translated.

[@guruthosamarthruin4459]

There is an "if all else fails" option to play games in English, if even a fan-translation never comes to pass. I recently used Retroarch's real-time machine translation functionality. It works. Yeah, it sometimes fails to convey even the main idea of what's being said, but I played an entire Japanese game (Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes 2) and got the gist of what was happening. I have a video playlist of it on my channel, if you want to get an idea of the quality. It's still a little buggy sometimes, if there's a bunch of text on the screen in different areas (like someone talking, while menu text is still there), but you can specify a certain area of the screen to translate, if it's becoming a problem. For the most part, you just have to know that the character's name is going to be mistakenly translated inside what they're actually saying, and extrapolate from there. For example, if a character named "Atlas" says something that gets translated like, "Look, here comes Atlas and Lando", that actually means that Atlas is saying, "Look, here comes Lando."

[@walterjackson5109]

I've recently been playing Dragon Quest Monsters 2 on my GBC and Star Ocean Blue Sphere looks visually ridiculous! The detailed UI and Battle Animations feel like they belong on a GBA.

[@GamingBroductions]

Yeah the sprites for both games are very impressive!

[@statesminds]

Tales of the World radiant mythology 2 and 3 sadly never came either for psp so never got trilogy. Good list! Glad some games we never got are making their way over after all these years. SMT 1 and 2 on Japanese switch online wish they'd come west. I played them on super famicom cart with english rom.

[@bdgilliam7610]

I'm excited to get into the Legend of Heroes games. They seem to be bringing them all over to the west now.

[@Mayeur000Donz]

I wonder what the next Fire Emblem or Monster Hunter will be? Niche outside of its country of origin, until one particular entry aimed for more mass market appeal makes the franchise explode in popularity.

[@GamingBroductions]

I think Three Houses may have actually been a step in that direction, while it’s still fairly niche it did seem to gain quite a bit more new fans compared to previous games. Being released on the Switch compared to handhelds like in the past probably helped. If they execute the next newest entry well it could really blow up in the way that Persona did. It almost kinda reminds of Persona 3; quite popular in the genre but still niche overall, however it paved the way for Persona 4 to explode in popularity and the series hasn’t looked back since

[@mypalrobot]

This is my third of your vids today so I’m just gonna go ahead and slap that sub 👋

[@gabrieleporcelli9666]

I'm still waiting for an english translation of tengai makyou 2 (for turbografx cd not the awful remake for ps2, nds and gamecube) and 4. Emerald dragon is also an awesome game for turbografx cd (not the snes version) the english patch is almost complete.

[@akualung]

I feel you... I'm painstakingly waiting for those games to be translated for years too. I've even tried to play TM-II several times with my basic Japanese knowledge, but I've always had to put it down.I don't enjoy rpgs unless I can understand almost 100% everything the characters are saying. At least we had the snes and gba installments fantranslated. A pretty nice consolation price, hehe. There's also a Gulliver Boy game on the pcengine, which was ported to the Saturn, that has a real Tengai Makyou flavour and has picked my interest for quite some time.

[@gabrieleporcelli9666]

@@akualung Wow, Gulliver boy is interesting! I hope someone will translate it!

[@Yup712]

I had never heard of the “Far Story” series before!

[@Blank-gh4zi]

Your videos are very interesting

[@GamingBroductions]

Thanks for watching! We love exploring fun topics like this, we have A LOT more videos like this in the works you will like.

[@SeikiRikodou]

Currently the english patch for Tales of rebirth is under works already so far its 80% translated. I was happy that Tales of destiny: DC and ToD2 have an english patch through the Lumina Project since the official translation was dropped years ago.

[@HenshinFanatic]

Kureaaaaaa!!!!!

[@Qladstone]

Sengoku Rance - what a surprisingly amazing turn-based tactics game.

[@tembakaugunung6139]

Man, if Bandai Namco ever developing One Piece game like what Atlus did to Legend of Heroes series ... that would be a dreamm comes true

[@kubovu]

You should add Tales of the World Radiant Mythology 2 & 3! Those were great JRPGs for the PSP

[@darthkobe73]

Does anybody know about Cosmic Fantasy for TG16?

[@guruthosamarthruin4459]

I believe the first 6/7 Farland Story games have translations on PC-98.

[@toolman4745]

Treasure of the rudras comes to mind for this list.

[@luisreyes1963]

Too bad you didn't mention Silva Saga II or Day Of The Idea as they are quite unusual JRPGs.

[@pr_ank_sisters]

I miss Suikoden

[@GamingBroductions]

Same, at least we have a spiritual successor coming out in the future for it to live on in some way

[@beemaster69]

what game is shown at the 1:00 minute mark? it gives me princess mononoke vibes

[@GamingBroductions]

Tales of Destiny 2. Mad vibes for sure

[@aeyyy6646]

@@GamingBroductions actually to be more accurate it's tales of eternia , tales of destiny 1 director cut for ps2 and it's sequel tales of death 2 for ps2 worth mentioning

[@saddlesore_adventures]

Hoped to see Venus and Braves in this list

[@arjaylightgames]

Cross treasures seems fun which never get even complete fan translation

[@bryandavidasuncion9515]

What was that game at 6 seconds in with the "Some better than others"?

[@GamingBroductions]

Lunar: Dragon Song

[@HenshinFanatic]

Tales of Hearts the original sprite version.

[@tejas4567]

Super robots taisen deserve to be on the list

[@SteelandSouls]

I really would like Rebirth to make its way West one day. That'd be nice.

[@encornettentaculaire2735]

Great choice of game. ^^ I wil just say that there is four shin megami tensei game on sfam if you add kyoyaku megami tensei. it's a compilation of the two megami tensei on famicom.

[@kuamir573]

Its 2024 and if you sail the 7 seas most of these have their translated version except for Tales of Rebirth (still in progress), Magic School Lunar (still in progress) and Farland Story series (probably some of them is translated, but i didnt dive deep enough to look into it cos not interested in the gameplay)...

[@webhosttamago602]

this is the reason why i studied japanese...

[@sharebear421]

Tear ring saga should’ve been released in the west. Very good and hard tactics game, better than the fire emblems imo

[@FiggsNeughton]

Hey man, enjoyed the video but I have a little advice. You say "honestly" a lot, which is a habit in our era, but I would try to reduce it a lot. Every time you write a script for a video, do a CTRL+F search for "honestly" and see how many times it pops up. Also, during the two minute intro (which was way too long), you described RPGs and said "some are better than others". This is a statement that fills up space, but says nothing. Think about it, no one would ever assume that in any collection of anything, all parts of that collection are equal. People, paintings, music, cars, fighting techniques - none are equal. I know it might seem weird to harp on about this, but if you cut out sentences that don't really say anything, and only take up space, then it can make your videos hit a little harder. Again thanks for the video I know this took work.

[@xxJing]

Bahamut Lagoon’s story is really weird. Not the save the world plot but everything else. You got an old man who wants to bang the main character, your childhood friend banging the enemy general, a girl in your party addicted to drugs, the shop keeper’s wife leaving him to go join a harem, dethroning the sultan of said harem and allowing your soldiers their “turn” with the harem. It’s very odd even among square games.

[@michaelp4122]

You really need to boot up a Sega Saturn and play some Saturn JRPG's. You have Genesis, you have Dreamcast, but Sega Saturn was Sega's best console for JRPG's. Shining Force III was the best tactics game Sega published Panzer Dragoon Saga is made by the same people who made Skies of Arcadia Albert Odyssey Langrisser 3 to 5 Riglord Saga 1 & 2 Shining the Holy Ark are all fantastic JRPG's as well. Heck Grandia was originally a Sega Saturn exclusive!

[@robinmattheussen2395]

"As opposed to the more modern setting of the first game, SMT2 takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting" No, SMT1 is post-apocalyptic as well. Arguably more overtly so than SMT2 IMO. Most of SMT1 takes place after a nuclear apocalypse.

[@fernandofantasy]

Please fans! Finish Tales of Grace WII translation

[@outkastshadowking2719]

There is a JRPG called ken no kuro that never got released in the west.

[@GamingBroductions]

I had never heard of that one actually, just checked it out. Looks pretty interesting with some really cool battle sprites, nice rec

[@theryandante]

Front Mission 5 for the PlayStation 2

[@lartranslation6929]

i wonder is there interest out there for playthroughs of Japanese only games , with real time translation by the player...

[@jowyschwarz313]

1:49 what this game name pls

[@GamingBroductions]

Dragon Force

[@MrLBSilveira]

Eldorado Gate, for Dreamcast.

[@raxelleon8189]

No Fire Emblem 4 & 5, No Tear Ring Saga, No Treasure of the Rudras. What's up with this list?

[@samlepirate4845]

Tengai Makyo series on pc engine 😭

[@rashyre1519]

Tengai Makyo Oriental Blue GBA 🙂👍👍👍

[@akualung]

That one, at least, was fantranslated, as was the snes game, TM Zero.

[@rooty]

As a Brit, it's largely irrelevant. It's painful when games are never translated, but it's a much sharper stab in the heart when a game does get translated and we STILL don't get it.

[@szczepan4737]

Soma Drop from DS...

[@pbac9570]

Just take a moment to appreciate what FF7 did

[@BinaryDood]

Sigma Harmonics never left Japan... and never will be translated :(

[@gurufabbes1]

SAKURA WARS???????

[@Blazingbeard]

Seiken Densetsu 3 (Secret of Mana 3). Love that game. Its a prequel to Secret of Mana. Has a fan translation. Never made it out of Japan.

[@jaimereupert4247]

I would like this video but, it's currently at 420 likes. 😜😍🌿🔥💨😵

[@Truth-Freedom-Justice]

This was NOT DQ style combat at all! DQ combat is AWEFUL, u can NOT see ur characters and lacking performance (just flashes w damage numbers, boring), very plain n basic. This one is Phantasy Star like 3rd person perspective with beautiful special effects, and creative ideas! Great RPG overall!

[@pilotamurorei]

I love tales of rebirth but the fact you ignore Tales of Destiny 2, which actually makes the first tales of destiny MORE playable (especially the PS2 remake) shows your entire lack of knowledge of the tales series as a whole. You understand NOTHING of the series and need to keep your mouth shut about it going forward.

[@GamingBroductions]

Nah, I don’t think I will. I only wanted to include one Tales game on this list so by me not including one of their other games doesn’t reflect anything about my knowledge on the Tales franchise as a whole. I’m by no means an objective authority on the games but I can talk about them if I want to, as can anyone else. You don’t have a monopoly on the series to where no one else can talk about it if they don’t share your exact same opinion, that’s ridiculous 🤦‍♂️

[@pilotamurorei]

@@GamingBroductions I've been playing games since the early 80s. Big fucking deal. You dont understand tales of destiny 2 OR rebirth, yet you opine on them like you know about them. You dont know shit. You dont even realize how much ToD2 is an homage to the 3 tales that came before it, it was the first one on ps2, and even without japanese knowledge, you could understand how deep the battle system is, yet blow it off like its nothing, because "Ermergerd EXCUSES." And yes, i've played every tales game up to Abyss, beat all of them (phantasia, D2 and eternia multiple times). Also, you never played rebirth or D2, so why do you think you can have an opinion on them based on videos or story synapses that are incomplete?

[@GamingBroductions]

@@pilotamurorei Lol I’m just a dude making KZbin videos about stuff I like. This was just to shine some light on some cool RPGs that never left Japan, never once did I claim to be an expert on any of the games or rank Rebirth against any of the other Tales games as I haven’t played it. Just thought it looked cool so that’s why it’s here. Not sure why you keep bringing up ToD2 when it was never even in the video, I made the conscious decision to include one Tales game only here and that was Rebirth because to me it looked more interesting. You really should chill out and not get so worked up over opinions on the internet, if you don’t like our content then there’s no need to watch it

[@russellbelew2604]

I am super duper confused. What opinion are you upset about that makes you think there is a lack of knowledge? The opinion of it being good and hoping the series as a whole (which would include your precious Tales of Destiny 2) would get a translation? This video gives nothing but love to the Tales series, but it wasn't the game you wanted on the list so you throw a tantrum. Maybe make your own video on how amazeballs you think ToD2 is and how it's better. Add your knowledge into the vastness of the internet instead of your gatekeeping negativity. TL;DR - Don't be a jerk. 👍

[@pilotamurorei]

@@russellbelew2604 "tales of destiny 2 doesnt look fun" with zero knowledge of the game, back story or plot points.

[@NeutralAtJSP]

We got even less snes Rpgs in the eu. 🥲