8 Great JRPGs That Weren't Actually Made in Japan!

While the term 'JRPG' technically stands for 'Japanese Role-Playing Game', over the years it's essentially gone on to become a genre of its own with distinguishable traits popularized by series such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Using the term JRPG as more of a genre rather than a place of development, there's been some great games designed in the JRPG format that weren't actually made in Japan themselves. This video aims to highlight some of these titles and features 8 games from 6 different countries, along with a variety of systems. Hope you enjoy and thanks for watching!
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 P.
Narrated by: Corbin P.
'Til next time everyone!
▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
0:00 - Intro
1:21 - Septerra Core
2:57 - Crimson Gem Saga
4:24 - Shiness: The Lightning Kingdom
6:26 - Child of Light
7:45 - Gujian 3
9:09 - Secret of Evermore
10:32 - Magna Carta: Tears of Blood & 2
11:58 - Sudeki
13:27 - Outro
#JRPG #JRPGs #GreatJRPGs

[@greensmurf9623]

I've always liked to think of JRPG's as "Japanese-style RPG's". Makes it a bit less set in stone as just a game made in Japan, even if the majority of them are.

[@dandiaz19934]

THANK YOU!

[@angelusvastator1297]

Still don't like the term cos it implies that Japanese think the same way when it comes to RPGs when clearly they don't. For example, ppl think jrpgs would have anime teens but there's game like yakuza 7 and the recent final fantasy that dont have this

[@Wiseman108]

Honestly if WRPG stands for Western RPG then JRPG's should just be renamed to Eastern RPGs. In the end the names just show where they originate from anyway.

[@angelusvastator1297]

@@Wiseman108 Exactly!

[@kurisu3000]

Cope

[@renewagain6956]

"Don't expect AAA level's of quality and polish." So, I should except a high level of quality and polish, correct?

[@djayjp]

I have zero problem with "supporting the archiving and preservation" of abandonware games by helping to increase the number of copies available 😊.

[@PsychomachineryEBM]

Cough emulation cough

[@JoshuaJacobs83]

Just found your channel and I really love the small touches you guys put in. The SFII map, the system box next to the clip of FFVII. It’s the little touches that really make this stand out. Can’t wait to watch more

[@GamingBroductions]

Happy to hear you enjoyed our video, thank you for watching!

[@Mnemoniforma9.00]

Thank you for giving Shiness a good once-over. I went on an incredible adventure once in service of the game's development, and the scenes I experienced, as well as the bonds I forged, were a week of my life I wouldn't trade for the world.

[@pixelcount350]

It's a shame what happened to the devs. I would have loved to seen a sequel

[@RyonMugen]

oh man to hear Septerra Core come up right off the bat. Thats nostalgia. I had the demo but I played it to hell and back!

[@GamingBroductions]

Nice! Where did you get the demo disc from?

[@PsychomachineryEBM]

Sudeki is miserably underrated. So amazing game, i finished it on PC years ago.

[@femtrooper]

Awesome video! So many in here I haven’t heard of and look pretty cool. I own Secret of Evermore but haven’t played it yet so I probably should. It looks so cool!

[@GamingBroductions]

Thanks for the support as always! It’s a classic and an interesting piece of Square Enix/Squaresoft history for sure. The music and unique premise alone is worth checking out!

[@immortaluglyfish2724]

Damn, awesome video! I really love the visual style of Cepterra Core - it reminds me of late 90s CRPGs like Baldur's Gate or Fallout, so it's cool to see a JRPG style game combined with that type of visual style.

[@GamingBroductions]

Thank you! Yep it certainly has that 90's PC aesthetic which I have a lot of nostalgia for, that combined with the JRPG gameplay creates a really unique atmosphere of which I haven't really seen replicated like that again

[@MrNothinguploaded]

@@GamingBroductions i can't believe i've actually played the game and totally forgot about it. thanks for the video i might retry it again.

[@gdoubleu8045]

I've had Gujian 3 on my Steam Wishlist for so long...I had no idea they had released English subtitles, as it originally didn't. Thanks for letting me know :)

[@nightlifebartenders]

I'm glad you mentioned the music in secret of evermore! That game had some awesome music!

[@GamingWithSpoons]

I would absolutely love a part 2 to this. Btw I'm really impressed by your knowledge of the games. Especially. MagnaCarta. There was one other MagnaCarta game called MagnaCarta The Phantom of Avalanche which never released outside of Korea bit recently got a fan translation.

[@GamingBroductions]

We’ll definitely do a part 2 in due time, there are some other topic ideas we wanna explore first though. And thank you, I’ve been playing JRPGs for over 20 years now so I’ve managed to accumulate a decent amount of useless knowledge on the subject 😅 with said I’ve never heard of that 3rd MagnaCarta game, might have to check out that fan translation

[@GamingWithSpoons]

@@GamingBroductions I rarely meet people who are as knowledge about JRPGs as me so its nice to see a channel like this pop up.

[@FreeRPGer]

Great video. I have almost every one of these, although Sudeki needs to get off my backlog, even though I got it new back in the day (years long backlog). This video inspired me to check it out when I'm done re-playing Lunar 1 & 2. One game I don't have in this list is Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator. That looks right up my alley, so I wondered why I never heard of it, then I saw it was only released on PC, & I don't play PC games. So, that explains that. Wish it was released on something else.

[@Pilklupus]

Top notch. Love to see more videos like this

[@GamingBroductions]

Thanks! We have a lot more in the works for sure.

[@johnnybaum7957]

Crimson Gem Saga was actually a very good game. Wish they made sequels or remastered versions of it.

[@barry-allenthe-flash8396]

Love seeing videos like this, with cool premises that shine a light on some deserving games - and it doesn't hurt that I know (and enjoy) some of them already ;) But man, I wish Microsoft would make Sudeki backwards compatible on the XB1 and Series X; I know it's on PC (I actually have a copy from GOG), but I would prefer to just pop in a disc and play with an Xbox pad on the console. Kinda hurts these types of games to not be easily available on modern hardware (or ever receive console ports; poor Septerra Core. Probably would've found a bigger audience if it also landed on Saturn & PS1 back in the day... ). Anyway, hope you do more videos in this - it totally should become a series. Also, I just discovered this channel, and just finished watching, like, 4 videos on a row :D This channel rules! Subbed!

[@michaelp4122]

Such an under subscribed/viewed channel. I found it a month back and now I have tons of videos to watch. You make about $4 per 1,000 views, so this video only made the guy $120. So this is a lot of editing work for that little money. Gotta support him.

[@danielscott70x7]

Love the content dudes. Keep it coming.

[@GamingBroductions]

Appreciate it man, will do!

[@andyk9735]

The way I see it is: the term has become a genre opposed to a descriptor of origin. The various game elements are like ingredients that form a recipe. You don't need to jump on a jet to Spain to make a Spanish omelette. You feel me? P.S. Gujian 3 looks amazing! Definitely going to pick that up! Thanks for the recommendation.

[@shionkreth7536]

You're exactly right. Besides, Japanese RPG was just another term for the 'Console RPG'; from back when that was a meaningful distinction from the 'PC RPG'(now known as the Western RPG).

[@GamingBroductions]

I completely agree. I haven’t even thought of the whole food comparison, that’s a great way to put it. Might start using that in the future lol. I think most people think this way these days but there’s still some out there who argue they have to come from Japan to be true JRPGs. Just seems like arguing over semantics to me though

[@lain11644]

A common piece of ingredient that's missing from Western JRPGs is anime art style. I don't know what's up with Western artists and animators, but I can tell that it's not Japanese at first look. Korean and Chinese RPGs are much better in that regard because they are used to doing animation contract work for Japanese studios. That's why I don't consider Western JRPGs as JRPGs. They're like American Chinese food. They're fake Chinese food tailored to Westerners.

[@andyk9735]

@@lain11644 I personally think that's getting a little bit overly precious about it. You're right that most Western developers definitely add a little bit of their own flavour to the games, but enough of the ingredients are in place to file them on the same shelf. Besides, you've got plenty of examples of Japanese developers who don't always adhere to anime visual styles: Final Fantasy 8 (and many later FF titles), Lost Odyssey, Shadow Hearts, Koudelka, Octopath Traveler, Bravely Default series, Resonance of Fate, The Last Remnant, etc. Western "JRPGs" like Legrand Legacy and Edge of Eternity's art styles definitely evoke a very similar vibe to some of those aforementioned games in my opinion. To me, refusing to call games JRPGs because they don't have anime depictions is like declining to acknowledge New York style pizza as a pizza - just because they add additional cheese varieties and a few herbs. Don't get me wrong, I definitely *prefer* anime aesthetics, but I don't believe they are a pre-requisite for categorising a game under the JRPG umbrella. If you're not down with that, I can understand. Some of them don't quite float my boat either. They aren't 1:1 identical, but they are more than similar enough to fall under the same genre classification. I mean I guess we could sub-categorise them as WJRPGs (Western developed Japanese influenced RPGs), but to me, this is just cumbersome and totally unnecessary.

[@shionkreth7536]

@@lain11644 You don't need to have an 'anime' art style to be a JRPG though (ie. Final Fantasy 6), just as you can have an anime art style when making a WRPG (ie. Etrian Odyssey, made in Japan). The aesthetic is not especially relevant in regards to video game subgenres - the focus is on game design elements. Besides, the most common Western-made JRPG is made in RPG Maker, with art resources made in Japan. :P Also, just as an aside, the Chinese immigrants who introduced Chinese food to the West, and are making and eating it to this day, wouldn't appreciate it being called fake - really no one cares for that kind of puritan outlook.

[@collosiamusic3036]

great video and I love your channel!

[@GamingBroductions]

Thank you!

[@CubaNectie]

definitely need to check some of these out!

[@bryanmcclendon3643]

Another one: Anachronox on PC. A fantastic sci-fi noir story with gameplay inspired by the Final Fantasy games.

[@GamingBroductions]

I always heard about this one as a kid but never got around to actually playing it. I was considering including it when researching for this video but since I never did play it I figured I would leave it off for now and go with Septerra Core instead for that American PC pick. Might might make a part 2 to this eventually though and look to include it there. Good rec

[@WingMaster562]

I like to describe that game as "Deus Ex graphics, Blade Runner theme, but a wacky JRPG with a literal planet as one your party members"

[@Llortnerof]

@@GamingBroductions It's definitely an... interesting game. To bad they never got to expand on the cliffhanger it ends with.

[@kbert7578]

Wow the Septerra Core thing just unlocked all the memories

[@jaycenteno8385]

The cat kicking back and relaxing as the music plays really gives me a good laugh! :D

[@GamingBroductions]

No lie we’ve been waiting awhile for someone to comment on the cat lol. Glad to hear her presence was finally appreciated 😂

[@jaycenteno8385]

@@GamingBroductions 😂👍

[@williammcneil2045]

thanks for recalling septerra core, its one of my favorites :)

[@williamjones4117]

Not going to lie, I am surprised you mentioned Sudeki. I didn't think anyone else remembered that one.

[@Busterdrag]

Another good one is Battlechasers Nightwar, totally can recommend that one.

[@Li0nMa5K]

Bro, you are on your way to stardom! ;)

[@GamingBroductions]

*Bros, there are two of us that make these videos 😌 Haha idk about that but thank you!

[@Li0nMa5K]

@@GamingBroductions That's right, hahaha! I'm sorry about that. Nonetheless, you guys are making quality content and I can't wait to see what else you make. ;)

[@GamingBroductions]

@@Li0nMa5K Lol no need to apologize at all! We appreciate the kind words and are glad to hear you're enjoying the content :)

[@Li0nMa5K]

@@GamingBroductions My pleasure. :*

[@Gomezli16]

Yay, the same four voice actors that are in everything else!!! SPECIAL!

[@spicydeath82]

Actually secret of evermore isn't a time traveling game. You end up in another world that the leaders you meet created to be their own paradise. the problem is there's some one trying to control all of their realms for his own purposes.

[@blastard8980]

Exactly right. I don't think he played evermore. It's my second ever RPG (after, funnily enough, Mana) which I actually had at home physically for my SNES. I'm sorry to say but it's way better than every other game in this list and I've replayed over a 10 times in the 25-ish years since it came out. It's a gem, undeservedly hidden, because it's legendary good (and bloody funny sometimes, the characters actually had a distinct personality).

[@chrismanahan1533]

Septerra Core needs a full 3D remake. Sudeki is also underrated I think.

[@ValisFan3]

I really did like Magna Carta 2 on the XBOX 360. It is my favorite JRPG on the XBOX 360. The characters and world building were good. And there are a lot of sidequests- which I really enjoyed. I'm a big Hyung Tae Kim fan, so I really liked the character designs. The battle system was pretty fun too.

[@tombrooke1281]

I thought magna carta was really good, the second one too. The x360 was really a powerhouse in the jrpg department until Microsoft gave up on the Japanese market. I thought infinite undiscovery was great even though it got bad reviews at the time and ended up being scrapped as a PS3 project.

[@splatterbrained]

Kinda like...Anime. People consider Boondocks to be an anime just because of the art style but Anime is just Japan Animation. You can find American cartoons in the Anime section. I believe that if something is made in Japan. It is Anime, Manga, JRPG, etc. Otherwise I just call it comic, graphic novel, cartoon, animation, RPG, etc because ionno what else to label em

[@brayoungful]

Great list. If I could recommend one more, it'd be Black Sigil: Blade of the Exiled. Apart from an annoyingly high encounter rate, I really enjoyed that game.

[@houndrysmagolyteofhope4661]

You know i been wondering, aside from that, is the rest of the game fun? Just looking for some perspective

[@kingtrode]

I was hoping to see shadow madness on this list!

[@gos12345678910]

There is another wonderful game from outside Japan (Azure Saga: Pathfinder) that initially appears to be a mobile game, but it is deeper than that in terms of story and even gameplay I love and appreciate this game very much. I hope you will try it

[@CeeJayThe13th]

I like the little SF2 map graphic!

[@iuri4086]

I tought i was having a bug on youtube, you actually only have 8 likes

[@GamingBroductions]

It’s better than the 3 likes we used to get at least. Haha slow and steady

[@iuri4086]

now you have 90, congratulations, you deserve even more

[@BranBal]

1,1k now \o/

[@bryanrivers]

This was a great list

[@marca8368]

Next part will have Aurion. I'm in. And Child of Light is outstanding!

[@ZioName]

Great list. Except the one made in China, I played them all. Just a little little nitpick. Sudeki came out on PC too!

[@GamingBroductions]

Ah I did see that when researching for the video but looks like we forgot to actually edit that into it. Damn, sorry about that. Glad you enjoyed the list besides that though!

[@OnyxSkiesXIX]

I’m 100% on board with JRPG being a genre not a description of where a game was made. I’ve seen people call Dark Souls a JRPG and it’s ridiculous. If you want to make it both a requirement that it fits and genre AND is made in Japan, I mean, I disagree but I’ll be fine with that, but if someone thinks every RPG made in Japan is a JRPG, lol no. Also, a lot of work on Final Fantasy III was done in America due to Visa issues, so is it not a JPRG since it wasn’t completely made in Japan? Again, lol no.

[@Mike-hk9qe]

Obviously hitting some algorithm with this video so here's a comment and a like to help out!

[@GamingBroductions]

Haha good looking out and much appreciated!

[@mattmadolah]

Septerra Core was one of my first PC games and man oh man I LOVED IT Nobody else ever heard of it

[@apoplexiamusic]

Yes! Septerra Core! What a throwback!

[@Terranigma23]

I recommand a lot the game Bug Fables made by Moonsprout Games from Panama. It's an old school Paper Mario game style with a lot of content and charm. I would even say that it's better than Paper Mario in a lot of aspect. :)

[@Luca-nq4gy]

for me, Its easy to tell these 8 games arent jrpg. china always use chinese characteristic and culture while korean is a bit different in drawing, while western games is pretty easy to tell from many aspect. for visual novel that i didnt know made by america is just Doki-doki literature club.

[@Llortnerof]

Did you mean "from Japan"? Because the whole point here is that they're JRPGs despite that. Which i'd agree with. JRPG is more a style of game than a claim of origin. Thanks to the RPG Maker series, there's tons of JRPGs not made in Japan. (Which is not to say they're all good, of course. But there's a lot, so naturally there's a few gems.)

[@Luca-nq4gy]

@@Llortnerof JRPG stand for Japanese Role Playing Games. RPG separated by action rpg (arpg), turn based rpg (trpg), strategy rpg (srpg) and more but not jrpg. america also have that kind of rpg and it's not called jrpg. rpg also have 2 type where you pick everything and this is more common in western rpg and rpg where you just follow the story and this style is more common in asian rpg. Most people/developer refer to anime rpg not jrpg for anime style games.

[@Llortnerof]

@@Luca-nq4gy JRPG is like japanese food. It was first created and codified in Japan. That doesn't mean that it is always made there. And yes, there are JRPGs made in America. Quite a lot, actually.

[@Luca-nq4gy]

​@@Llortnerof ....... are you really hate if it's called america rpg that much? If you make a game and 100% copy paste that jrpg yes it's called jrpg because in the first place it's japanese games that you copy. same like food they still called it japanese food because they copy that food and try to make it have same taste like in japan. but if you edit and make it your own version, it's not japanese food anymore. Here example : Curry is originally from india but does japanese people call it indian curry? the answer is no because it's not have same or original taste as india curry but if japanese people made curry full 100% same with indian curry ingredient and taste it will be called indian curry. People in my country also never use indian curry name because it's different from indian curry.

[@Llortnerof]

@@Luca-nq4gy No, i don't *care* about "America RPG", although i'm not aware of any genre of that name. What you're describing is generally called Western RPGs. What seems to fly over your head is that JRPG has a definition beyond "comes from Japan".

[@attackofthecopyrightbots]

im surprised you didn't mention anachronox i consider it more of a jrpg than sudeki at least..

[@boitahaki]

Arcturus: The Curse and Loss of Divinity It's a great game, but you can only play it on English with a fan translation.

[@bakuiel1901]

I thought Septerra Core waa Squaresoft, guess I remembered wrong. Would love to see another list like this did you do one?

[@rimjobledouche5201]

I knew I recognized Led in the thumbnail! I played the absolute shit out of Septerra Core. I loved it!

[@NewNeko2000]

I love Septerra Core and Sudeki from this list. I would also add Anachronox.

[@tgotti193]

3:25 anybody notice that echo when he says great??

[@TheGunmanChannel]

I have most of those games. Including the last one Sudeki.

[@ronsilk6212]

Sudeki i played through that game like 3 times back in the day.

[@asaka616]

Shout out to the King of Fighters and Fatal Fury series for most of the country backgrounds!

[@reyntime1950]

Bought shiness a few weeks back. Looking forward to playing it after all the other stuff in my backlog. I'm thinkin' 2026, maybe.

[@angeldude101]

I hope we get to see CrossCode. Finished watching the video. Sadly didn't have this German indie action RPG on the list. It definitely looks like something you might expect from the SNES like Secret of Mana or A Link to the Past, but look a little closer and it's clear that there's no way this game would've run on that kind of hardware. Also it may or may not be an isekai taking place in an MMORPG. (Let's just say that it's a lot easier to make a believable game if you're actually making a game.) Maybe for part 2...

[@Llortnerof]

I don't think CrossCode quite fits the JRPG mold, though. More of an Action-RPG.

[@angeldude101]

@@Llortnerof In that case, you'd have to ask if Secret of Mana and related games are JRPGs. While most JRPGs tend to be turn-based, there are a decent number of them that are not.

[@Llortnerof]

@@angeldude101 Eh, Secret of Mana is considerably less action based. CrossCode is closer to Ys or similar franchises. It's more of an RPG than Zelda, but far to active to still fit in JRPG. It's just the story of a girl with no memory that leveled to 99 in the starting zone and can destroy everything by glancing at it menacingly. Well, that or Sergey messed up.

[@angeldude101]

@@Llortnerof It's definitely similar to Ys, but it's also frequently compared to SoM, which is why I used that as the comparison. I don't know what you're doing leveling to 99 in the starting zone. There's one "player NPC" who seems to have done just that by slaughtering a hundred thousand hedgehags. Sergey only messes up in NG+ if you enable Sergey Hax. There's a lot of fun dialog that gets added if you include it. As for the story, she progressively regains her memory over the course of the game. Regarding her as a "silent protagonist," it's less that she's that and more that she's semi-verbal and genuinely disabled. Her inability to speak comes up a lot in the story. It's honestly incredible what the developers were able to do with her.

[@Llortnerof]

@@angeldude101 I know. You _cannot_ level to 99 in the starting zone, there's only a finite amount of XP. Still, it's funny seeing Apollo go completely mental when nobody cares that you're somehow max-level as a "fresh" character.

[@cthulhuschosen4173]

Gujian 3 is a sore spot for me as while I love the the story and gameplay, the fact is i hate only online saves anyways thanks for the list now I have more games to put on my ever expanding list that will require several lifetime's to get through

[@vsolyomi]

Sudeki is available on PC as well

[@darkpotato]

secret of evermore is a legend in my book

[@GamingBroductions]

It’s a great game. The last time I fully revisited it was some years ago now. I do need to go back and play it again soon to see if my opinions on it have changed, I always used to prefer Secret of Mana just slightly but I could see that potentially changing after a replay. The opinion on which is better seems more evenly split these days

[@sammycooke5830]

I know it's a squaresoft game but did you ever play threads of fate

[@justinc882]

Dude Septera core was awesome.

[@nathanc6516]

06:22: That's not Furry Piccolo. That's Furgeta.

[@fufzooz]

I think Bug Fables is a great option too!

[@airdrighmor1439]

Having to define the term at the beginning of the video indicates how problematic it is, you know?

[@angelusvastator1297]

Meh I like to define rpgs by the types of gameplay rather than their cultural background/influence. Just like how people distinguish shooters w first person shooters and third person shooters for example.

[@archgamesrt2293]

I stopped by to say hi to the crowd!

[@GamingBroductions]

Hey! Thanks for the comment. Hope you're doing well today.

[@archgamesrt2293]

@@GamingBroductions I'm always fine!

[@archgamesrt2293]

@@GamingBroductions I'm always fine!

[@SilverOver9000]

What's the name of the game at 0:47?

[@GamingBroductions]

Legend of the River King

[@SilverOver9000]

@@GamingBroductions thanks!

[@horrorsage1346]

Come for the rpg content, stay for the kitty outros

[@Ashtarte3D]

Loved the "voice acting is surprisingly good" for Crimson Gem Saga and within half a syllable I was like "well yeah that's Laura Bailey." Also everyone knows about Undertale but I feel obligated to plug Omori and Ruined King. Omori very much looks like it was made in Japan but was made in Los Angeles. Meanwhile Ruined King is way better than a LoL spin-off game has any right being.

[@casekocsk]

One major weakness of Septerra Core is that it's REALLY SLOW... The loading is slow, the walking/running speed is slow, the dialogue is slow, the story pace is slow, the battle pace is slow, the battle animation is slow, the battle result is slow, EVERYTHING is slow... The accumulation of all those things really grinds you... I wish the steam version was added with something like 2x or 3x speed (or even 5x) at the very least for the battle.

[@riokan6596]

maybe black sigil from nds will make part 2

[@Shipyhammer]

Crimson gem saga needs a remaster for switch

[@jmccain22090]

Oh Sudeki, I loved it at the time, but man it has not aged well.

[@Wiseman108]

I always liked Secret of Evermore more than Secret of Mana, though I realize I'm in the minority.

[@davidarkan]

Me sorprendio, saber que Secret of evermore fue desarrollado en USA, pensaba que era japones por tener el sello de Squaresoft.

[@williammcneil2045]

Ouch i bought shiness, but it was the kickstarter funded remake for the pc, sadly they ran out of funding and the game was sold to another company, which later sold it on steam, i say sadly because the game was not well finished, the controls were reversed for the game pad, making the game very hard to, well play. i didnt play it for very long, seeing as it wasnt good.

[@captainthunderbolt7541]

I don't see how Shiness belongs on this list - or at least you don't explain why it belongs on this list.

[@toolman4745]

Surprised FF9 didn't make it on here. It was made in Hawaii.

[@marscaleb]

Nothing about Anachronox? I'd rate that as more JRPG than Sudeki, but that's just me.

[@roseforyoubabe]

what about all the pc rpg games ?

[@Llortnerof]

The video needs to end at some point. If we did all of those, we'd be here next year.

[@ShadowWolfRising]

It's not a contradiction, JRPG and WRPG invoke too specific a thing to have them defined by origin rather than gameplay. Not to mention by doing it by origin you then don't know what to expect. Anachronox is a Western made JRPG. Dragon's Dogman is a Japanese made WRPG. Let's make sense with these labels already.

[@JLAvey]

Septerra Core would be even better if it had controller support.

[@sapphiresuicune6787]

6:33 I want an Xbox 350!!

[@jrpg4484]

I loved Secret of Evermore.

[@maikorodrigues2989]

uma boa lista e um bom video

[@beageler]

To be honest, the thing about jrpgs being from japan or manhwa being from korea always felt pretty boorish and a bit snobbish to me. It is totally fine if there are differing names in different languages, of course. But we are talking about the genre and unless there are obvious differences, they're all the same. Doesn't matter were they're from, the genre is called jrpg. The comic books in the east asian style are mostly known as manga. People who expect others to research everything they're talking about should check their priorities. Surely there's lots of more important stuff than being a pain in the ass. Furthermore, RTS has strategy in it, even though it has almost no strategy but is mostly tactics. It's a name, nothing more.

[@000wolf]

0:49 Dragon's Dogma and Dark Souls play like Action RPGs, which were created in Japan. Most Western RPGs have pretty poor real-time action oriented gameplay with a few exceptions like Dark Messiah, Diablo, and Kingdoms of Amalur. As for Undertale and CSH, they play like turn-based RPGs, and while not exclusive to Japan, they are definitely utilizing the Japanese style of the turn-based sub genre.

[@Llortnerof]

When i hear Western RPG, i generally think something like Ultima, Baldur's Gate or the first two Fallout games.

[@blastard8980]

IDK what makes any Tales better than jade empire for example. But to be fair, I miss the old Tales with the tekken/street fighter type of combat, now they're generic

[@ricardohernandezr5765]

I dint knew about crimson gem saga. Excellent game but horrible ending 7/10 my sister.

[@healingchurchpotluck5352]

You forgot omori.

[@dandiaz19934]

JRPG means Japanese-Style RPG. It's an aesthetic and a tradition of RPG-making that **started** in Japan.

[@sammycooke5830]

Aka dewprism

[@Jayhawker2000]

Western game companies can make a JRPG just like someone from the West can make Japanese food. Not a contradiction at all. Likewise, Japanese studios can make Western RPGs.

[@airdrighmor1439]

The problem at that point is what defines a JRPG at that point. Everyone has a slightly different definition.

[@Jayhawker2000]

@@airdrighmor1439 Defining exactly what makes a game a JPRG will always be tricky, and people will have different opinions. But where it is made or who it is made by shouldn't be considerations because those things aren't relevant to the experience of playing the game. Let's say someone from China and someone from Australia both prepare you a plate of Kung Pao Chicken. They use the same recipe, and they both taste identical. Does it make any sense to claim that only the Kung Pao prepared by the Chinese man is a Chinese dish? Of course not. What matters is the recipe.

[@airdrighmor1439]

@@Jayhawker2000 so what is the exact recipe of a JRPG? I get the analogy, but it's a bit more complex than a dish. Why keep a term that will always be problematic? Definitions need to be objective for words to have meaning. A JRPG made in China would taste very different from one made in Australia. I would also be highly surprised if a dish made by two different people tasted identical. I cook a lot, and my dishes don't taste identical some of the time.

[@Jayhawker2000]

@@airdrighmor1439 Party, turn based, leveling up, random encounters, and linear story are the things that come to mind when I think of a JPRG. It doesn't have to have all of those things, but at least some of them. And I'm sure there are a few I'm missing. But the defining features should be things that actually impact the player's experience. If we found out after the fact that one of the Final Fantasy games was actually made by a team of Swedes, that doesn't make it any less of a JRPG. It's still the exact game it was before we knew that.

[@airdrighmor1439]

@@Jayhawker2000 fair enough. So even though most final Fantasy games are not turn-based, still JRPG? All 16ish tales of games, no turn-based. Star ocean. You basically described DQ and persona. Chrono Trigger is not a JRPG?

[@Gomezli16]

Everyone already knows evermore was a semi sequel/spin-off to mana. What’s your point?

[@ImperialEarthEmpire]

I want to redefine jrpg as eastern rpg but with South Korea n China mostly focus on cash grab mobile games, i better stick with JRPG...

[@michaelp4122]

Magna Carta 2 is very generic, one of the few JRPG/KRPG's I put down and never finished. It's serviceable, but it's a C game, so don't bother unless you're a millionaore who beat every other A&B JRPG/KRPG out there.

[@renanalves3955]

Gujian seems interesting, but playing jrpg on pc sounds like a bad idea

[@GamingBroductions]

Yeah I'm a console guy myself so I feel you there, maybe they'll port it over to one of the new systems eventually

[@Poisonjam7]

Child of Light is great, but it’s definitely not a JRPG. Neither is Sudeki.

[@PyromancerRift]

If it's made outside of japan it is no more a Jrpg. It become action RPG, turn based RPG etc... The elder scrolls are action RPG made outside of japan.

[@angeldude101]

I don't think anyone would claim that the Elder Scrolls are a JRPG series, not just because they're made outside of Japan, but because they're structured more like Western RPGs with a focus on the player making their own story. As mentioned in the video, Dark Souls was made in Japan, but had more in common with Western RPGs, so it's not as often called a JRPG. Turn-based RPGs more often derive from the Japanese RPG structure, but action RPGs are more commonly seen with either, though with a bias toward the Western structure. This possibly had something to do with the hardware they were targeting. Turn based RPGs were much easier to do within the sprite limitations of early consoles, while Western RPGs largely targeted PCs, which had very different limits on what could be drawn, in addition to the additional inputs from a full keyboard. If nobody told you where these games were made, would you really say that they don't look like JRPGs? (I'm sure for some of them you would, but not all of them.)

[@Llortnerof]

It's called JRPG because this style of CRPG was initially popularised by japanese developers, not because the games came from Japan. Action RPGs are not JRPGs because they're a different style. Turn based is a broader category that also includes Western RPGs (which also refers to where the style comes from, not where the games come from). Elder Scrolls series is neither a JRPG nor made in Japan, so it simply has nothing to do with this discussion.

[@vsolyomi]

Crimson Gem Saga is THE WORST. It's just one long and tedious series of nested fetch quests with no plot development and terrible skill progression. Please, avoid.