Top 10 JRPGs you WON'T BELIEVE are Actually GOOD!

Whenever something looks like shovel ware, with poor reviews, generic gameplay or a very mediocre cover, we usually turn our backs to it. These are 10 games that fit that description but, surprisingly, are here to prove us wrong. Top 10 JRPGs that you won't believe are actually GOOD!
Intro theme by The Legendary Zoltan
Support Zoltan HERE: / thelegendaryzoltan
Support MY channel HERE:
/ ericklandon
Gameplays.
Magical: StrawberryEggs
Saiyuki: BioPhoenix
Ever: IndieTimmie
Stella: MCB the Ps2 Gamer
A.W.: Kaitoucchi
FMA: ErbBetaPatched

[@jymfiskburk2256]

You are one of those youtuberd that make me add more and more games to the list....unfinished game list

[@ErickLandonRPG]

lol

[@superarty7]

So he's doing his job right haha

[@rawleyfear5749]

Same. I just got PS Now and have 6 PS1 Classics in my PS3 store cart lol. Even have Aliance Alive queued up in Switch. All thanks to this channel, which I've been binging over winter break. Awesome channel.

[@nishidohellhillsruler6731]

I know, right?

[@mercutiolavantine5584]

Magical Starsign is an amazing game. It breaks my heart that no one gave it a chance...

[@michaelmurray2033]

Is it old school( turn based)?

[@mercutiolavantine5584]

Michael Murray yes but it also introduced very innovative features like swapping the planets to weaken your enemies or strengthen the party. Blocking incoming attack by tapping your characters at the right time etc...

[@michaelmurray2033]

Mercutio Lavantine very cool thanks. I’ll be picking it up then

[@shldnfr]

I bought this game for $3! What a steal!!

[@hoshiryu]

I couldn't beat the enemy in the beginning the one when you escape the prison he just killed me in 3 turns everytime i used Light and Dark users

[@okamiangles7121]

Magical Starsign is a great game, you can pick between light or dark for your main character's element.

[@jarhead19800506]

L)9l

[@junkiddo]

Thousand Arms is simply one of my favourite RPGs, probably played it 3x or more.

[@nekopunchi9793]

I was not expecting to see it on this list. Ratchet is still bae to this day!

[@magnumopus8124]

Agreed. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it was on the list,cause it was very original and as I seen throughout my life, when you stray from the norm....you tend to get over looked. It was a great game that I took a chance on and never regretted it. That last boss was a son of a bitch tho!

[@BinaryDood]

Magical Star Sign was simply but very charming, impressive and felt like a real cosmic adventure

[@9Tailsfan]

Aww Magical Starsign was my first hand held game.❤️

[@hoshiryu]

Had it on DS now my DS is broken and none of my friends trust me with theirs hahaha Plus at the beginning after escaping Prison and rescuing the first ally i never beat the enemy outside the prison he was way to bullshit hard

[@raogzero1842]

Man I can't believe someone actually mentioned thousand arms, played the hell out of it as a kid.

[@scwintz101]

is it weird that i started following this guy because i like his voice and the way he gets super excited about some games and really irritated by others

[@shanewagoner6504]

SAME

[@RidiculousThoughts]

Great top 10! So happy you included Glory of Heracles! I think that was one of the most classic RPGS on the DS, so underrated.

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Thanks, buddy. Yeah, it's pretty darn good.

[@dreamEnd]

"even if you're not the fan of the anime" people who dislike fma are either people who havent watched it or liars

[@morriganrenfield8240]

@RUBY DA CHERRY joejoe is just weird for me to be honest... Haven't been able to get into it. The others though definitely

[@DiogoJ1]

@@morriganrenfield8240 Same here. Jojo just doesn't click with me. The art is part of the reason.

[@turanx0]

I haven’t seen the first FMA, but I watched FMAB for the first time two or three years ago and that anime was straight garbage to me. Extremely boring characters overall, horrible loudmouth protagonist, wimpy whining brother, depressing and useless father, lame story execution and fights overall, garbage villains except for the President who was a total badass with a double agenda. Easily the most overrated anime I’ve seen after all the praise the anime world had given it. I’m guessing the original FMA anime is a lot better paced and exciting to watch or something. It has to be, otherwise y’all are either a bunch of kids with no sense for writing or you just turn your brain off when watching anime in general and don’t take any of it serious.

[@BoknoyBuhisan]

@@turanx0 FMA is technically not needed to watch FMAB but if you did, FMAB is a thousand times better for it. the first arc of FMAB is rushed probably because Bones assumes you already watched the original or read the manga. while characters are pretty cliche, to say the fights are lame, i have to disagree. FMAB has some of the best sakuga moments in anime. I'm interested to see what anime is not garbage to you though.

[@turanx0]

@@BoknoyBuhisan I actually had an in depth conversation with someone on why FMAB doesn’t work for me. The person I was talking to asked me if I had watched The Wire and Breaking Bad. I didn’t understand it at first, so I said that I had watched Breaking Bad from start to finish and loved it, while on the other hand I dropped The Wire after 2 episodes because I was bored to death. He explained to me that I only like character focused stories and dislike stories that point towards bigger societal issues. I mostly agree with this. Shows/anime’s that point towards societal issues (e.g. racism, xenophobia, wealth-poverty dynamic) don’t work for me because I’ve seen and heard that in real life a billion times, it’s just boring to see that subject being tackled in whatever show/anime there is, hence why The Wire and FMAB never worked for me. Now on the other hand, shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men were fantastic to me and anime’s like Hunter x Hunter, the old Berserk anime, Code Geass, Death Note and Gantz all the same. Mind you, I haven’t seen a lot of anime because I have limited time for myself, but these anime’s are high on my list for the writing, world building, character development and action they present. I also am biased towards Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z because I grew up with it, so I have a bigger appreciation for what the king of shonen has done for the genre and how influential it was for basically every other shonen afterwards, although Dragon Ball does not belong in the aforementioned list of great writing. It’s decent.

[@iLLBiLLsRoastBeats]

I just found your channel last night and I think I’ve seen all your videos already 😂 love your content

[@butterletto]

Wow dude I know this is an old video but, this hair looks reaally good on you! You look so much stylish and cool.

[@michaelcoffey1991]

Thanks for the list it was a fun watch :).

[@CloydRoyal]

Stella Deus holds a special place in my heart. I was about a third of the way through it when I found out my cousin lost his battle with cancer. Through the sorrow I felt, this game was there for me through my darkest times and it was the first strategy game I ever completed.

[@carlosmora5092]

Hey, I'm living a similar situation with my mom, I have an idea about how you felt, playing games in these situations help a little.

[@treasurehunter3369]

Old comment i know, but im glad to hear you found something to help you through. I cant even imagine losing my brother or my mother. I will one day though..or maybe the other way around, who knows. Your 3 year old comment made me, today, stop what i was doing and think about how much i appreciate everyone in my life. Thank you. Good luck buddy

[@glynnedwards3406]

I love Stella dues. 😊 it has amazing artwork by the same artist who does the shin megami tensei series.

[@zennvirus7980]

You made a smile come to my face when I saw Thousand Arms, Saiyuki and Stella Deus. Thousand Arms in particular is a proper classic and a fun game indeed. Saiyuki's final boss, Asura, is one hell of a boss, so yes, grindfest is the only way. And Stella Deus, I concur with you every step of the way. Especially the music, made by Hitoshi Sakimoto, with some of my favorite tracks of his like 'Turning Point' and 'March of Heroes'.

[@draiken88]

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED Thousand Arms, it was one of the few games that really got me in to jrpgs/rpgs along with Lunar silver star story, Lunar 2 eternal blue and Vanguard Bandits. I got Saiyuki from the psn store on my ps3 as well as Stella Deus

[@geraltshmm5750]

Man finally someone talked about my favorite childhood game, Magical Starsign

[@hoshiryu]

Magical Starsign had that Bullshit too Powerful Prison guard at the beginning i never got through ....... even tho i was Young and still love it

[@maxis2k]

"The cover looks horrible..." Funny because for half of these, the cover is the thing that made me notice them. Especially Magical Starsign, which I instantly recognized as a Brownie Brown game because of the cover art. Remember, just a decade ago, people were discounting stuff like Dragon Quest, Suikoden and SMT because of the cover art.

[@adrianmerenda7856]

Thousand Arms! I love that game. I got so sad when I discovered there weren't any sequels.

[@faisbross]

Ay caramba, why did youtube recommend your channel to me one year later. I love rpgs. I should have subscribed years ago.

[@maychrzak]

Hey, nice hiarcut.. Saiyuki is available on the PS Store for $5.99 here in the U.S. And I found it used around $15 so it wont really break the bank.. I think I'll get it to play on my Vita

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Awesome. $15 was a steal, man, that game usually goes for 40-50$

[@mirraisnow6050]

Pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of sky had horrible reviews, but is one of the best roguelike rpg games

[@ShiroKatagari]

I absolutely love Stella Deus. I'm even good with the grind and the difficulty. If I could change one thing, though, it would be the time limit on some quests and activities - it never felt necessary and probably harmed the desire for progression for some people.

[@noneofyourbiz5973]

Thank you for adding Stella Deus, The pixel art work is fantastic on this game.

[@SuiteLifeofDioBrando]

I would say the SAO games are pretty good despite critic reviews. My ranking of the series would be 1. Sao Hollow Realization 2. SAO Lost Song 3. SAO Re Hollow Fragment In terms of games I played in the series. I think critics gave some of these titles lower scores due to fanservice.

[@mr.h77799]

I just bought 2 of them last week and have been enjoying them so far

[@rpgplayer1161]

My favorite is ACCEL WORLD vs SAO.

[@ErickLandonRPG]

I've never tried any of those. I'll get into one of them at least as soon as possible.

[@jymfiskburk2256]

Fatal bullet is pretty good tries to mimick online game like destiny or warframe...or atleast that feel

[@AmuroGaming]

Hollow Realization is great, looking forward to Alicization lycoris

[@ExtraordinaryBoris]

I really enjoy your rpg and hidden gem videos. so glad i found you now on 2021. I have years of content to watch

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

For Glory of Heracles, I would actually advise to play the precedent games Glory of Heracles 3 and 4 (4 being my favorite of all time, but 3 have a cross dresser Hero). Sure, they are old Snes JRPG and haven't aged that well, but the stories are far better. (And mainly, there's not the Leucos issue)

[@blackwallstreet1505]

your face when you're looking at My Riding Stables xD 🤣 😂

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Lol, fuck that game xD

[@RaizenLim]

@@ErickLandonRPG hidden gem.haha

[@adiazrue5776]

To this day I'm still so sad I couldn't finish Magical Starsign. I love playing it but my game always crash before I could get near the end. Man, you just bring back some memories haha

[@A.Hanson]

I've played Thousand Arms, Heracles, Saiyuki, Onimusha Tactics, and Stella Deus. Saiyuki was actually a Christmas gift from my parents the year it came out and is one of the few PS1 games I still own.

[@clone1eighty7]

Nice sneak in of shadowrun terminal nexus at the beginning

[@isna7120]

The best thing on this channel is this guy look happy make the content not just for money. Btw nice video 👍👍👍

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Thanks, buddy.

[@marcoc8712]

Erick your video are great! Thank you very much to condivide your opinions and your experience. I believe you are one of the best RPG experts of all time! Keep it up and always thank you for the time you dedicate to us! :-)

[@Citanoo]

Ever Oasis is developed by some of the Secret of Mana devs and you notice that when playing it. A hidden gem for sure! A game that I really hope will get ported to Switch.

[@tristanmarkranillo5776]

Glory of Heracles 3 and 4 has already got English Translation for the SNES.

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Nice. I'll give them a try! Thanks for the info!

[@MrFaceNumeroUno]

Onimusha tactics is another fun one!

[@SeventhheavenDK]

Yeah

[@Killzone25b]

Ever Oasis is actually closer to the Mana games from Sqaure Enix and that is mainly due to the fact that Koichi Ishii worked on the game and he is known for working on the Mana games from when they first started.

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Thanks for the info.

[@icebergthegamer]

I bought Glory of Heracles for $2 at a wholesale market in NYC called BJs. We were ready to leave, and on the way out of the store. They have this huge room where they store the electronics. Saw it on the window and for that price, couldn’t pass it up.

[@OldManShane]

Saiyuki! Super great. Man, I played that game to hell and back as a kid. And Onimusha Tactics... man, you've got good tastes.

[@celexter84]

I played Thousand Arms but didn't complete it. Would love to try again. Completed Saiyuki. Not a fantastic story, but the battles weren't bad with Summons and Werechanges. The final battle was quite memorable to me.

[@thesacredlobo]

I'm kind of surprised Magical Starsign got an E rating considering one of the tidbits of lore you can learn in the game is that the robots murdered their own creators and turned those they captured into gummies in order to use them as a fuel source. And that they will do the same to the rest of the civilizations in the game when their current gummy reserves run dry. P.S.: The main character can either be assigned to the Light or Dark element.

[@quizzyssbu3156]

I was thinking about getting A.W Phoenix festa on my vita. Now that you say it’s good, I must try it

[@samanthapeddle7314]

I remember playing Magical Starsign when I was younger. Would be awesome if they either remaster it, make a sequel or port it to modern consoles

[@mtaffer]

Saiyuki is fantastic! Also, I was wondering what you thought of Thousand Arms :D

[@gozucritic4546]

Saiyuki: Journey to the West is one game i still haven't played but have been wanting to have so i can go through it so thatnks for the review in keeping my intrest peaked in it Erick bro!

[@ErickLandonRPG]

No problem, man, thanks for watching!

[@averagejoe5145]

This video reminded me that I still have Thousand Arms & both Fullmetal Alchemist games. Haven't touched them in years, but I may go back & play them again in the future.

[@HokutenTM]

Dude, before I even watched the video I was thinking "I'm going to recommend a Thousand arms" in the comment section, and to my surprise I found it in the video! Great choice of games to add to the list!

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Lol, glad you found it here.

[@ajackza]

Shoutout to the Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 Cobi's Journey in the background at the beginning.

[@gozucritic4546]

I so loved Thousand Arms & compmeted it out plus i still have my strategy guide which made things easier for the dating system! 😆

[@musiclover01ization]

Nice haircut, dude. Also, great video as usual.

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Thanks.

[@mluch9613]

A.W : Phoenix Festa on PS Vita online store shows the folder tab for the game but when you open the tab its empty. Anyone else encounter this issue? If the game was taken off the store why is the name and picture of the game still there? Any games normally taken off you can't even search for it.

[@queentribble2019]

I don't remember ever hearing you mention Black Rock Shooter for the PSP. Neat little action shooter RPG with a cheesy bad story and quick but simple gameplay that's hooked me the last few days.

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Never played it.

[@jaylashmenn5999]

I like the funny ending. IE. Haha ur personality is showing.well done

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Thanks

[@Migdo14]

A very selection of games that I should try someday.

[@DLinton]

I really liked Magical Starsign. It was my first proper RPG.

[@vahollak]

Sup Erick! Digging the new look! Missing the nine inch nails shirt though!

[@ErickLandonRPG]

You must have missed some videos then. I'm still wearing it in some.

[@untamedhart2535]

have you done anything on Chrono Cross? You showed the cinematic for it here, but it isn't on the list?

[@ErickLandonRPG]

What? Lol.

[@untamedhart2535]

@@ErickLandonRPG I'm new to watching your vids but the scene you start to show at 28 seconds is Chrono Cross isn't it? Because Kidd is one of my fav all time characters

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Oooh, boy, if you're new, you're in for a lot of surprises. CC is my favourite RPG of all time so imagine how many times I've covered it, hahaha.

[@Aenashi]

man, i GAVE you that game! why did you toss it? :( You got to play it on stream sometime and review it!

[@frowningmirror8097]

Thousand Arms is so unique even for today, I can hardly believe it was a ps1 game

[@viniciuscandido3753]

Stella deus and magical starsign are awesome, maybe they could make a remake , I’ll surely play !! Your videos are FANTASTIC and the ending was hilarious😂😂😂

[@alexandrojavierpinto2501]

8:30 I said it was Infinite Stratos in other video? Shit, it was a mistake!..

[@miguelitopumpum]

Erick yo are one of those youtubers to let me travel like to the time of final fantasy tactics

[@Jessmanseventy7]

I bought thousand arms from software etc in the Summerville(Antioch) mall near the end of the ps1 era. Loved that game

[@HybridAngelZero]

Fullmetal Alchemist 2 was one of my first PS2 games, and I still go back to it every now and then, it is a ton of fun. Also, Ever Oasis is a total gem on 3DS, I recommend anyone who thinks it looks cool, definitely try the demo on the eShop! Also, Onimusha Tactics is, surprisingly, on the Wii U eShop for only $6.99, and Stella Deus is available on PS3 for $9.99

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Awesome info, thanks for sharing.

[@MikhaliX]

Man, if I knew Stela Deus existed back in the day, I would have played it. Portrait Art from Persona and those good looking sprites would have caught my interest.

[@synthoelectro]

I've learned, never judge a RPG by 'its cover'

[@nyarlathotep641]

Played Saiuyki, AW, Deus and Thousand arms. Yeah, those games are not masterpieces, but pretty good games in it's own. Esp Deus. Also can easily add: Hoshigami - critics destroyed the game... because of grind and being too difficult. But the story is good and battles are really hard not because of cheating opponents, but because AI is good. Notural docrine - yeah, not that original story, but battle system is really can make up for everything. Tokyo Twilight ghost hunters - well, one of those games, that is hard to play, because the game is not helping. Too understand few of it's mechanics you need really try many things.

[@Lasjah]

I took a chance on Stella Deus back in the day and at first it seemed a bit generic, but it grew on me quickly. I agree it can be a grind fest, and you can become OP very early if you want to ignore the story missions for a while. A really underrated game for sure.

[@XXMARIOXX-dk4po]

What game is at 35-42 seconds?

[@BlackFantasy470]

I brought the Asterisk Wars game when it was on Playstation Store sale some time ago. Its gameplay is nice and I like the anime as well. The only downside is that the graphics doesn't look good when playing it on the PlayStationTV.

[@johnbenard9550]

Stella Dues # 1 all time overlooked PS2 RPG Gem. Awesome game, played through it twice, there are different endings too!

[@ArtumTsumia]

_Stella Deus_ looks like it could be an interesting title, at the very least, the character art catches my eye. _Ever Oasis_ was quite a fun little RPG, it has it's flaws to be sure, but ever since I'd seen it announced it was a title that had caught my eye. I didn't pick it up until a fair bit after launch when I saw it on sale, and it's certainly worth it if you can pick it up on the cheap. "Endgame" is a bit of a wash, with a bunch of stuff to grind for that aren't particularly of any value. Slightly better weapons and such walled behind some terrible RNG loot farming, The core story line though is quite enjoyable though.

[@papita69xxx]

Yeah i initially dismissed AW because the reasons you mentioned but i might give it a bash now. Great list. Played thousand arms and i also thought it was a great underrated gem and while i didn't play magical starsign the prequel for the GBA has a fan translation and it was a good game.

[@ErickLandonRPG]

AW even has a battle mode, as in a fighting game, which is also pretty darn fun. Yeah, this game is all about the gameplay, everything else is trash (except maybe the fan service, for people who love it, there's tons of it here).

[@CynicalGamingBlogTerry309]

Forgot Onimusha got a tactics game. I really should check that out at some point.

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Don't expect too much of it and you'll like it. It's like an easier Tactics Ogre.

[@WeStackBluesWeSmellBlood]

One day I’m gonna put money into making a magical star sign sequel

[@ArtofWEZ]

i want to play AW pheonix festa but ti's not on the store

[@exregalia]

gonna try A.W Phoenix Festa hey i see my favourite rpg all the time behind there, super mario rpg

[@TimBitten]

Little trivia about Stella Deus: the game’s case art insert is reversible!!

[@shiningtrickster5156]

My riding stables is my favourite jrpg

[@ShinoSeven]

Is that a new haircut? Looking good!

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Nah, just got tired and shaved my head, lol.

[@00r99]

as soon as i heard sands of destruction ost at the beggining i smashed the like button

[@GBMatthew07]

Stella Deus is an excellent SRPG and the artwork holds up even now.

[@berserkerf0x574]

Hi Eric ! I been seeing your videos for a while . One underrated game its Ar Tonelico , if you ask its because the second and third ones are not so good . But the first one its a pretty solid game , the only bad thing is its fanservice , that kinda ruins some part of the story , but in the end its a really good game ! See you around.

[@ErickLandonRPG]

I'm a fan of the 3 games and also Ar Nosurge. Thank you.

[@tekablade6755]

If you do a second version of this, I hope you include the game Vanguard Bandits for the PS1.

[@ErickLandonRPG]

I don't think so, I've talked about that game like 10 times already, hahahaha.

[@Moon-rune]

great video :D i have played Sayuki ,Thousand Arms and Stella Deus , yeah not the best of jrpg but they are still worth to have or at least play once, for thousand arms i think to remember i played it 3 times to the end, first i got my ass beaten by the last boss but later i got better from beginning. Sayuki was fun too , Stella Deus is harder than sayuki but good too :) my Favorite character was Lumena

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Yeah, they're not super great RPGs, but they're pretty decent.

[@Moon-rune]

yes :)

[@bladeofmird]

Shigenori Soejima's Stella Deus artwork always blew my mind. Personally i prefer it much more from his Persona artwork which always looked more "anime-ish" to me. Hopefully his style in the upcoming Project Re-Fantasy will be more similar to Stella Deus than Persona.

[@mooserocka522]

So many of them i bought because i was like hmmm this might be ok. Gave it a try and loved them. Thousand arms and stella were 2 of them.

[@vvolfflovv]

these look like major hidden gems. ill definitely keep an eye out for them.

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Yeah, most of them fit into that category.

[@SpJrD]

Sadly, these games didn’t get much advertisement AND rpg gamers also didn’t spread the news about it back then ☹️

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Exactly.

[@Eggnificent]

Honestly I passed up a chance at Saiyuki, only because I didn't really know what to expect.

[@NoroGameplays]

Back then i played the heck out of the crimson elixir, funny enough i didn't finish either of the anime seasons, but i was well aware after a certain point the game just didn't follow the story correctly, still an awesome action RPG, that scar boss dude, imagine my surprise when i discovered you could actually beat him, just didn't really change anything in the story

[@Demokaze]

We need more sprite-based games with the quality of Stella Dues cause holy shit it looks good.

[@ErickLandonRPG]

It's those cell-shaded graphics, man! They look awesome!

[@asstronuts]

@@ErickLandonRPG it remember me to The banner saga

[@pookanoid]

What's your opinion about Inazuma 11 game series?

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Never played them. Sports with RPG elements? I probably won't like them xD

[@tonybaloney5922]

Blitzball in FFX tho 👌

[@cmdrleonhart]

Played the demo for Ever Oasis and, while I enjoyed it, my backlog is so huge I have no idea when I'll get around to actually playing it. Hope to though. Thanks for another great video. PS- I did play Magical Starsign and enjoyed it. ^^

[@ErickLandonRPG]

We're the same. I did like 6 hours and then moved to other games and then backlog grew and... Yeah.

[@blrolz3544]

Glory of Hercules was amazing, I bit on the easy side from what I remember but a good story and likable characters

[@marcosdheleno]

"its a legend of zelda meets harvest moon" so you mean rune factory?

[@Bornagainvillain]

Actually just got Saiyuki off the psn. Glory of Heracles was my shit in the Navy days. I was about to finish it but the difficulty spike got me. Ever Oasis is also really good. It had people from the Mana Series on It, and you could see it all over the game.

[@ErickLandonRPG]

Same here. This one boss in Heracles all of a sudden was insanely difficult and I also gave up.

[@luizarthurdossantos7636]

Stella Deus is an amazing game, for me its better then FE and FFT, beautiful art and really hard, standard Atlus game.

[@jonathynmurray7537]

I actually liked the anime asterisk war I was always laughing and the fights were awesome so I definitely wanna get the game