10 Excellent Modern ARPGs That I Recommend to Anyone

[@OJvdH]

I played nayuta last year when it came out. I loved it. Finished within a week it's not a long game but it did all it needed to do. I absolutely agree it should get more attention it's really fun to play. But it surtenly is not a trails game. It's more 70/30 split between gameplay and story instead of the 20/80 the average trails game has.

[@renren5660]

Honestly, when I read about the proportion of gameplay/story I just convinced myself to put Nayuta in my whislist and throw away the main trails series to never buy

[@KisekiFan]

thanks for this, i just got reminded that i need to try out Eternights and Fate Samurai. Also i think Ys X Nordic needs more recognition, that game was fun to play and the story wasn't all that bad.

[@giuseppeparry1365]

I was half-expecting to see Astral Chain here given you really emphasised how AMAZING the first 80% was. I guess the last 20% brought it down that much? And possibly its limited availability. I haven't played it myself since I don't own a Nintendo Switch, but it was just a prediction of mine.

[@hirisen]

I really don't think the last 20% did anything that much differently than the first 80% personally. The story was a bit all over the place in general but I still recommend astral chain on the merit of literally every other aspect. It looks nice, plays brilliantly and has a banging soundtrack.

[@giuseppeparry1365]

@@hirisen Hmm, I wouldn't know because I haven't played it, but TKN said it was the story that heavily fell off in the last 20% and before that it was insanely good.

[@hashslingingslasher3083]

@@giuseppeparry1365I don’t think so personally. The game is top 5 switch for me and the story was genuinely entertaining start to finish. Maybe the first couple hours while you are learning the ropes is slow but I really recommend it to you. There was only one particular thing that I didn’t like with the ending but still a 9/10

[@Rakadramon]

He's mentioning games that are easily accessible and multi-platform. Astral Chain is a Switch exclusive. Meaning those playing on Playstation, Xbox or PC (legitimately anyway) don't have access to it as well.

[@NachtKaiser666]

Even without any Trails connection, Nahyuta is just a great game worth playing! But let's be honest, Kondo knows about the fan theories, and he allowed the game to be officially localized over ten years after its original release. Bro's gonna cook a connection, though probably not one we expected.

[@TheStampede_]

FATE Samurai Remnant was so damn good and made me actually give the Nasuverse a shot. It really went under the radar. I will say, though, I HATED the Leyline segments

[@Ranemoraken]

If Scarlet Nexus was not on this list, I was going to riot. God, I got to finish Berseria. Was playing with a friend, and that's the only reason I never finished. I had entirely intended to play Gran Blue Fantasy: Relink, but life distracted me from the day 1 buy and I haven't had a chance to grab it. Seriously though, if you're an old school gamer, you'll appreciate Scarlet Nexus for the pace of which it reveals interesting story beats. Also the music is excellent. If you need background music, just bring up Scarlet Nexus. I will tackle you and force you to listen to the music so you can study and be a better human. There's a bunch of ARPG's (That are not isometric in the Diablo style) that I have in my queue to finish. I did a demo of Asterigos that puts it high on my list. Also didn't get around to Kena. That's the few games that my brain cues to that weren't mentioned in this list.

[@calendar6526]

Yeah, forasmuch I don't like the game overall, it's one of those games that I can recommend to anyone without much thinking since it's genuinely fun. Because people would just love it or find it kinda disappointing because some of the flaws like me.

[@Rubiick]

I think the Nights of Azure games from Gust are 2 underrated games, and should be played, these are very good action jprgs

[@sunkeyavad6528]

*Scarlet Nexus* is great. One of my top favorite overall character rosters alongside *Tales of Xillia.* I ended up liking everybody fairly quickly, inlcuding characters expected not to. It also felt more like a Tales game then Arise in terms of character interactions. Arise was alot more serious than the Tales series usually is in its skits, but Scarlet Nexus hit that exact note again, that I really like in the tales games skits. Great story too, just a bit fast paced at times. Could have benefitted from being a bit longer of a game that takes a few more breathers and some more world building before chasing big event after big event.

[@jamesrule1338]

Solid list. I wish I got along with Harvestella as well as you did. My problem with farming/ARPGs is every time I play one I compare it to Rune Factory: Frontier. Which isn't fair to most of them.

[@titusoneil8723]

I can’t wrap my brain around why Frontier was so good, but I have the same problem as you. Can’t get into any of them like RF Frontier

[@Rakadramon]

The fact that you mentioned not only NEO TWEWY but also Megaton Musashi Wired (two of the most criminally underrated games on this whole list) and everyone else in the comments seems to snub them away to mention the more well known series and not expand their horizons (which is the whole point of this video); proves just how much more hella cultured you are, my dude! You got yourself a new sub!👍

[@tuanis90]

ngl, I'm personally unable to recommend Eternights just because of how much I hate the ending. It made me feel like I completely wasted my time and money.

[@tootall4joo]

Yeah it just wasn't a fun game imo. Felt like a watered down persona but too shallow to be enjoyable.

[@TheTenshi777]

Please share, what happened at the end? I don't wanna waste money either

[@azarg87]

Agreed.. that ending wasn’t great.. game was pretty fun while it lasted tho!!

[@natsurashizero]

Nayuta is an absolute treasure, and I was surprised that the second half was so out there in terms level design

[@truthseeker9833]

Good list I remember you mentioning Eternights in one of your videos, but sadly I do not own a ps4 So glad they ported it to switch! I'll be buying it soon

[@lamp6909]

when the thumbnail has Scarlet Nexus and the opening has Nier Automata, it's already a good video

[@Nedwig747]

It was weird as hell but I did really like scarlet nexus and it definitely deserved more success

[@doggowhisperer6844]

I loved Secret of Evermore back in the day. I know technically not a jrpg. Wish it would get remastered for modern consoles.

[@Qrec12]

Nice that you mentioned Nayuta. I loved that game.

[@samuxan]

played 3 of those. Berseria and scarlet nexus are among my favourites from the last few years. grand blue was on the right track but got messy at the end. the post game has 2 parts, for the first is what one would expect but for the latter it's just broken. Fights are way too long and hard when fighting enemies above your level(or equipment level once you reach the level cap) but the only way to get the better materials is to defeat those foes, and they become useless right away because the next mission has even higher level enemies, we never get the satisfaction of progress at that stage

[@elasmojones]

Playing Eternights right now, it's pretty enjoyable so far.

[@theshadowcult]

The issue with granblue fantasy relink, is that while the combat is good, the camera is absolutely awful, and you often get attacked by mobs from off screen because only the ones on screen give you warnings to dodge or block them. Its a great but holy shit frustrating game.

[@alexsanderivan6511]

Playing through Scarlet Nexus at the moment, the combat is ridiculously fun, and while the story is very cliche, it is well executed. And... alright TKN I'll try Megaton Musashi

[@saviordream]

I've only played Nayuta (which I loved), but I actually own all of the games on this list with the exception of Neo: TWEWY, Megaton Musashi and Grand Blue Fantasy, none of which have gameplay loops that interest me. Planning on getting to the rest of them at some point, but they're just part of the huge backlog of games I have in my collection at this point, so it may be a while!

[@HelLDeWs]

Glad Nayuta got mentioned at the end it deserves it. also while on the subject of Nayuta way more people need to play Zwei the game its heavily based on and basically a sequel to mechanically. the first 1 is a pretty easy skip IMO ( i like the text but i hate the combat) the second one is bloody fantastic tho

[@TobiasKlose.]

Best Thing about Fate Samurai Remnant is clearly Ruler.

[@arikari3672]

I'm not sure I'd recommend Eternights, not because the game is bad or anything, actually i liked the more to the point approach of the story and relationships. My issue is the section that i couldn't pass, the motorcycle racing section, closed curves, you can't touch some walls and is too fast. Some people said they didn't have issues, but then there's a mod lowers the speed, and even the dev tried to patch a bit that section. Imagine my suffering when I'm playing Eternights on switch and i can't use the slow mod 😢. Anyway, Harvestella is an action RPG that i love enough to say is my favorite, its systems are simple, even could feel superficial or barebones, but the sum of it all makes a great gaming loop.

[@Jasco15]

IMO, honorable mention would be Ys 8 and Stellar blade

[@Jasco15]

I think Genshin could have been on this list. Might not be a popular opinion because of gacha and bloated dialogue, but the World design to explore and combat are some of the best that I've seen in the genre. The team comps you can create for elemental reactions is still original and satisfying after 4 years.

[@Eltron92]

My only problem with Berseria was the combat. I never really got it even by the final boss I just kind of randomly assigned the combos. Everything else was stellar tho, one of my favorite non trails jrpg story.

[@HirschyKiss]

Let me get this straight. You Snub NieR: Automata because it's "not modern" but you include games that came out before it?

[@BlazetheCat130]

Nice to see Neo Twewy get some attention on this list! I know the game has some flaws. I'm looking at your scramble slam.. But I love the combat, soundtrack and characters in that game, even though I haven't finished it yet. It's a shame that they stop updating Granblue Relink. There is so much they can do with that game. Like adding actual costumes or more characters. Or DLC for some new story missions, but they completely gave up.. So much miss potential to expand game even further. Ah well, it's still a great action JRPG and I love it! Too bad the only thing I still don't like about the game is Vyrn himself.. (No offense to the fans that like him).

[@NathanYoungLibrary]

K, I'm putting Tales of Berseria on my "To Play" list, you've finally convinced me. (I would have said Arise as my favorite tales game, but I haven't played Berseria)

[@kohiek]

I prefer Arise, but Berseria knocks a ton of things out of the park.

[@DeliriumTrigger917]

I’ve played 8 Tales Of games (Arise, Vesperia and Symphonia included), and for me, Berseria is the best by a wide margin.

[@Veo87]

@@NathanYoungLibrary I thought Arise had the best combat system, but the story and characters in Berseria were better to me.

[@makikuma91]

Yeah, always wanted to try twewy neo. But everyone said you need the story from the first entry to get into this game. So I avoided it until now. Maybe I get it on a sale and skip the cutscenes or something...

[@bryanbahantka6969]

Can't wait for Star Ocean Divine Force to get a Switch 2 port

[@karmenion]

why you didn't put SO2ndSR and did put Relink is beyond me. If you put games that went under the radar then Relink has no place here since it was big for a while.

[@franciscobutte]

How's Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ compared to the games of this list?

[@dangox3370]

its not a minor thing. theres a huge difference between action and turn based. how can you have no preference? Me? I definitely prefer turn based. It's the best way to control a party of characters and the whole party dynamic is what makes JRPGs special. I'd go as far to say action JRPGs arent really JRPGs at all. The ones that do try to integrate a full party in the action gameplay usually feel super awkward to play.

[@ReaveIdono]

It's definitely a minor thing. The action JRPGs with multiple party members I can switch through on the fly I do super cool combos. They require skill to get a lot of the experience. That said. I also have no preference. Good games are simply good games.

[@ms102111]

scarlet nexus on the thumbnail AW HELL YEA

[@rjproduction486]

I appreciate that Grand Blue Fantasy relink pacing! No boring filler, its action all the way to the end! Plus it itch my craving for a anime style monster hunter, maxing stats for your favorite character (Narmaya BEST WAIFU!!!) is just satisfying.

[@ssjdennis6058]

People keep praising NEO, but never appealed to me.

[@Hravokh]

you say Nihon Falcom - i say "take my money"

[@JuliaSin]

Ys8 getting the honorary mention was 1000% expect knowing your love for that game❤❤❤😂

[@Naryoril]

Good list, i played 7 of those, and the 3 I didn't play, i considered but decided against because they have an element I don't feel like. I would have put a Yakuza game on the list though, probably 0 or Judgment.

[@sofiar.r.9063]

7 of those? Wow Which ones? I only played from the list 5: Scarlet Nexus, Tales of Berseria, Harvestella, GranBlue Fantasy and The Legend of Nayuta. I want to play more action rpg after Ys X: Nordics.

[@Naryoril]

@@sofiar.r.9063 NEO: TWEWY (the DS version of the first game is my favorite game of all time), Scarlet Nexus, Tales of Berseria, Sakuna (btw: they announced a spin off 2 days or so ago, really looking forward to that), Eternights, Harvestella and Nayuta I didn't play Megaton Musashi F because afaik there are monster hunter like elements to it, where farming the right upgrades is very important. Granblue Fantasy because I'm not into that universe, the game apparently expects you to know many of the side playable characters/only gives you explanations and history in a wall of text and because it is also very monster hunter like postgame, but you still need to it to get the full conclusion of the story. And i'm simply not interested/invested in the whole FATE thing.

[@sofiar.r.9063]

@@Naryoril Thx, I´m going to get Sakuna and Eternights ASAP.

[@Naryoril]

@@sofiar.r.9063 Imo Eternights is by far the weakest game from this list, the combat is not very engaging and the game has balancing issues. Personally i'd resommend NEO: TWEWY much more. And Sakuna is a very good choice too

[@connergaskell1909]

I think Nayuta deserves a remake its world would be good traverse on a boat like ys nordic

[@Jwg-gj7qs]

Honestly I prefer Arise over Berseria when it comes to combat. Berseria has an interesting concept but as a whole I think Arise was a better package.

[@ifrit1937]

Same. Berseria is imo better with story, characters, and side quests/content but Arise beats it in combat with the only exception to that being ally AI which Arise is perhaps the worst in the series in that regard due to the alkyd ai management being party based. Arise's equipment system is also better imo as while random at first you can outright slot in desired skills on gear at about Lord 4 or 5 (best skills of course are available only after Lord 5 though). With that said my favorite combat system is classic Tales which imo peaked with the base system from Hearts R or Xillia 2 (basically the core mechanics in each game minus their unique gimmick, such as how both are free chaining for combos using classic inputs).

[@Jwg-gj7qs]

Also for story, berseria’s concept and especially the antagonist was interesting, however had a bitter-sweet ending. Arise at the end had some pacing issues and a shallow antagonist, but had a very strong, satisfying ending. That ending alone is a winner for me to forgive some messy pacing issues.

[@ErebosSpiral]

Bro actually put Eternights on the list 💀💀💀

[@marksayosmejia7251]

Kinda disappointed no monster hunter. But i doubt a lot of ppl categorize soulsborne and monhun as jrpgs.

[@fortheqynn3503]

Love Scarlet Nexus, Berseria, Granblue Fantasy Relink. Eternights and Neo TWEWY didn't do it for me; tried them but didn't finish either. Haven't played the others. Thanks for the list and all your content!!

[@creekandseminole]

Nayuta has gone up in price a lot since it came out. So far it hasn't gotten a reprint either and copies are limited. It'll probably stay above 100 dollars down the line.

[@renren5660]

Weird because the game in my country just about $35-40. I planned to buy it tho.

[@aleixbendia440]

I just finished fate remnant and even the story keep me entertained...i would not recommend it, it's monotonous and just a matter of pushing bottons without any stategy appart bosses fight but i have to say that the Dlc's are outstanding

[@DewaHuang]

I'm expecting XVI to be on this list, alas it's the same list as others aside of granblue

[@alanwattie6093]

Glad to see some of these games make the list. Scarlet Nexus to me is the other end of the spectrum from Crystar with mediocre story but amazing gameplay. Harvestella was surprising to me similarly to World of FF by having a much deeper story than I expected from first impressions. I will die on the hill that Nayuta is definitely connected to the rest of the Trails series and may even take place in Ys world and connect Ys and Trails (2 moons, Mishy a living creature in Nayuta and Ys, similarities between the Mythos and Eldeen, Ark of Napishtim=Astrolabe, etc)

[@joerittmeyer4490]

I think my bias for Berseria's story is because it absolutely smoked my expectations out of the water. I've been playing the tales series since Symphonia, and although I do enjoy them, I see their stories very lack luster and always a waste of potential, especially considering their good casts of characters. When Zesteria released, I was really excited to see the series head into a new direction, only to find out that it never did, and in fact, got much worse from Xillia. Then they announce shortly after that a prequel to zesteria was comming out, and I literally just skipped Berseria for a whole year, thinking it was the same garbage as Zesteria. It wasn't until a friend who's never played a tales of game told me that Berseria became his favorite game of all time. I was very skeptical, and assumed my friend had awful taste. I bought the game on sale, and I was just astonished at how good Velvet is. And not only that, but also an actual good unique story with awesome characters, and a compelling villain. Although I wouldn't say its my favorite jrpg story, its definitely up there in the top 5.

[@Llortnerof]

I think Zestiria being so weak is part of it. Berseria is just an improvement on everything Zestiria messed up.

[@RealBrawlz]

Only Tales games I've played is Arise (I LOVED IT) and Vesperia (It was decent). I've wanted to give Berseria a shot, but also am a bit scared considering I might not enjoy it as much as Arise considering they changed it up from Berseria.

[@digitointi3223]

Berseria is just bad. It feel's rushed and the only saving grace of it is Magilou. I don't know what the hell is Kiseki Nut partaking to think that awful crap is better than Arise.

[@Veo87]

@@RealBrawlz While I think Arise has a better combat system (and graphics, of course), I thought Berseria's story and characters were better, so it's still worth experiencing.

[@redsilversnake]

@@digitointi3223 You not getting it doesn't make it bad.

[@digitointi3223]

@@redsilversnake yeah, yeah. Get your brownie points

[@ENDIR0451]

KN what's your opinion on the very bizarre "I know we're trying to kill each other, but let's meet up for lunch so I can have character development with you." Aspect of Scarlet Nexus?

[@Queenofthesevenseas]

I was really really hopeful that tales of Berseria would get a port to the switch 😓 it’s still my favorite tales game next to Xillia regardless of others opinions. Wonderful list with some stellar recommendations. On a side note I’m also really hoping Stellar Blade gets a port to the next switch system 🥳🥰 as I’d love to play that game on the go instead of being tethered to my ps5.

[@awastedcow]

Berseria will forever be a top action RPG. It's just too good. Also playing as a gang of misfits is always a fun time.

[@fernandozavaletabustos205]

Cool recommendations!

[@Nakatomi_Kagehisa]

Neo Twewy was ok but the Scramble slams were so tedious and boring, as much as i like the Game i can't recommend it because of that, the story was ok and the characters were really good (especially Shoka)

[@TetraMaster-f8s]

Agree, and overall the game was wayy too repetitive, fun tho.

[@josek998]

Looking at creha and the grandmaster, its seeing the same picture, havent played nayuta planning on buying it on a sale

[@Veo87]

I didn't think the combat in Berseria was that great, especially since I had just beaten Arise and thought that combat system was better, but I thought Berseria's story and characters were better overall, so I still enjoyed it. I beat Scarlet Nexus once and the combat was good overall, but couldn't stay interested enough to complete the second character's storyline. I plan on trying GranBlue Fantasy when it goes on sale. I did try the demo, at least.

[@ReaveIdono]

Well you didn't play them in reverse. Of course going backwards the gameplay may not hold up. But that's not all a RPG is there for though.

[@Veo87]

@@ReaveIdono Right. Like I said, I still liked Berseria's story and characters more.

[@robdiquattro5590]

Neo twewy rips and I can’t convince anyone to try it!

[@alumlovescake]

I love Berseria. Velvet is such a............ awesome character

[@hunterhost]

My problem whit Tales Series (wich i really like) is that my first Tales games was Berseria, I played trought Zestiria only for being a prequel (History wise) but characters and history of Berseria is so good I couldn't get to like the others (tought I enjoyed them)

[@luizfib]

I truly will never understand the lack of criticism on Scarlet Nexus from KZbin content creators. You guys make it sound amazing since it was released but never mention the story is a big mess, the quests are abominations, the enviroments are awful, the bonding mechanism is boring as hell and so on. Combat can carry a game only so far.

[@Nikita_Akashya]

I like Harvestell and am still in the middle of playing it right now. But I am very close to finishing the story at least. The farming and cooking is just very distracting. I have the urge everything. The food just looks so good. It is making me hungry. I like the combat. It is pretty ok in my eyes. I only care about the gun anyway and getting more ingredients to cook food and make juice. Juice is very necessary. And the sidequests are amazing. The one where the mayor has a secret beer stash in the the well and the ghost was just him having a drink was so funny. I could not stop laughing.

[@mystic865]

I love Scarlet Nexus but Berseria is so boring I stopped playing after 12 hours or so.

[@PlaytendoSwitchGaming]

I feel the opposite 😭

[@lasselen9448]

6:05 Hmm... I love Berseria, it would be my favourite of the series if not for one major issue: dungeon design is the worst I've seen in any game. Most are bland stretches of space or corridors with no puzzles to speak of, way too many enemies (that you fortunately can often avoid) and no environmental storytelling or interesting landmarks. I got into the series with Symphonia, which had arguably the best dungeons (at least within the Tales of games I've played), so the issue was even more glaring to me. As a side note, Berseria's equipment system is a major grind, but at least nothing's forcing the player to engage with it at lower difficulties so it's not really a problem. So I really can't agree on this statement, although I do agree it's well worth playing in spite of that.

[@calvinmatthews1527]

Well, someone didn't play Visions of Mana. Some reviews say it's combat "some of the best combat in a Square Enix game". Seriously, give that one a try dude.

[@chairmanalfred8850]

Really liked the story in Berseria, but the combat was unsatisfying.

[@martinomagic9230]

Here is random knowledge that is dumb and pointless, but for some reason it is a thing. ARPG is specifically used to refer to games like Diablo that top down looter type game. While these games would all be considered Action RPGs! Confusing isn't it haha?

[@rkclinite]

Genre names rarely make sense. Used to be that everything that wasn't an arcade game was an "adventure" game.

[@lasselen9448]

I've always called Diablo-like games "Hack'n Slash" and use "ARPG" for what's presented in this video, with "Action/RPG" for things pushing more toward single character action with RPG elements and a developed story (the NieR games for instance). I would barely consider Diablo and the likes to be RPGs at any rate, there isn't enough emphasis on story, and character development and interactions tend to be extremely shallow, if any.

[@martinomagic9230]

@@lasselen9448 I tend to agree, I mean really it was a term coined by the western community and has no real link to JRPG side. Kind of like how we took Football and put in on a completely different sport from everyone else's Football.

[@RaifSeverence]

You know what both these games and games like ddiablo have in common: Action based combat that takes place in real time Stat management. The term ARPg is NOT specifically used to refer to loot based games like Diablo. And if you were smarter, you'd know that

[@rkclinite]

@RaifSeverence Same features are in Dark Souls and Skyrim but the focus is wildly different. In the 90s the terms referred to specific types of games but now a genre label hardly narrows anything. I do trust Kiseki Nut to tell us about the good stuff.

[@redsilversnake]

I'm willing to bet most of the people on here dissing Berseria's combat made no real effort to understand it.

[@Trolll42]

"Modern" Nayuta - 2012 Berseria - 2016

[@RaifSeverence]

Modern, as in they're easily accessible today. Not that you need to go and fetch old, defunct systems to play them

[@Tyrbris]

I thought Velvet was the worst Tales of MC ever, and that's saying something when Zestiria exists.

[@DebuffBluff]

I don't know why I did not like Scarlet Nexus

[@binnybros]

I’d recommend any tales game over berseria, worst story telling in the whole series, endless repeating of exposition was headache inducing and came off as insulting

[@alexey635able]

Tasteless.