Top 10 Best JRPGs of 2023

[@unlucky_thir13en]

Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 0:21 #10. Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless 1:25 #9. The Legend of Nayuta: Boundless Trails 2:25 #8. Baten Kaitos I & II HD Remaster 3:27 #7. Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 4:30 #6. The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure 5:35 #5. Redemption Reapers 6:32 #4. Super Mario RPG 7:37 #3. Octopath Traveler II 8:35 #2. Star Ocean: The Second Story R 9:34 #1. The Legend of Heroes: Trails Into Reverie 10:45 Honorable Mention - Monochrome Mobius: Rights and Wrongs Forgotten 11:05 Conclusion

[@LowResLeafa]

With how much hype the Trails games get I might go ahead and try em out

[@oonaymanooblabla4812]

Thanks for the time stamps, content creator was too busy to licking his own balls to lay those

[@456whocares]

I beat 3 trails games this year and yazkuza 4+5. Impressed with my time management

[@LordNovaPrime1]

Almost the same for me lol. I beat 3 trails games and atelier ryza 1 & 2

[@guccidonbuzzflightyear4440]

I beat cold steel 3 Zero and I’m on the final boss of Azure.

[@LordNovaPrime1]

@@guccidonbuzzflightyear4440 I beat CS 1-3 amd I'm on 4

[@guccidonbuzzflightyear4440]

@@LordNovaPrime1 boutta be on 4 as soon as I beat this damn final boss smh

[@LordNovaPrime1]

@@guccidonbuzzflightyear4440 I'm really loving 4 so far. I'm about 25 hours in. I can't wait to play Reverie

[@NeoSonicStrike]

Cool list, I picked up Star Ocean 2 R for the PS5 and it's an incredible game, I think it makes the original version obsolete aside from the super cheesy (but lovable) voiceovers. Also cool you can switch to the original music, which I prefer in many but not all cases. It would be cool if you could customize which version of each song that plays in every area. Really love what they did with the Expel overworld theme by slowing down the tempo, sounds masterful. Excellent game that I recommend to anyone.

[@harryw3310]

There's a few of these I do still need to play and have them in the backlog, Octopath 2 is my Jrpg of the year, fell in love with it in so many ways

[@Saihamm]

Octopath Traveler 2 is my GOTY for JRPG! While I have not played Star Ocean yet (which I am about to buy soon), I still think that if not for Octopath Traveler series, I would not be buying games with the same style of art and action.

[@domfabio8850]

This year i mostly focused on playing all the Trails games. Crossbell definitely had the best story/characters but i enjoyed the gameplay more in Cold Steel/Reverie. Cold Steel 2 was my personal favourite overall but Zero/Azure keep climbing up my list. Also beat XBC3 Future Redeemed and Tales of Berseria this year which i loved both. Played some Fate/Samurai Remnant which definitely went under a lot of peoples radars, it's a lot better than i expected it to be. So many games came out this year, my backlog increased dramatically.

[@teefa85]

This was such a stacked year! I've still yet to play Star Ocean 2 despite how much I want to and I'm not getting Disgaea 7 till Christmas (a mixup caused my dad to spoil that they were buying it for me). I'm also so happy we had such a great Remake in Mario RPG and that Baten Kaitos is getting some love again (I adore the setting so much). Also...good choice with the Song of Hope for the Octopath II segment. I have a big soft spot for all of Agnea's musical themes.

[@ltb1345]

I might be getting Star Ocean 2 for Christmas.

[@ivenstorm]

Hopefully at some point we get a sequel to Eternal Sonata. Maybe following the life of another composer, maybe Mozart. Or in a twist, maybe Leonardo Di Vinci. Imagine all the gadgets you can implement into a game using him.

[@tombrooke1281]

Amazing game and very underrated

[@domfabio8850]

For some reason I'm imagining a sequel with Cannibal Corpse. lmao

[@ivenstorm]

@@domfabio8850 Eternal Sonata, now featuring European Metal bands. Instead of following around Chopin, we're following around Till Lindermann.

[@tchitchouan]

Solid Year for Falcom.

[@godlyBlade]

I think Baten Kaitos being exclusive to switch is due to Baten Kaitos being at least partially made by Monolith Soft who is basically owned by Nintendo right now. Nintendo also published the second game in the west so they may have some rights to the IP as well.

[@Ecwfan]

Getting Trails to Azure was the hard one for me later this year after it came out. I saw a lot of non-North American releases on Ebay and Amazon. But was so pleased to track down a NA physical copy. I'd suggest folks if they haven't and want a physical copy...you best get to looking asap. The game is that hard to find at a good price.

[@JamesWilliamsonOFFICIAL]

Some good news as well in regards to Redemption Reapers-its on sale at the moment! Its worth full price, but no harm in catching it on your holiday lists~

[@scottlee6534]

This video brought to you by NIS. 🤣

[@sanane66543]

i mean falcom games are almost always the best 😂 aint no game which can come close to the lore of them so if youve already played previous ones you will most deff play and like the upcoming ones

[@hakimhomecent1619]

@@sanane66543 I mean, every trails game always have some cliffhanger here and there. there is no way JRPG fan will not play the sequel. I'm just hope they finish the story while I can still playing the game freely

[@saesang352]

@@sanane66543it’s so hard to get into though. I beat CS 1-3 but god zero and sky are boring. I feel like I can’t play CS4 and reverie til I beat the others

[@sanane66543]

thats what i thought too now zero is my favo@@saesang352

[@Morbisus]

To be fair, NIS dished out quite some banger Jrpgs this year

[@lukegf0]

Thanks for another great video! You are really making me want to play most of these games, especially the Mario RPG and the Trails into Reverie ones.

[@arcanusafonso2647]

Great list, all around! My favorite release this year were the Rhapsody sequels. Such charming games, it was a blessing finalky being able to play them!

[@ZealPropht]

Thanks for this video! I think my faves from this year were FUGA2, Super Mario RPG remaster, and Star Ocean 2 remaster. ❤🎉

[@Cyrus_Bright]

Hell yeah, Trails absolutely deserves those spots. Nayuta was such a delight, definitely a hidden gem imo. Bonus props for using Desolate Earth as bgm 👏 Reverie was just incredible, and I'm so happy that the Crossbell games are now easily accessible for western fans. Now we just need the Sky games ported to modern consoles, and Daybreak is on the horizon too. 2024 looks like it'll be a stacked year.

[@JimC1984]

I agree 100% except switch azure with reverie and were good lol. Also loved SO2 to death

[@MrAllansito]

Great video as always! Gracias Erick por tu excelente trabajo!

[@perturbedsun5508]

Why no indie RPGs? Sea of Stars would be in the top 10 for sure.

[@JRPGAntiquity]

Azure & Octopath 2 are 1 and 1A for me this year. Still need to get to Reverie and FE Engage though.

[@CrankyCrabChaos]

After having played or read scripts of all the Trails games... I can't wait for Kuro 1 and 2 to get localized

[@AlbertoMonroy-lq2vw]

Saludos desde México.. Although this Chanel is only for English speakers.

[@734ch3r]

I am from Brazil. Lots of different people around here.

[@AlbertoMonroy-lq2vw]

@@734ch3r problem is the owner of the Chanel only says hi to English speakers not even people of his own country.

[@734ch3r]

@@AlbertoMonroy-lq2vw I know. Sometimes they don't know other languages, so they prefer to stick to people who write in English.

[@JetBlack2024]

Octopath traveler 2 is great. Love me some Throne and castti. Star ocean amazing as always. About to try persona 5 tatica

[@zangy3748]

Rn I'm playing Trails to Azure after finishing Zero just recently. After that I'm probably playing through Cold Steel 1-4 again to refresh the story so I can connect all the dots I was previously missing. Then I hope Falcom re-releases the sky games for PS4 and/or Switch so I can play those as well. Star Ocean The Second Story R was a given since I loved the original when I was a kid. So for everyone who doesn't know about The Legend of Heroes: Trails series yet. I'd highly recommend checking them out

[@TotallyTubularJonathan]

Wait no indie rpgs? Huh?

[@stefanpedias4511]

Trails series may be the best of all jrpgs at this point So happy with the series l, I really love these games

[@domfabio8850]

Fr, i used to be confident in saying that Xenoblade was easily my favourite franchise, but Trails has me always second guessing. I think i just love them both equally at this point.

[@TheHeartThatRunsCold]

Man... 2023 was a great year for games, but if most of the best Jrpgs were re-releases/remakes. I think its fair to say 2024 is the year for jrpg fans to actually look forward to. Rebirth, Like a dragon infinite wealth, Dragons Dogma 2, P3R, and Grand Blue Fantasy Relink are all happening in a single year. I'm mostly saying this because I barely paid attention to jrpgs this year. And that was somewhat upsetting.

[@SuperSupersoda]

I could rave about trails, but I do that enough. People need to check out FUGA 1 and FUGA 2, both games are insanely good. I played, and beat, both, and if you give it a try, you won't be disappointed.

[@suntzu4607]

100% Agree on Azure and Reverie. Goddamn those were good games. Haven't bought Star Ocean 2 R yet but I'll assume it's awesome too since I love the original.

[@omo4941]

you still need to play Xenoblade 3 Future redeemed boss

[@leos8813]

Has Erick not played it yet? It was excellent.

[@zerorequiem42]

Disgaea 7 should be great, but they always have a complete version later so I wait to play them. Only one I can recall that didn't get a complete version was D2. and everyone forgets about D2 lol.

[@jamberrycloud]

Cool, never heard of Redemption Reapers before.

[@Aviati0n]

I will never forgive them for changing Renne's voice in Reverie.

[@bullsteak3468]

Fire emblem engage also deserves to be here, it was really good

[@stefanpedias4511]

I'll probably never preorder a fire emblem game again thanks to engage. I really disagree that it would even be on my top 20

[@LordNovaPrime1]

​@stefanpedias4511 it would be in my bottom 1. By far the worst game I played this year. Combat was good but even then the emblems actually made it boring because you could just slap all the good abilities on everyone and then everything else was atrocious. To be fair if I hadn't only played amazing games this year other than Engage it wouldn't be so low but it's not a good game still.

[@ltb1345]

Even if it's a decent game, it got a horrible localization, which is the final nail in the coffin IMO.

[@skykatchr_media]

Engage grew on me. But this year was stacked so not sure it would make Erik's list anyway.

[@AstraProc]

Im not sure he’s played it yet

[@marketman2187]

How many of these Trails games are there on modern consoles and what order would you recommend playing them in? Thanks

[@drewtheunspoken3988]

I think Falcom said that Trails into Reverie was the halfway point of the Trails series, not the conclusion.

[@Monedz]

I've been a subscriber just for a few months, but in my view as a viewer, the lighting should at least be a little less dim and the audio quality of the intro should be a little improved if at least a lapel is in use to at least minimize if not entirely eliminate the echos. It kinda like you're inside a cave. I dunno, it might be just me. But I guess, the content is far more important, tho. But still, more power to this channel!

[@grimselection5666]

Erick Landon for president

[@rionugroho1403]

Star Ocean 2 R is the best for me 😍👏

[@ciuffoarancione8929]

Nayuta is great, falcom action or turn rpg are fantastic. Great gameplay and ost.

[@dgayle2348]

What is it with that one game developer and trails? Bro a woodsman?

[@emvatomix]

2 months in Baldur's Gate 3. Let's see when I resume the jrpgs, it's already for 2024 haha.

[@TNVLinks]

Man I only played the cold steel trails games and i regret it now cause i cant play the older games anymore without getting upset by the old quality. I know i can just read up on what happens but it takes away from the experience that i had when playing as rean and the rest of class sevens stories.

[@SuiteLifeofDioBrando]

This year I pretty much got Neptunia sis vs sis Trails of Reverie Fire Emblem Engage Atelier Ryza 3 Azure Reverie is easily my fav though I did not start Ryza 3 yet.

[@Castapher]

Will release a special video once you reach 100k subs ?

[@josephkasak4963]

You get bonus points just for excluding sea of stars.

[@PapaDragonMK]

Why do you think the criticism was very harsh with Redemption Reapers? I love that game!

[@sunekoo]

Because people want their hand held through video games nowadays and don’t want to take the time to learn and improve. RR is an awesome game and the best SRPG of the year

[@thelowroad216]

Help me get the erick landon rpg interview guys ❤❤

[@stevenwhittaker9364]

I have to say i liked trails in to reverie but in my opinion it wasn't as good as the prequels were it was really short compared to the others but it was still good nonetheless

[@Dionaea_floridensis]

Octopath II was so good

[@Zephyr_Weiss]

I feel like I've been watching the same video multiple times. This is a new video right?

[@GrimmXV22]

Trails to azure my best jrpg 2023...reverie my 2024 plan

[@NatsuCoon]

These are all great games but feels more a list of H2 2023 than 2023 Not sure there was a single one from H1

[@leonius]

Isn't Trails into Reverie "2" the one that will finalize the entire "Trails" series since it will be the last one? If I'm not mistaken it is to be expected to launch in 2024-25 Also, come on, bring First Departure R to pc too

[@SuperSupersoda]

Reverie is a lot like Sky the 3rd; it's not the end of trails, rather, reverie is a epilogue to the Crossbell and Erebonian arc, and also a prologue to the Calvard arc. Trails through Daybreak will release in the summer of 2024 and is the first game in the Calvard Republic arc.

[@n3r0n3]

It's ur list so hey, great! Fate Samurai is the best anime action JRPG I played in 2023 (by FAR) both in terms of production value and story tho, if u get a chance try it! Then the best action JRPG of 2023 is for me Wo Long hands down even tho FF16 is the obvious winner. I mean when it comes to FF I only like Stranger of Paradise and Type-0 so not a FF fan here still the crown has to go to the king right? Nayuta (...a JRPG... uhm...) or Mobius cannot come close, let's be honest. Redemption reapers I am curious about and I am ordering from Japan as they have a ltd edition with English for super cheap (I imagine Persona Tactica could be better tho... I have played neither).

[@n3r0n3]

ps. Is armoured core also an action JRPG? It could be in a way I mean if Nayuta is why not armoured core right? U progressively grow your Mecha... u change its characteristics.. In which case that was also A BLAST. Literally. Ishin also... more of the same, true, but not bad. And Like a dragon Gaiden too I have it but I did not play it I agree Yakuza is becoming routine.. every year a knock off of the previous game it is hard to get excited.

[@saiyansean]

Is disgaea 7 better than 6 🤔

[@joshbessey9647]

It’s a masterpiece in comparison.

[@734ch3r]

​@@joshbessey9647can you summarize why it is better? Played Disgaea 5 but not 6 nor 7.

[@ssjdennis6058]

No Indie RPGs, here's Fuga2.

[@Learii]

#1 100% AGREE

[@aceflashheart]

Wish you had timestamps.

[@donperera5806]

I understand no western rpgs, but why no indie rpgs?

[@ValiantMonk1]

I just want to know what the best 5 Nintendo switch jrpg/ rpgs are!! 😂

[@ifrit1937]

For me it was clearly Reverie however I only played 4 games this year (cash was tight) which were Trails into Reverie (obviously), Nayuta, FFXVI, and Zelda Tears of the Kingdom. Of these i only beat Reverie (got day 1 and took to October to beat, I just played in shorter length sessions once or twice a week or didn't play at all for some weeks and focused on something else) and Tears of the Kingdom (took from release to August, pretty much for the same reasons as Reverie and I wasn't into it as much as BotW even if the story's better imo than Tears...the map was exactly the same so after getting the new powers and seeing how they work the novelty wore off really quick as the sky islands and depths weren't that interesting...dungeons were also better designed than botw imo) so far though (Nayuta I'm in chapter 3 and as for FFXVI it's my bro's PS5/copy so I'm only limited to when he's not around to play it but just beat Bahamut for reference (not really a big spoiler giving how much he was shown off in promotions and he's an expected summon at this point). Besides them I guess there's also Tales of Arise Beyond the Dawn too which I'll be close to wrapping up soon based off how many sub quests and all are in my play records/got all the camps/fast travel points however I was considering full on games for the above not dlc expansions. Will say the dlc is solid though and is far closer to Tales of Graces F's Lineage and Legacies After Story in quality than Tales of Zestiria's shit tier Alisha dlc (in both having a story that actually focuses on post game events rather than recapping the final events to a character that left the party (Alisha) AND having tons of additional content besides the story of the dlc (40 side quests, 60 skits, 9 elite bosses...no new artes/attacks though and the only real boost to combat is after doing 2 specific side quests related to each party member their boost strike is strengthened to do more damage/have more hits/get wider AOE...main appeal is if you liked Arise and want to see what happened with the story after the final events though...so far it's story's quality is on par with the game's first half imo, we'll see if it winds up giving the game a better ending than the base game's 2nd half or not (so far it's better than the 2nd half and just slightly less interesting than the first half). Also while the devs were saying 20 hours for its length and most people have finished around that much if not less I've somehow managed to stretch it to 40 hours right now and I'm still going lol, probably due to me going to every npc/city after major story events to see if any npc dialogue was changed or not (I do the same in Trails and easily hit around 130+ hours in each game due to this). So ya I at least feel I got my money's worth ($25 or so) even if I'm not finished the dlc yet. As for Christmas I'll also be getting Tales of Symphonia Switch (at least it's workable now and even if I played it 15+ times on GC I just want it in handheld form), Star Ocean 2 R Switch (beat Claude's route last year on PSP before SO6 came out so will do Rena's this time....probably would've never playe dthe game again fi they didn't remake it though as I hated the BS enemy encounter rate and how spells slowed down battles to a stupid degree due to spell pause and this game removes both (well...i think the bigger spells still give an animation that will pause the game though as one lighting spell in this video seemed to show the spell animation happening in its entirely while you couldn't see the characters due to it zooming up to the sky to show it's mostly cinematic animation), Master Detective Archives: Rain Code (not a rpg and is more along the lines to a Danganronpa meets Ace Attorney game, same devs that did Danganronpa too), and Octopath 2. Then for next year the definite buys will be Granblue Re:Link, Trails through Daybreak (obviously, not sure which platform I'll get it on...kinda want to do Switch for the portability but may come down to how well it runs...need to see more gameplay before choosing, thankfully the Japanese Switch releases a few months before the western version so we'll probably be able to use that to gauge how well it'll perform...if there's too many issues on it or it looks far too different due to downscaling I'll do PS4 I guess...After Reverie's shipment problems last year though it will be the first Trails game since the Sky series that I will NOT be getting the collector's edition for though (last one I'll likely buy is Azure's)....at least that means $40+ bucks used for another game now instead.

[@jrpgaddict7726]

No indie??? 🤦🏾‍♂️

[@spacepirate9882]

Best JRPG of 2023 all look like 2003 RPG

[@oonaymanooblabla4812]

Same list of games ull find in other videos, the diference is that u dont have time stamps here. Lazy.

[@simiosenpai224]

Mmm final fantasy xvi ??

[@skykatchr_media]

So did he play Engage?

[@arturboy777]

Yeah Nihon Falcom is pretty much the king of JRPGs right now and people are sleeping on that thinking SquareEnix will deliver a Final Fantasy that is remotely close to its peak form. Atlus has been milking P5 for too damn long.

[@domfabio8850]

Can't wait for Atlus to release P5 Kart, Tennis, Golf and Party...... i'd kinda like a SMT/Persona/Catherine kart game though ngl.

[@hugbuzzard]

I love strategy RPGs, but man…Disgaea just ain’t it haha.

[@KaseyWynne]

Nayuta's one of the best rpgs of 2023? Are you kidding? It was very, very mid. The action's good, but the story is bland as shit. I wouldn't recommend it at full price to ANYONE let alone call it one of the best of 2023. Or even 2012.

[@clampok]

Woah keep saying god damn and enjoy working for the next few decades, you are so edgy!!

[@chiarosuburekeni9325]

Great video, jrpg guru. I haven’t played any 2023 jrpg and was looking to get into one . This should help greatly 🫡