Top 25 Must-Play Hard But GREAT JRPGs (With The Fans!!!)

Fans and I made a top 25 together about strongly recommended hardcore JRPGs that you should definitely play.
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[@spookypuppy13]

This one wasn't featured in your countdown, but Breath of Fire 3 for the PS1 is my number 1 hard JRPG due to a lack of dedicated healers and very few MP-Heal items. Also, to learn the better spells in the game the spell had to be "Examined" from enemies and the spell also had to be used on the person to learn it. Then there was the ridiculous encounter rate. I loved the game, but getting in a fight every 2 seconds while trying to explore an area was more than frustrating. I think I rage quit twice before I finally beat it.

[@MrDaDisha]

Holy shit earlier today i was literally trying to look up hard jrpgs.

[@michaelcole7745]

And not one person mentioned Ephemeral Fantasia on the PS2. This game is hard because the monsters scale up with your level. You need to unlock other characters to help you, otherwise you end up grinding too high and the monsters just kill you. You need a guide to get the other characters but keep in mind, this game has a guitar hero mini game too. :P

[@Tenpouin]

There must be a real difference between versions of Eternal Sonata, because the one I played (X360) was very, very easy

[@noxmadness7342]

Yes, you are right. There are differences between Xbox and Ps version

[@kumonojuza5583]

I played the ps3 version and found it to be very easy

[@redstratus97]

The PS3 version was pretty difficult for me. But if you play it with a guide it’s not really all that hard. I beat the game on PS3 and did the optional extra hard dungeon too. But if I didn’t have that guide it would have been a lot tougher.

[@BvngeeGvm]

All RPGs are easy

[@redstratus97]

@@BvngeeGvm lol. With a guide yeah. Take that away though, with some of them, good luck.

[@buggydust]

i love the style of this video, it feels like just chatting with a friend. great recs too! there's a few in this list ive played but a ton that are new to me

[@realavt]

Legaia`s difficulty was cranked up in western release - after battle you get only 75% EXP and 50% money, compared to original japanese version! It reminds of situation with 7th Saga on SNES, but in lesser degree.

[@dartz005]

I found Tales of Graces F to be pretty reasonable in difficulty for most of the game. It's just in the 3rd Chapter of the game that the difficulty gets absolutely insane. The 1st boss to really give me a hard time was Emeraude in Chapter 2. She was the 1st boss that I Game Overed on. Then the Fodra Queen at the 3rd Chapter was an absolute nightmare, even on Easy. I only ever beat her once out of dozens of tries. Still a great game, that I hope gets another release in the future.

[@zerorequiem42]

The battle system was similar to star ocean 3. so if you found one difficult, the other would be as well.

[@dartz005]

@@zerorequiem42 Good point. I played Star Ocean 3 1st, & put hundreds of hours into it. Its honestly my 2nd fave Star Ocean game behind Star Ocean 2R (the new remake). I guess that's why I picked up on Grace F's combat mechanics so quickly. The combo flow does feel very similar & natural (to me at least) between them.

[@zerorequiem42]

@@dartz005 Same. Loved the canceling/ combo mechanic in both and didn't find them particularly difficult. I beat the end tower and lilith in SO3 but didn't do all the extra stuff after beating graces f. I haven't played the remake of star ocean 2. You have made me excited to try it tho since you think it's better than SO3. Take care.

[@dartz005]

@@zerorequiem42 Honestly, with SO2R & 3, its a toss up which is the better 1 for me. But I still love SO3 all the same. It was my introduction to the series. I didn't have have much experience with the older SO2 games (a little dabbling with emulation copies, but that's about it) I beat all the bosses in SO3 except Lenneth, (never could get past her) Freya & the Ethereal Queen. I haven't beaten SO2R yet, but I honestly haven't had this much fun in a game walloping bosses with massive combos since SO3 & Grace F. Plus the AI is actually pretty decent once you get everyone set up. When you pick up SO2R, hope you have a ton of fun with it. Also, the 2 lead characters are voiced by pretty prominent VAs in anime & videos games. Won't spoil anything, but Claude's voice will be VERY familiar to anyone familiar with 90s mecha anime.

[@zerorequiem42]

@@dartz005 Ah Lenneth. Mb, got the name wrong, but you knew who I meant. I haven't played it since actual PS2 days, but I remember that was the hardest boss in the game for me. Took many air raids to win lol. SO 3 was also the first I played in the series but later went on to play star ocean 1 (psp) and star ocean 4 a bit, but neither hit the same as SO3. Weren't even close. I didn't want to deal with 30 fps on the switch version, so patiently waiting for the PC version of SO2R to get a bit cheaper. Even if it's even close to SO3, that will make me happy. No rush since my backlog is huge tbh. Working through sea of stars atm, which is okay but combat is kind of bland. Oh really? I am a fan of Anime as you could probably tell from my user name. If they were in something popular like Eva or Gundam, I'll definitely recognize them. Cool to know. Great to bump into someone with rpg tastes and experiences similar to my own. What a nice surprise 😁 I hope to bump into you again in another comment section. Bye 👋

[@alecciarosewater7438]

Punch Club. Your stats deteriorate over time whenever you aren't training but you need money to live and every day spent working at a job is not being spent on maintenance training. The amateur fighting league does not pay you and being a superhero does not pay you. The underground league does but losing a fight there gives you an injury that hinders training for a few days. You can try to save money to buy training equipment for your own home Unfortunately muggers will try to take that money from you while you are walking to the store to buy that punching bag

[@Cookiedon15]

19:54 I'm play Ys Origins off and on. I'm over halfway up the tower, but there is a boss I am having trouble beating

[@imthethriller]

Rouge Galaxy to me is more cheap than it is hard

[@ferraud5518]

Agree, Devil Survivor should be in top 5 My hardest JRPG is Ms saga a new dawn, even if you are a Gundam fan that knew some lore this game still beat you up hard. second one is Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 to the end of galaxy, this game have many unbalance character that give us hard time also many late game boss is designed to 2nd playthrought

[@Zero_Tester]

Wait what?SRW Alpha 3 To The End of Galaxy isn't that hard(the only stage that gave me trouble is Gunbuster final stage)the Snes SRW 4 probab one of the hard games for SRW,even those with very high mobility/evasion still get messed up because the game tendency to use their ability like Shield(especially Gundam,since Super robot unit relies heavily on Spirit usage),otherwise the Dunbine unit was lifesaver for most part because they are versatile.

[@DiabolicCrusher]

Was feeling like challenging myself lately anyway, bring the grind and the pain. Kinda agree on Persona 1, gameplay wise it didn't age well, but in my opinion it still has the best music in the whole Persona SMT sub-series. Star Ocean Till The End of Time's already in backlog, undub-patched ps2 iso's sitting on SSD and waiting for its turn, puzzles will probably be annoying but i saw videos of people basically breaking the game, don't think it'll be too hard, same with God Wars but own it on steam. As for Ys, honestly people call Felghana hardest but i think Napishtim is way harder honestly, aside from Nordics it's the only Ys game i've yet to finish. Ah, also, yes, Tales of Graces F, it's my favorite since it introduced me to the series but who in Namco thought giving bosses full-screen mystic artes that hit all party members if they land connect to one was a funny idea? And yeah, the infamous queens fight, Fodra Queen battle was pretty brutal too, barely won it with Sophie left at 20%-something HP on my first future arc playthrough. Shining Resonance Refrain is pretty easy, except for the part where it forces you to use party of only 2 characters, it got me good since i didn't use one of them at all before that point.

[@SuperCoreyBlack]

lol Octopath 2 for me is too easy

[@vorpal22]

Trails in the Sky is - IMO - much better on Vita in the Evolution series. I'm finishing up Trails in the Sky SC now so I'll be starting 3rd soon. Most people pirate these, of course, but I own the games... they are beautiful collector's editions and well worth the ~$350 - $400 price for the three games.

[@clarkmiller3369]

Not a Jrpg but a game I really liked that I apparently sucked at was Kena Bridge of Spirits, for some reason everything beat the shit out of me an Im usually pretty decent at those kind of games, pretty puzzling lol

[@ElsweyrDiego]

Legaia isn't hard, it just have an horrible xp progression. you get to the end of the game at level 30!!!! the enemies drop very little xp :(

[@theosr93]

If the game hard just because grindfest then it's good. But if need brain, strategy focused & grind is useless, i'll think twice.

[@TiroDvD]

Arc Rise Fantasia isn't hard. It's that the bosses witll #$(*&#$# you in the (#*$&#$ repeated.

[@Super_Death]

Bud if you play 90% of games on easy and then "break" them like you enjoy claiming on every game you play then ofc any game you play on normal is going to be hard lmao. I've played most games you've mentioned and only found 1 or 2 of them challenging.

[@Zero_Tester]

Romancing Saga series and Saga Frontier as well(because the enemy changed and scale with how many monster or battle you done Even the Wizardry heart of Maelstorm if you didnt understand Latin( the spell in latin and you gameplay can get messy if you teleported way beyond you level in lowest dungeon Jade Coccon And BOF Quarter The Ultima games since it didnt feed you much info or detail in game Phantasy Star 1 and 2 is still manageable

[@jamesbrincefield9879]

Was Legend of Legaia difficult or just obtusely built/hard to comprehend from a modern perspective? I beat it when I was about 8-9 years old and I wasn’t exactly the brightest kid lol 🚌

[@justinferreira5780]

Growlanser 4 is the hardest one? I was looking for a growlanser game to start with and everybody on reddit said that one. WTH

[@IchiHishi]

What an amazing list. HOLY! Legend of Legaia? Tales of Graces f? I LOVE THEM!

[@persona3rulez]

Persona 2: Innocent Sin? Do you mean PS1 version? Because PSP remaster should be one of the easiest JRPGs ever made. Most people beat it with starting personae, lol.

[@JetBlack2024]

Shadow dragon is hard. I been playing stuck on a level after I sacrificed all my characters for Athena lol. I can’t afford to lose any characters and I reset if I do.

[@jahazielvazquez7264]

Its funny, I thoughr star ocean till the end of times was stupid hard. couldnt finish it. While I didnt particularly think Xenosaga 2 was particularly hard

[@moenibus]

I don't understand why you don't want SMT games in the list. Nocturne is one of the if not the hardest game there (apart from the Digital Devil Saga games)

[@clay.invictus]

Very engaging video, man. Keep it up. It's like I am talking to a gamer friend and just want to discuss the games he finished. More of this vids.

[@joshuaflask3091]

Kingdom Hearts 3 can be difficult on like Critical or for those that aren't that good at games but overall it's. not that hard just space battles are frustrating and extra content just like KH2

[@BvngeeGvm]

Brother i love you so I’ll be the first to say FIND A NEW BARBER YOURS IS PLAYING WITH YOU

[@joepalma8641]

I never cared for the valkyriw profile games. Every time i try to go back and play it, i play it for like 15 mins and am just done with it.

[@fernandovillaman3580]

Octopath Traveler is not THAT hard, but the fight you showed on the video was specially frustrating

[@HallyVee]

"But grinding isn't hard! Just time consuming!" Sorry, someone had to intentionally misunderstand and get their feels hurt.

[@knightshade7192]

So glad to see Legaia on this list and as you said it started off decently balanced, leaning more towards the easy , however like you I never beat it one of the late game versions of Songi kept owning me and I rage-quit in frustration. I really should give it another go though as it was an amazing game.

Many of the games on this list are not hard, just grindy and I think it's not the same, other are quite easy if you strategize bit, I agree that you can consider that hard. But around half yes, they are indeed hard.

[@juliorodriguez4954]

No one mention Ogre Battle 64!!! Very disappointed with everyone.

[@Jutah82]

Trails in the Sky not only in Steam, it is on GOG too, if you don't want to use Steam.

[@patrykjedi4583]

Can you for the love of god please start invluding the name of the game onscreen at all times for these lists!!

[@davidmunoz6897]

37:33 maybe that person was refering to the PS1 game that was fan translated recently.

[@dev8582]

Tales of graves isn’t hard if you’ve been playing the series for awhile

[@NightshadeMaru]

This list is pretty great. I also don’t like to think while playing the games.

[@ARadicalDream]

Erick, did you even try to finish the games? Nocturne and DQ8 start hard, but once you progress it is really doable.

[@miorionomichi]

since hes a content creator and a game reviewer its a waste of time to put that many hours on so many games

[@LustVanGoth]

Do you have discord? i have couple of lists of games i want to buy can you take a look what good rpgs i am missing?

[@TobiasBuschbeck]

Would love to Play Legend of Legaia some day

[@edsheeran1243]

How is ys oath in felghana harder than dark souls?

[@danielardan6008]

Even Mario games must be too challenging for him

[@chrisglare6354]

Grandia 3 towards the end was definitely on the harder side. Huge difficulty spikes.

[@Night_Raptor_5991]

Could you put the timestamps in description?

[@millamaxwell7781]

What game is the thumbnail character from?

[@smugnick5458]

Didn't even know dragon quest heroes existed

[@jamzqool]

why don't you play digimon games?

[@Pcbore]

I found Tales of Zestria harder than Tales of Graces, I just could not get my head around the weapon upgrading. Never played the first Vandal Hearts, but the second is only hard until you work out the rules the AI plays by, then it's just boring.

[@4hisglory864]

Chained Echoes is super hard but great

[@Luchiop]

funny how difficulty is hard to judge on the rpg genre.. take for example etrian oddisey. the game kicks your butt and then provides a way to auto grind. You just set the path for your characters and they walk it fighting everything. Is it hard then? well it depends on how much time you have or your skill to put something that presses the attack button for your characters in a low lvl dungeon. The game plays itself while you sleep... I would say that any game that allows for grinding on THAT level is automatically an easy game for me. Fire emblem gives you some titles that have grinding between missions and some that wont let you and the difference is HUGE, it´s a totally different experience. I think it´s harder to define difficulty in action rpgs.

[@sophdog1678]

Vagrant Story. I still have my original PS1 copy... but nah, not ever trying that again, never got far into it. The diminishing returns combat just broke me.

[@TimBitten]

The hardest *good* games you left out are Gungnir on PSP, Glory of Heracles on DS, and Steambot Chronicles on PS2!

[@followertheleader]

Dragon quest 8 was brutal. Even at endgame random encounters can destroy you.

[@aria.e]

I hate redemption reapers ending

[@TimBitten]

I beat Legend of Legaia and dude…the final boss is INSANE. I just barely won, and I was good as hell at that game back then!

[@hehawseve3560]

I was so young when I played Legend of Legaia that I have no idea how I actually played it. I barely remember the details but remember getting to one of the last bosses and couldn't beat them. Def need to whip out my PS3 and see if I still have teh disk here somewhere

[@raventhorX]

Cool list, but any way to get it in text lol.

[@zerorequiem42]

Jade Cocoon Eternal Eyes Dragon Valor Three games I didn't see mentioned that were good and difficult.

[@merenweenjk]

Hey ! What's your opnion on Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits ? Difficulty had insane spikes, especially that final boss, still giving me nightmares (even with super farm) and preventing me to restart the game ever again

[@ppmaqchannel]

Hardest JRPG I've ever played, (besides SMTs and FromSoftware titles) and have not seen mentioned in this video, is Baten Kaitos Origins. Every boss is so beyond the common local mobs, they obliterate you in a couple turns if you're not well prepared.

[@SylvanFeanturi]

Not sure if it counts, but Septerra Core: Legacy of the Creator was an awesome game that I just couldn't beat myself.

[@loodyyy123]

SMT V. Stuck on the last boss. Tactics Ogre too. Stuck in the hanging gardens and gave up. It stopped being fun and just made me angry. Will have to return to both sometime.

[@jardl81]

I beat Nocturne on hard on PS2 and Dragon Quest 2 on Nes as a child. I feel proud. By the way, Trails in the Sky FC Evolution on the hardest difficulty is way too hard.

[@pla6ue]

😂What? Code Vein wasn’t easy, but DEFINITELY wasn’t that hard either.

[@ThaCyNiQ]

I cannot figure out your accent. Sometimes you sound Greek, sometimes you sound Middle Eastern lol

[@sulhisyafiq8694]

I jz miss growlanser 4, grew up with it, jz love it. And also Radiata Story😊

[@jayrobitaille2402]

I did not like the character rotation of Suikoden III with the deja vu at first, then I gave the game more of a chance and though I still do not like it as much as 1, 2 or 5, I consider it good (and definitely better than IV, which is the black sheep or low point of the series).

[@Tonythetech17]

The Nightmare of Druaga just about broke me. Very punishing and unforgiving game

[@jfk4589]

I have to be honest : I didn't think YS origin was not that hard. I struggled with Yunica against some bosses but it was really manageable. I found YS III : oath of Felghana was way harder. Is the steam version the North American one ?

[@Danyy81]

The Alliance Alive it's a Hard game, but a masterpiece, the story, the weapons, the charaters... what a game!!!

[@jamesoneavatar8644]

I was going to mention the Shining Force games. A non-console game I think was the hardest is Bard's Tale 2 on the Commodore 64. It had a dungeon where you couldn't use any light, there was no map, and there were teleporters. How were you supposed to know where you were and where to go?

[@WilliamScavengerFish]

16:51 3ds is easier because you can see the enemies on the field meaning you avoid unprofitable fights.

[@Bionis-zy6dx]

Breath Of Fire 5 Dragon Quarter needs to be in this list for me. Also White Knight Chronicles and Shadow Hearts 1

[@bladeofmird]

The original White Knight Chronicles was actually quite easy and it was criticized for that so when L5 released WKC2 (which included WKC) they went to the other extreme and made the game unbalanced IMO. The original version was more fun.

[@ludimiller3717]

The game that destroyed BoF series not deserve in any must play list.

[@WilliamScavengerFish]

27:04 I beat the bonus dungeon once.

[@starman2125]

Legend of legaia was so good, the astral sword not being worth the bar was my first big disappointment in gaming

[@kristianbonilla6482]

I replayed muscle dome several times to get power ups and soru breads so I could breat the game (legend of legaia)

[@ElsweyrDiego]

no one mentioned Lunar SSS? that game is very very hard!

[@Albertredneck]

Wow, monumental video. Thanks! Which someone had the time to write the timestamps for each game.

[@shinjithedog2499]

The Church in Code Vein is the reaspn why I never did a second play through.

[@dustanglx50]

Try to get this guy over 100K subs!! He's earned it over the years!!

[@kermitwithamustache3885]

Tales of Graces F got one of the greatest combat systems in any JRPG

[@sturmutant7377]

I think someone mentioned it but yeah, Operation Darkness belongs on the list. Great list nonetheless.

[@billcox8870]

I have played legend of legaia. When I got a new spell, I would work on leveling it up before progressing in the game. I never did finish it but I did enjoy it. The game actually belonged to a former roommate of mine.

[@zg-it]

Nothing beats playing a super hard jrpg that's also very when you lose that battle because you made the wrong decision and you know you made that wrong decision.

[@guccidonbuzzflightyear4440]

Kingdom hearts 3 final boss was definitely really hard

[@crows_rpgs1618]

Kh 3 was easy I played it on proud mode and it was still too easy 😂

[@kristiand3515]

legend of legaia opened the world of rpg to me. still one of the best imo.

[@393Nestor]

Disgaea 2 is the best

[@guccidonbuzzflightyear4440]

For me it’s trails to azure just cause of the final boss

[@eliotwildermann]

Tales of graces f had the best combat in tales games 😊😊😊

[@Edwin_Joshua]

Super Mario RPG.... 🤭... 🤣jk

[@paulkinder8440]

I played through Ys Origin on normal and i personally found the unlockable 3rd character to get the canon story is definitely the hardest of the three because of the additional end game boss. PSII i found i unintentionally grinded due to a localisation error where i was looking for a plateau that i didn't need to. The penultimate boss is harder than the final boss. The navigating of the dungeons can be time consuming which adds to it's difficulty. Regarding Eternal Sonata, if you juggle your party around, you can potentially have a healer in your squad the bulk of the time, Polka's Orange Glow, Frederick's Sacred Signature and Viola's Healing Arrow can all heal. Which will help your squad out.

[@fitrahramadhian9750]

i like the list like this please make the hardest PSP JRPG games

[@natehart8445]

do you have a list of the games you cover in your videos

[@SuperPokeTuber]

I would def add Indivisible and Astria Ascending

[@waxstakes]

Playing scarlet nexus made me feel like i am terrible at games. Glad im not the only one that suffered

[@clarkmiller3369]

After I played through it the second time things changed an I absolutely figured out the battle system an completely wrecked everything, give it a few playthroughs it's extremely short if you skip all the story segments. I ended up going from this games half decent to absolutely loving it

[@waxstakes]

@clarkmiller3369 idk if i could do that. I almost hated every second of it and dont think i could ever force myself to try it again unless i play on the easiest difficultly. Couldnt stand the battle system for some reason.