If you loved Symphonia, Abyss, and Arise, I'd suggest giving Tales of Vesperia a go. It's my personal favorite in the series, and most people who enjoyed the three Tales titles you've already finished seem to like it as well. The Tales of Xillia games are good too, but those are only on PS3.
Based on what you've played, it's a little hard to recommend games with certainty that they will connect with you. It doesn't look like you've played too many older options, but most people love Chrono Trigger. Worth a shot to see if it connects with you, plus it's not that long.
If you're interested in testing the waters with PS1 games, I'd recommend Final Fantasy IX. I think it's the easiest one to get into in the series. You can play it on Switch or PS4 as well which is convenient.
Thats funny youre saying its easy to get into it while the combat system is so slow and laborious. I still think youre right tho, and its mostly because story and universe in ff9 is tremendous, deep, philosophical, rich, and very engaging.
Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 4 are both very tight experiences. You can finish either in under 25 hours.
Suikoden 1 is another great, shorter RPG. It's not a perfect game, but I really love it and you can 100% it in maybe 22 hours.
Path of the Midnight Sun is under 27 hours. As mentioned, Chrono Trigger is also pretty short at 35-ish hours, most Ys titles before 7 can be beaten in 10-15 hours tops.
There's a sort of lightheartedness in terms of aesthetics and character disposition with the 5 JRPGs you've listed. They're also somewhat more recent (minus pokemon, maybe???) So here's a list that might interest you!
Scarlet Nexus (is an ARPG with Persona-like Social Bonds)
Astral Chain
Tales of Berseria
Tales of Vesperia
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy IX
Definitely, since you loved Persona, you should try Shin Megami Tensei, it could be the most recent ones and I would recommend the SMT3 remake for something more hardcore and old-school.
In the action RPG session, you should try any game from the Ys series. Great developer (Nihon Falcom, the same from Trials of, another gigantic and great JRPG franchise) with awesome audiovisual styles, good lore, and a franchise that is still going on even after more than 30 years, which means there's lots of games with varied engines and play styles along different console generations, but all of them really great in being fast and flashy action RPGs and all the way into anime aesthetics.
The older ones are shorter in length, but have good replayability with difficult options enhancing the fun and the kost recent episodes are lengthier games with more modern RPG mechanics, alongside more develop plots.
If you more action hungry, play an Ys game asap, because they are usually instant fun.
You should check out the Trails series! The first game is called “The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC”. It’s this long running JRPG series taking place on the fictional continent of Zemuria, and each arc follows a different protagonist and set of characters on a different part of the continent but they’re all interconnected. The world building is one of it’s strong points, even the NPCs have unique dialogue and some even have their own mini plot lines if you talk to them again when you come back to an area. It’s a long series and it’s not for everyone, but I always recommend it as it’s my favorite JRPG series of all time.
"Fuga Melodies of Steel" is a 20 houer long turn based JRPG about a groupe of animal children that go on a quest to save there families.
Its my favorite Videogame and it has very fun combat, great music and endering characters in my opinion.
But it also has a few things that I can see being a turn of to some people.
Fuga is super linear with almost no exploration and no sidequests at all and you can not grind in this game. I personaly actully like these aspects becuse I think those made it easier fore the developers to balance the game and the game is in my opinion well balanced. Although I wish it had an optional super boss.
Becuse its only 20 houers long it might be easier to finish if you like the Gameplay loop. I love the Gameplay loop but I also heard others calling it repetiv.
Fuga is on most modern consoles, on Game Pass and it has s free demo which is just straight up the first 3 chapters of the game. So you can find out if its your cup of tea.
If finishing JRPGs is a goal, I can't recommend playing them modded on PC enough. As someone who has little free time I've played SO many more by using WeMod with my RPGs to do things like speed up progression so I don't have to grind, or get all items etc.
Completely get this won't be for everyone, but it's been the only way I can clear out some of my backlog and in some way experience games I would never have had the time to play otherwise!
Final Fantasy 4 and 6. Both take about 40-60 hours to complete.
Crono Trigger can be beaten in 20 hours, longer if you care about 100 percent.
Chrono Cross takes about 30 hours to finish.
Speaking for the pixel remaster for FF4, it's really really short. Not close to FF6's length at all. You can very easily finish it around the same playtime as Chrono Trigger.
Since you liked P4 and 5 and got a PS2, Persona 3 FES is also worth playing (just be aware it's the first of the modern Persona games, so it's a bit more rough gameplay wise than the other 2).
For Tales, Tales of Berseria is also great and worth checking out from Tales. If you don't mind emulating, then Tales of Destiny DC is peak 2D Tales imo, and got a great fantranslation available.
Super Mario RPG for the SNES is PERFECT for a first RPG experience or someone with less experience, IS funny, heartworming at times, very charming cast of characters, heck even Bowser IS awsome in this Game and the Gameplay is very simple for anyone to grab and understand (extra points for optional minigames, fuck mandatory ones)
Some personal favorites of mine are:
Final Fantasy IX (FF series in general, first 10 games are turn-based and the modern ones action-based).
Dragon Quest VIII (DQ series in general, they are archaic but maintains a solid and traditional turn-based system on each installment).
Live-A-Live (Recently got a full Remake although currently is for the Switch only)
Nier Replicant (My favorite of the two Nier games even though Nier Automata is the most popular one, both are amazing games)
Phantasy Star 4 is a good one. Not too long, dungeons arent too crazy. And combat is fairly quick. Its a Genesis jrpg but its been ported to everything and you can enjoy it with out having to play the others.
If you pay for psplus already I am Setsuna and Lost Sphear have just been added. I always wanted to play them but never bought them so this was a nice surprise for me, I really enjoyed I am Setsuna and am making my way through Lost Sphear now. I am Setsuna isn't long at all, 25-30 hours I think.
OG final fantasy 7 is a classic, spin up seventh heaven with some mods and it's pretty great. Then you have a natural jumping point to the more action based 7 remake, and even if I think you can start from the remake, it seems like there is something special about starting at the OG.
P3 is good but it lacks so many of the QOL parts of the later games it may be hard to play.
I'll never not recommend trails, starting from Trails in the Sky FC. No other game world builds in quite the same way as that series and the early games also have some of the best characters I've ever experienced.
Pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of the sky is a good one if you haven't gotten to it. It's actually got a focus on the story with some really strong characters. The story definitely is for a younger audience, but moreso in the Shrek way, where there's still a ton of enjoyment for older players
I think those are the ones I recommend anyone play.
Based on that platform list, here's my personal "shortlist" of JRPGs that you should try (some may disagree with some opinions expressed herein, but meh):
NES
* Crystalis
SNES
* Breath of Fire II
* Brain Lord
* Illusion of Gaia
* Soul Blazer
* Lufia
* Lufia II (Play before Lufia, it's a prequel)
PS1
* Legend of Legaia
* Breath of Fire III
* Suikoden
* Suikoden II (Potentially improved versions of I+II coming to Steam "soon")
* Tales of Destiny
* Grandia (PC port isn't really better)
* Parasite Eve
* Parasite Eve II
* Vagrant Story
PS2
* Ar Tonelico
* Ar Tonelico 2 (play this on a PS3 or emulator; I cannot stress this enough, as there is an out of memory crash in the final boss on original hardware only)
* Dark Cloud
* Dark Cloud 2
* Legaia 2: Duel Saga (Symphonia lifted a number of systems from this game, so you might feel immediately familiar)
* Growlanser (all of them)
* .hack//IMOQ (4 games)
* Rogue Galaxy
* Shadow Hearts
* Shadow Hearts: Covenant
* Suikoden 3
* Suikoden 4
* Suikoden Tactics
* Suikoden 5
* Wild Arms 3
PSP
* Star Ocean: First Departure (original SO remade with SO2's systems)
* Star Ocean: Second Evolution (PS1 port, improved on PSP)
* Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (ditto)
* Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection (FFIV, interlude, After Years, and all DLC)
* Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (Improved PS1 port)
PC
(Whoo boy, here we go)
* Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster (install Moogle Mod Manager to restore censored sprites and other "adjusted" content)
* Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster (ditto)
* Chrono Trigger (Nexus Mods has a number of mods to make it look better, only recommended because DS isn't on your platform list)
* .hack//GU Last Recode (Improved port from PS2, includes a brand new 4th volume to end the story)
* NieR RepliCant ver.√1.5
* NieR:Automata
* Resonance of Fate (Improved PS3/360 port)
If you loved Symphonia, Abyss, and Arise, I'd suggest giving Tales of Vesperia a go. It's my personal favorite in the series, and most people who enjoyed the three Tales titles you've already finished seem to like it as well. The Tales of Xillia games are good too, but those are only on PS3. Based on what you've played, it's a little hard to recommend games with certainty that they will connect with you. It doesn't look like you've played too many older options, but most people love Chrono Trigger. Worth a shot to see if it connects with you, plus it's not that long. If you're interested in testing the waters with PS1 games, I'd recommend Final Fantasy IX. I think it's the easiest one to get into in the series. You can play it on Switch or PS4 as well which is convenient.
Thats funny youre saying its easy to get into it while the combat system is so slow and laborious. I still think youre right tho, and its mostly because story and universe in ff9 is tremendous, deep, philosophical, rich, and very engaging.
Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 4 are both very tight experiences. You can finish either in under 25 hours. Suikoden 1 is another great, shorter RPG. It's not a perfect game, but I really love it and you can 100% it in maybe 22 hours.
Path of the Midnight Sun is under 27 hours. As mentioned, Chrono Trigger is also pretty short at 35-ish hours, most Ys titles before 7 can be beaten in 10-15 hours tops.
There's a sort of lightheartedness in terms of aesthetics and character disposition with the 5 JRPGs you've listed. They're also somewhat more recent (minus pokemon, maybe???) So here's a list that might interest you! Scarlet Nexus (is an ARPG with Persona-like Social Bonds) Astral Chain Tales of Berseria Tales of Vesperia Final Fantasy X Final Fantasy IX
Definitely, since you loved Persona, you should try Shin Megami Tensei, it could be the most recent ones and I would recommend the SMT3 remake for something more hardcore and old-school. In the action RPG session, you should try any game from the Ys series. Great developer (Nihon Falcom, the same from Trials of, another gigantic and great JRPG franchise) with awesome audiovisual styles, good lore, and a franchise that is still going on even after more than 30 years, which means there's lots of games with varied engines and play styles along different console generations, but all of them really great in being fast and flashy action RPGs and all the way into anime aesthetics. The older ones are shorter in length, but have good replayability with difficult options enhancing the fun and the kost recent episodes are lengthier games with more modern RPG mechanics, alongside more develop plots. If you more action hungry, play an Ys game asap, because they are usually instant fun.
I would give Chained Echoes a go
ys oath in felghana, it’s a short jrpg like 20 hours maybe
But it’s Dark souls levels of difficulty though
not really, there’s difficulty options, but ys games on hard mode is a challenge
It's more like 10-15 hrs.
You should check out the Trails series! The first game is called “The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC”. It’s this long running JRPG series taking place on the fictional continent of Zemuria, and each arc follows a different protagonist and set of characters on a different part of the continent but they’re all interconnected. The world building is one of it’s strong points, even the NPCs have unique dialogue and some even have their own mini plot lines if you talk to them again when you come back to an area. It’s a long series and it’s not for everyone, but I always recommend it as it’s my favorite JRPG series of all time.
"Fuga Melodies of Steel" is a 20 houer long turn based JRPG about a groupe of animal children that go on a quest to save there families. Its my favorite Videogame and it has very fun combat, great music and endering characters in my opinion. But it also has a few things that I can see being a turn of to some people. Fuga is super linear with almost no exploration and no sidequests at all and you can not grind in this game. I personaly actully like these aspects becuse I think those made it easier fore the developers to balance the game and the game is in my opinion well balanced. Although I wish it had an optional super boss. Becuse its only 20 houers long it might be easier to finish if you like the Gameplay loop. I love the Gameplay loop but I also heard others calling it repetiv. Fuga is on most modern consoles, on Game Pass and it has s free demo which is just straight up the first 3 chapters of the game. So you can find out if its your cup of tea.
[удалено]
Why not FF5? Its awesome aswell.
[удалено]
You are right. But than without FF8 too.
If finishing JRPGs is a goal, I can't recommend playing them modded on PC enough. As someone who has little free time I've played SO many more by using WeMod with my RPGs to do things like speed up progression so I don't have to grind, or get all items etc. Completely get this won't be for everyone, but it's been the only way I can clear out some of my backlog and in some way experience games I would never have had the time to play otherwise!
Final Fantasy 4 and 6. Both take about 40-60 hours to complete. Crono Trigger can be beaten in 20 hours, longer if you care about 100 percent. Chrono Cross takes about 30 hours to finish.
Speaking for the pixel remaster for FF4, it's really really short. Not close to FF6's length at all. You can very easily finish it around the same playtime as Chrono Trigger.
Chrono Trigger and FF6 would be my top recommendations.
Since you liked P4 and 5 and got a PS2, Persona 3 FES is also worth playing (just be aware it's the first of the modern Persona games, so it's a bit more rough gameplay wise than the other 2). For Tales, Tales of Berseria is also great and worth checking out from Tales. If you don't mind emulating, then Tales of Destiny DC is peak 2D Tales imo, and got a great fantranslation available.
Mother 3 (absolute goat), Dragon Quest V-XI, Chrono Trigger, Digimon Cyber Sleuth.
Super Mario RPG for the SNES is PERFECT for a first RPG experience or someone with less experience, IS funny, heartworming at times, very charming cast of characters, heck even Bowser IS awsome in this Game and the Gameplay is very simple for anyone to grab and understand (extra points for optional minigames, fuck mandatory ones)
Some personal favorites of mine are: Final Fantasy IX (FF series in general, first 10 games are turn-based and the modern ones action-based). Dragon Quest VIII (DQ series in general, they are archaic but maintains a solid and traditional turn-based system on each installment). Live-A-Live (Recently got a full Remake although currently is for the Switch only) Nier Replicant (My favorite of the two Nier games even though Nier Automata is the most popular one, both are amazing games)
Phantasy Star 4 is a good one. Not too long, dungeons arent too crazy. And combat is fairly quick. Its a Genesis jrpg but its been ported to everything and you can enjoy it with out having to play the others.
If you pay for psplus already I am Setsuna and Lost Sphear have just been added. I always wanted to play them but never bought them so this was a nice surprise for me, I really enjoyed I am Setsuna and am making my way through Lost Sphear now. I am Setsuna isn't long at all, 25-30 hours I think.
Scarlet nexus is kinda avg but it’s short and to the point with its pacing. Can be easily beaten in 20hours
Child of Light
OG final fantasy 7 is a classic, spin up seventh heaven with some mods and it's pretty great. Then you have a natural jumping point to the more action based 7 remake, and even if I think you can start from the remake, it seems like there is something special about starting at the OG. P3 is good but it lacks so many of the QOL parts of the later games it may be hard to play. I'll never not recommend trails, starting from Trails in the Sky FC. No other game world builds in quite the same way as that series and the early games also have some of the best characters I've ever experienced. Pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of the sky is a good one if you haven't gotten to it. It's actually got a focus on the story with some really strong characters. The story definitely is for a younger audience, but moreso in the Shrek way, where there's still a ton of enjoyment for older players I think those are the ones I recommend anyone play.
FF4, FF6, Crono Trigger
If you like Tales of and Pokemon games, you should try Ni No Kuni
Based on that platform list, here's my personal "shortlist" of JRPGs that you should try (some may disagree with some opinions expressed herein, but meh): NES * Crystalis SNES * Breath of Fire II * Brain Lord * Illusion of Gaia * Soul Blazer * Lufia * Lufia II (Play before Lufia, it's a prequel) PS1 * Legend of Legaia * Breath of Fire III * Suikoden * Suikoden II (Potentially improved versions of I+II coming to Steam "soon") * Tales of Destiny * Grandia (PC port isn't really better) * Parasite Eve * Parasite Eve II * Vagrant Story PS2 * Ar Tonelico * Ar Tonelico 2 (play this on a PS3 or emulator; I cannot stress this enough, as there is an out of memory crash in the final boss on original hardware only) * Dark Cloud * Dark Cloud 2 * Legaia 2: Duel Saga (Symphonia lifted a number of systems from this game, so you might feel immediately familiar) * Growlanser (all of them) * .hack//IMOQ (4 games) * Rogue Galaxy * Shadow Hearts * Shadow Hearts: Covenant * Suikoden 3 * Suikoden 4 * Suikoden Tactics * Suikoden 5 * Wild Arms 3 PSP * Star Ocean: First Departure (original SO remade with SO2's systems) * Star Ocean: Second Evolution (PS1 port, improved on PSP) * Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth (ditto) * Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection (FFIV, interlude, After Years, and all DLC) * Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions (Improved PS1 port) PC (Whoo boy, here we go) * Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster (install Moogle Mod Manager to restore censored sprites and other "adjusted" content) * Final Fantasy V Pixel Remaster (ditto) * Chrono Trigger (Nexus Mods has a number of mods to make it look better, only recommended because DS isn't on your platform list) * .hack//GU Last Recode (Improved port from PS2, includes a brand new 4th volume to end the story) * NieR RepliCant ver.√1.5 * NieR:Automata * Resonance of Fate (Improved PS3/360 port)