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A Japanese RPG Primer: The Essential 20
 
 
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  A Japanese RPG Primer: The Essential 20
by Kurt Kalata
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March 19, 2008 Article Start Previous Page 7 of 21 Next
 

Persona 3

Developer: Atlus

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Publisher: Atlus (2007, PS2)

Potentially, Persona 3 could have been a trainwreck. A spinoff of the Shin Megami Tensei series, it features randomly generated stages, with a huge focus on dungeon crawling. One only need to look at the Western reviews (and sales) of such conceptually similar titles like Azure Dreams (PSOne), or The Nightmare of Druaga (PS2) to see that western JRPG fans traditionally haven't cared for these types of games.

Furthermore, it takes place in a high school, allowing the main character to interact with their classmates, join clubs, and socialize -- all elements of dating/life sims that are popular in Japan, but barely heard of in the west.

Of course, from Japan's point of view, it wasn't the first time that someone tried to combine life-sim elements with an RPG -- Sega's immensely popular (again, in Japan) Sakura Taisen series popularized the mechanics through its many installments. One of the only similar games released in America was Atlus' PSOne RPG Thousand Arms, which tried the same thing on a more limited scale, with disappointing results.

Taken separately, neither aspect of Persona 3 would've stood on its own. The dungeon crawling is repetitive, and while the battle system draws heavily on the same strategically brilliant system found in most the other PS2 Shin Megami Tensei titles (Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga), the player can only control a single character, drastically limiting the strategy that traditionally made the series so appealing.

The life sim part, too, is scaled down -- this style of gameplay pretty much began with Konami's Tokimeki Memorial, which offered over a dozen statistics to monitor in order to shape your avatar's personality, while Persona 3 only offers three. Yet, both portions come together so brilliantly that add up to more than the sum of their parts. There are plenty of clubs to join, and numerous NPCs to befriend or even date.

Socializing will enhance the strength of your Personas, the mythical creatures that dwell in your mind and provide your special attacks. The life sim segment of the game is essentially a character creation system -- usually, these are reduced to impersonal menus, but these have been removed in favor of something more involving, and ultimately, more rewarding.

The extremely innovative scenario also goes a long way towards giving Persona 3 its charm. As a transfer student in a new school, you and some of your fellow classmates have the ability to sense the "Dark Hour", a mysterious period of time that occurs at midnight, where the rest of the world lies asleep and unaware. During this time, a huge tower called Tartarus warps and mangles the interior of your school, which is somehow tied in with a mysterious apocalyptic prophecy.

A lot of the enjoyment comes from trying to balance your school/social life with your demon hunting life, not exactly a typical dilemma faced in most RPGs. It also provides an interesting glimpse into the fantasy life of a modern Japanese teenager, as the game is filled with stylish artwork and a J-hiphop soundtrack that's alternatively catchy and grating.

Persona 3's big pseudo-controversy stems from the method where the characters summon their Persona -- they bring a gun to their head and pull the trigger, forcing their spirit companion out to attack. It's cool, in a punk kind of way, but the relative obscurity of the title allowed it to fly under the radar of the self-appointed culture warriors. This off-the-wall originality helped it earn rare accolades from the western press.

 

 
Article Start Previous Page 7 of 21 Next
 
Comments

Shaun Huang
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.............
What about Star Ocean? Tales of Phantasia? The hentai RPGs? the horror RPGs? The intro talks big about "studying" the japanese rpg primers but the content seem more like one person's list of favorite rpg instead of a comprehensive overview.

Tom Newman
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Great article! FF heavy (I disagree about FFXII, and definately disagree about Chrono Cross), but my top 5 made it in including the much overlooked BoF:Dragom Quarter and SMT:Nocturne)

Aaron Lutz
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Shaun,
There's a reason it's called an "opinion" piece... it's this guy's "opinion" of the top 20 JRPGs. And he did define the requirements to be included in the list early on.

To the Author,
Thank for this illumination. Sadly, I don't play as many RPGs as I would like, and Gamasutra continues to inform me about games that I never knew existed. This is no different. I agree and disagree about a few choices, but all-in-all it's a good read. Thanks!

Anonymous
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I agree with Zero Punctuation's view on JRPGs. They all look, sound, talk, feel smell the same.

Anonymous
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If you're going to say that all JRPGs are the same, then I think it's pretty clear that you haven't explored the genre much.

Also, this list needs some Disgaea on it, or just any sort of recognition towards Nippon Ichi Software.

Hayden Dawson
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The inclusion of titles such as Dragon Quarter and the Shin Megami's do a strong job of showing how varied the genre is. For places such as g4 and other US sites that have been the most vocal in bashing JRPGs lately, I find it so humorous that they hold FPSes up to some gold standard when if anything, such titles even more guilty of the same old same old.

i would agree that the most obvious series not covered (as he did specifically define JRPG for the article) is something from the Tales series.

Nicholas Karpuk
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I found this article really insightful, since the world of JRPGs is often intimidating, since a bad investment can mean a dozen hours of grinding and plots that don't really satisfy.

It really highlights the benefit of the genre, which is an almost absurd level of depth when it comes to atmosphere and a sense of a larger world.

The main frustration of this article is that the games I was not already familiar with are by in large titles that I can't purchase legitimately without throwing down a large amount of cash.

John Smith
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Doesn't matter... FFVI is there, as is Suikoden II. The list is already complete. As nice as Tales of Phantasia was, it was really a bit too much about grinding. Star Ocean was basically that, but with transparent text windows.

That said, I love ToP. I play both versions of Sakuraba's Solo on the piano :D

David Deeble
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Great article. Within the context you stated at the beginning of the piece I agree with many of your selections (the others I just haven't played).
I haven't played a JRPG for quite some time (Dragon Quest VIII was my last), the reason being that I find the genre may have already past its best, recent titles just don't seem to have the edge that made many of the games on your list so memorable - though I suppose it could just be a bout of nostalgia kicking in.

Still, one thing's for sure: The article's made me fall in love with Skies of Arcadia again...oh and I had my weekend all planned out. Curse you and your eloquent words!

Roberto Alfonso
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When teen, I could never decide whether Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger was the best role playing game ever made. Over 10 years later, I still can't decide.

By the way, isn't Pokémon a JRPG? And I would have mentioned Lufia instead of Final Fantasy VIII. The game starts in the final tower, with your characters at level 70. Back in 1993, that was revolutionary.

Anonymous
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No Super Mario RPG. No Lunar. No Lufia. No Secret of Mana. No Vagrant Story.

Could have dropped FF all but Final Fantasy VI and replaced them with the above.

Final Fantasy V is far from essential.

Jon Burke
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Secret of Mana and Vagrant Story aren't traditional JRPGs, which is what this list is.

Really the only one listed here that I don't agree with is Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Didn't care for the ring system much. It makes every action a gamble when things like using items and doing basic attacks shouldn't be.

Anonymous
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Lack of the Saga series is surprising. Not to mention Tengai Makyo Manji Maru for the PC Engine that lived on Famitsu's Top 20 best games ever list for years beyond its release. Then again, these 2 series are far more essential to Japan JRPGs.


Paul Rooney
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Fantastic article, very glad to see Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne and Persona 3. I couldn't agree more.

I'm a huge SMT fan for many reasons and Nocturne had many small but key elements that made it by far my favourite game. One of which having a demon that can cast estoma and riberama for exploration and levelling up. Took a lot of the frustration from random encounters right out but kept a huge level of tension due to the brilliant difficulty level because you always had to be on the ball, and if you were even flicking on 'Auto' was a great feature.

The plot(s) also grabbed me more because not only was it complex, it was dark and sometimes optional. For me a guide is essential for this game because its absolutely huge.

Devil Summoner was also great as it had a fantastic and distinct atmosphere that almost felt tangible at times.

Anyway a fantastic list, some of which I havn't played. You can use this list as a must play quality RPG list.

Ryan Barrett
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Kurt, where oh where is Crystalis!?!?
AND Vagrant Story!?!? OMG and Secret of Mana and oh i'm sure everyone above me said something too that you didn't have. You really shouldn't have combined 4, 6 and 7 into one. And 5, 8, and 12 are HARDLY worth playing. Sorry Kurt, but your list fails.

d
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Ignore the haters, Author. This was a great read.

Tawna Evans
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Too much to read! I ended up just scanning titles, and I read only the pages of games I am familiar with. It would be nice if the article were shorter... maybe provide one paragraph per game instead of a whole page.

The author seems heavily biased in favor of Square Enix games. I saw multiple Final Fantasies and such.

Aaron Gingras
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I think the inclusion of an abundant of Square-Enix RPGs was to be expected, considering they've been the primary developer of some of the best J-RPGs out.

Still more into Computer RPGs myself, though.

Anonymous
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I liked the list a lot, it was the most accurately critical and praising the various underlying "segments" that make up each rpg and it's gameplay that I've seen! And while I feel that a few did get left out, and for me final fantasy is vanilla meh, I thought it was a pretty comprehensive list of the mainstream JSRPGS also. Kudos, mebbe now I will finally try Phantasy Star IV my friend has recommended.

PS you left one thing out -- its a bigger mystery than not releasing FF V, another Chrono, etc etc combined that Earthbound II(Mother 3 if you prefer) was indefinitely delayed, then pissed away on a Japanese Cell Phone.
Shame on you, NIntendo!!

Anonymous
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Good list all in all, though like many above me I'd take issue with many of them. For one I found Chrono Cross' battle system anything but friendly to an rpg veteran like me. I'm all for new systems in rpgs, but seriously having to melee attack to charge up to use a HEALING item was something that made me wanna be violent. Spells I could see doing such with but items always made me annoyed.

Other than that I don't have much of a problem with the list at all. I would have grouped all the final fantasies together to make room for some others (yes I know a lot of FF games are very diffrent from each other, so sue me it's still the same name they should be together) but it's a minor gripe.


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