5 JRPGs That Aged REALLY Well & 5 That Did NOT

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The way I gasped when Ni No Kuni came up. I get your points but I really like the game for those same reasons. Different strokes for different folks ig

This topic is kinda hard to talk about with JRPG fans because many seem to have a very warped view of what it means for a game to age well.

Earthbound has some of the most convenience features of any SNES game (including some features that most games don't even have today) Rolling HP Instant-killing weak enemies Advantage attacks Expanded inventory spaces with more characters Fast-travel Saving EXP when dying Being able to take a hit that should kill you but still stay alive at 1 HP. This game is a pioneer of convenience. I played it for the first time in original form in 2021 and never once had a problem with it.

The "true" version of Dragon Quest 7 is the 3DS one, and that one is awesome and highly playbale by today standards.

Ni No Kuni doesnt hold up!?! Agree to disagree!

I think some have aged well but they are not to your taste, which is fine because everyone has their own preferences.

Nintendo really should do a remake of the whole Earthbound/Mother trilogy.

Taylor is out of pocket for this one.

Man, these are some hot takes! But I respect it. I feel like some of these takes, especially on what didn't age well makes sense. But you're definitely spot on with games like Grandia. That game is just downright fun! And totally agree on DQVIII, we absolutely need that bad boy back! Ooof on Earthbound! haha but TACTICS BABYYYYY! It's true. Flippin love this game. Nice video, brother!

Earthbound definitely has its flaws and it isn't for everybody. But for me, the charm and humor of the game far outweigh any of my gripes with it. It is one of the only RPGs that I have played more than once. My only real complaint about it is the inventory management, which is limited and cumbersome. I enjoyed the entire trilogy, but I think every RPG fan should at least play Mother 3, as that is arguably the peak of the series.

Earthbound doesn't totally reset you after death. Getting party wiped only puts you back to the last location you saved, but you keep all the EXP you made along the way. I was shocked just how convenient this design idea was! I think it has aged better than many may think. A lot of new games don't even do this.

Similar to your modern version issues w/ Grandia 1, if you ever play Grandia 2 (which is also great), please ensure you are playing the 2015 Anniversary Edition, not the 2019 HD Remaster. For instance, on Steam (pulled from the top review): - Open "Properties" Menu from your library - Click the "Beta" section - Under "Select Beta you want to opt into", select "anniversary_edition" and close the window. Anniversary Edition was the old PC Remaster which was already functional and non-buggy. New "HD Remaster" ver (based on Switch ver) has lot of issue despite the patches. This replaced the AE ver.

I'm surprised with how anything ps1 jrpgs showed up in this video. I would like to toss in Dot Hack GU and Radiata Stories. Both games look so good even on the ps2. And both have gameplay mechanics and themes I haven't seen all to much in modern jrpgs today. And fortunately GU does have the last recode remaster. But Radiata is truly unique with being Suikoden but as An action rpg and its kicking mechanic

I dunnoooo, as far as old and old-ish jrpgs go, you can do a lot worse than Earthbound and Ni no kuni...

I disagree on Ni no Kuni the "fetch quests" are made good because of the reason behind them, it is ROLE playing game after all, and the combat system is effectively more action oriented pokemon with a party. I'd say it holds up. With the Legend of the Dragoon, i'd say the plot kinda makes up for any issues with the graphics and the fights are challenging enough even if they are simple.

...How can you talk about classic JRPGs and say that FFV started the job system in the series? FFIII started that.

Great video! I haven't played Ni No Kuni since it came out and I consider it to be one of my favourite games so I disagree but I also haven't played it for 10 years... I will say though that I replayed Earthbound last year and still found that it held up. I didn't have any issues with it whatsoever haha, that's coming from a person who clearly loves the game, but I wanted to see how it felt after all these years. I still loved it and still consider it my favourite game, but I do know it's old and that a lot of modern gamers may have issues with it. Despite my tears with your Earthbound pick LOL loved the video! :D

OK so I see where you're coming from with some of these choices... especially in the case of like Super Mario RPG and such holding up. Some I can't speak on as I don't have the experience with them. Now as someone who just got into the SaGa series a few years ago thanks to the mobile game Re;univerSe and I played SaGa Frontier first. I can partially understand your gripe with the leveling and battle system, but for me I consider it a little more fun and from my observations of FF2, SaGa Frontier is more forgiving with the stat leveling. Same guy who did the stuff for FF2 pretty much directs the SaGa series as a whole. But hey to each their own. I'm liking a lot of the SaGa series. I think the characters are pretty cool. I like how things unfold as you go along. I will admit the games are a touch difficult because you can walk into situations you shouldn't be in but overall, they are a nice pivot to me for JRPGs.

I remember renting DQVII from Blockbuster after playing FF9 and I was disgusted by how old and crusty it was. Like, as a kid I actually felt I had been scammed with false advertising by the Toriyama cover art. I begged my mom to let me go back and return it the same day so I could get something else to play that weekend, lol.