Recommend the two best JRPG's in history.

[Rednog]

Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Star.
Seriously, Super Mario RPG is one of those lightning in the bottle games that they've never been able to fully capture again. It is hands-down a must play for any fan of Nintendo and makes you wonder how the JRPG genre got so stale when a gem like this was around.

 

[flamdunk]

I keep seeing games like Chrono Trigger and Persona 4 and Earthbound. If I had to recommend any two JRPGs, the ones I would choose would be more unique.

"The World Ends With You" on DS and App Store have some of the best gameplay I've ever seen in a JRPG and is the best thing Square Enix has released in the new millennium.

If you care more for story, I'd recommend "Tales of Symphonia" for the GameCube. It's story is a deconstruction of the typical JRPG plot (or as a friend of mine calls it, Final Fantasy X done Right) and the characters are some of the most interesting and sympothetic I've ever seen in a JRPG.

 

[Undeadpool]

Earthbound
Chrono Trigger

(Honorable mentions: Final Fantasy 6, Persona 3 & 4)

 

[flamdunk]

If you don't mind a third game I'd recommend...

Skies of Arcadia is also a good candidate. With the exception of the rate of random encounters, it has the best crafted overworld I've ever seen in a JRPG. Maybe one of the best in gaming. Also, it was released around the same time as FF7, and where Cloud was a whiny emo sadsack, Vyse, the protagonist of SoA is optimistic and very inspiring.

...Well, he was to me when I first played it.

 

[Artemis923]

FF VII, of course...

And FF Tactics.

 

[mitchell271]

Final Fantasy 4/6 (they're both fantastic), Chrono Trigger and Disgaea 1. Love those games

 

[Zeraki]

Final Fantasy VI(6) and Persona 4 are the two best ones I can think of. I never got a chance to finish Persona 4(I was borrowing it from a friend at the time)but from what I played, I thought it was fantastic.

 

[flamdunk]

I am pretty sure there is a law that says you have to include one of the FF games. Personally I think you would be best going with VII, not because it is the 'best' (who decides what is best anyway), but because it is 'THE' JRPG that really moved JRPG from niche to mainstream in the West. Out of all the JRPGs it probably has had the largest impact on the genre in the West.

I hate to disagree with you, but first off, no, there is no law saying a FF game has to be included. If I remember correctly that law says it has to be from a franchise that's a decade old, which, lo and behold, everyone, including you and me, have done.

Second, while in the gaming community you do have a point, when it comes to the general mainstream, FF7 is not the game that did that. That honor goes to Pokemon.

Can you name any game franchise that, along with games still being made to this day, has also branched out into shows, comics, card games, and toys, all of which are still popular to this day? That is truly how to make something mainstream.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Hard to limit myself to just two.

I'd say I was the most impressed by

Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2, SNES, 1993)

and

Earthbound (SNES, 1995)

Presentation, style, story... it was just all in the right place.

Final Fantasy lots its appeal for me when things turned multi-CD and 3D. Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, on the other hand, are pretty much all-time classics.

 

[Milanezi]

I'm so gonna get burned here... In my defense I didn't play many JRPG, but here goes nothing:

Lost Odyssey
Final Fantasy VIII (EIGHT, not seven, EIGHT)

OK, I know Lost Odyssey sported the strangest armor in JRPG history, but the story was pretty good, and those chronicles in the form of collectibles, some of the stories there were better than many BOOKS out there.
As far as Final Fantasy goes, I tend to think the tale is always way to similar, Final Fantasy VII managed to escape a bit, but FF VIII escaped even further, and delivered a hell of a story with memorable characters nonetheless, some sequences were simply amazing. One of the few games I REALLY feel like playing again sooner or later. I must admit, however, that my favorite FF character is in none of those games, cause it's Lighting, from FF XIII and XIII-2, that girl kicks some ultra-violent ass.

 

[Auninteligentname]

What other categories were there?

Aside from that question, I think I'll say pokemon Emerald or pokemon Black/White as I generally don't like JRPGs, but still love pokemon to death.

 

[Susan Arendt]

I...well....hmmm. Man, that's really hard. So much comes down to matter of taste that I'm not sure I could actually identify the "best" JRPGs ever. But I think you could make solid arguments for Dragon Quest VIII and Persona 4. Both have extremely good mechanics, visuals, and writing.

 

[BrotherRool]

I was going to count how many times Final Fantasy is mentioned in this thread, but when I got to 38 (including FF) just on the first page, I decided to stop. Not including Kingdom Hearts that has FF characters though.

Lets be blunt if you were to ask The Escapist to recommend you shooters, they wouldn't recommend Halo or CoD4. We're an experienced group of people and we've discovered and come to love the niche games.

The games you should play should be FFVII, Chrono Trigger and Persona 3

Everyone has favourites but I think if we were honest about which games have had the most influence and popularity, then these 3 cover it. FFVII changed the industry, it brought JRPGs to the popular consciousness. Chrono Trigger frequently tops out lists of best games of all time and definitely a lot of best JRPG ever lists.


Here's some stats:
FFVII is the second best selling Playstation game of all time (Gran Turismo is the best surprisingly
FFX is the 7th best selling PS2 game of all time and the best selling RPG on the PS2 (and the PS2 was famous for JRPGs=
Personna 4 Golden is the JRPG with the highest metacritic score
... actually scratch that. Metacritic is rubbish for JRPGs, FFXII the second best JRPG of all time are f**** kidding me?

Chrono Trigger has placed in the 6 IGN top 100 games of all times list, twice as 2nd greatest game of all time, 4th, 6th, 13th and 18th. 3rd on GameRadars top 100 list

My vote would be for FFX. My favourite all time game

 

[Andy Shandy]

Admittedly this is coming from someone who hasn't played most of the "classics" of old, but I'll give my opinion anyway.

Lost Odyssey and Pokemon Gold/Silver

I will be playing Xenoblade Chronicles, which I've heard it excellent, after finishing Skyward Sword (which I'm very close to doing) though, so that could potentially replace one of those.

 

[DeltaEdge]

Tales of the Abyss and Persona 4 are my choices.

 

[Launcelot111]

Persona 4 and Persona 3 Portable. If we have to diversify, throw in Earthbound

 

[Haefulz]

Pokemon HeartGold, and either of the Persona games. I've only played Persona 3, but a lot of people say 4 is better, so go with that one.

 

[Byte2222]

Chrono Trigger and Xenoblade Chronicles. I disagree with Fire Emblem recommendations because the Fire Emblem series are Strategy RPGs with everything on a grid with turns a la Advance Wars.

 

[Caffeine_Bombed]

Final Fantasy VII (7) simply for the impact it had on the gamer world. But my personal favorites are VIII and IX (8 & 9).

Trouble is there are a LOT of brilliant JRPG games so it's difficult to single out one or two.

An earlier comment said Final Fantasy is a given and I completely agree with that. Regardless of your tastes, you can't deny the series' worldwide fame and popularity. Same goes for Pokémon.

Not sure if anyone's mentioned these yet, but research Suikoden II or Vagrant Story perhaps. I'd also suggest Legend of Dragoon for it's fairly large cult following.
Unfortunately these games are quite rare now so unless you've got money to burn you'll just have to dive into the internet for your research.