"Thank you, Konami. Go to hell." Had me rolling. 😂

As a kid I begged my mom for xenogears.... for that FF8 demo. After playing the demo over and over I eventually played xenogears and its in my top 3 jrpgs of all time

Other developers: FINALLY the localisation is DONE time for releas- Square: haha ff games goes brrrrrrrrrr

Tokyo Xanadu is a fantastic Falcom jrpg, a must play in the genre.

Feels like a lot of companies have reason to hold grudges against Squaresoft. At the same time, they owe them big for making FFVII and creating the watershed era for JRPGs where everyone was interested in them again.

Jesus Skies of Arcadia the same day of ff9, that's Just Crazy as fuck.

I doubt even if Xenoblade Chronicles 2 hadn't released around that time that Tokyo Xanadu eX+ would've done much better. Falcom is still pretty niche especially around that time. Aksys did luck out with Falcom making the eX+ version though.

Shadow hearts 1 & 2 were such great games, some of the best jrpg I’ve played, too bad they launched at the wrong moment.

Final fantasy: exists. Other rpgs: why must i suffer like this!!.

It wasn't just Langrisser and Sakura Wars that got hammered by the P5R/FF7R combo. The 3D remake of Trials of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 3) came out on 4/24/20--just 2 weeks after FF7R--and the long-awaited port of the original Utawarerumono came out a month later, on 5/26/20. Spring 2020 was a strange season for JRPGs, to say the least.

Among all the Suikoden franchise, Suikoden 2 imo has the deepest story, something about its depth that cannot be made anymore, and few rpg or games can do this. I love the other entries at the same level but this game touches the heart differently, besides, characters like Flick and Viktor are hard to find nowdays.

Skies of Arcadia is still one of my favorite games. I've gotten 100% on that game twice. The story is really fun and the characters are awesome and the lore is good.

Man March to April 2020 was such a good time for JRPGs. Even though some got screwed about it, between Langrisser, VII;RE; P5 and the Trials of Mana remake it was a really good way to take my mind out of COVID.

Damn skies of acadia was a classic

All throughout this video I could picture Square and Nintendo as kings seated on their thrones with Atlus at their right hand as archduke, and all of the other JRPGs from the other companies rising to challenge them for the throne only to be completely, utterly, and mercilessly crushed.

'Onimush Tactics' "You probably never heard of this." 'Laughs' I own and beat it, it's pretty damn good. Even Recruited the optional party member. Also it seems the recurring theme is "Don't release your game next to big IPs, you dumbass.".

I loved Suikoden V, the characters were something really special for me. If they make a Switch re-release of it, even without many improvements, Id still pick it up and play the hell out of it. I also loved Tokyo Xanadu, but it was in fact the game that made me realize I was a Falcom fanboy, so little wonder.

What can you see, actually now would be the best time to revive Suikoden for Konami. Now really many people know about the series! Konami could show that they still care for gaming fans and JRPGs are still a good genre going strong. Suikoden is like in every top jrpg list I ever saw. It would marketing itself actually. Also Eyuden Chronicles showed people still care ... a lot.

Eyyyy, love seeing Asuka get the thumbnail! Love to see it! Also yeah, poor game, had such a chance to be big, but nothing can compete with Xenoblade. Lol. Let's hope one day TX gets a sequel and another chance at life.

Man the shadow hearts series is one of my favourites, I remember picking up the first one from a local game store in the uk on the recommendation of one of the employees as he knew I liked the final fantasy series, it's great to see it mentioned here!

Man, the 90s to 2000s must've been hell for JRPGs not made by Square Enix.

Sakura Wars (2019) wasn't ruined by Final Fantasy 7 Remake. It was ruined by not being Sakura Wars. Sakura Wars was originally a turn based strategy game that had the development of the various Combat Revues (Kagekidans) as they faced the oncoming demon invasions around the world. New Sakura Wars started off by not only abandoning this premise, but also locking every major character in the franchise so far other than the one retiree inside of Shadow Tokyo, essentially killing them off screen. Once word of this got out, you really started to see the frustration that people had. What you ended with up isn't something that's a tribute to the original. Instead, it's something more of a perversion as you have an evil clone of the original Sakura running around and the original character only makes a voice cameo during the climax. One game that doesn't resemble the original, one dead mobile game, and one shoddy anime later, nothing has really changed. We aren't any closer to saving the original cast or seeing them back on screen. We haven't had the original cast featured in any way either and it's baffling that they never corrected their course and instead doubled down on the new cast that the original people who supported a revival of the franchise wouldn't have had an interest in. And then elsewhere, you have Trails into Reverie going strong...

Shadow Hearts is such an amazing game series plus Shaodw Hearts 3 is such a silly game but cool with its weird mechanics

Kuro no Kiseki got wrecked by Tales of Arise in Japan sadly.

Tokyo Xanadu I bought day one for Vita and never regretted. Nowadays any Falcom game that gets released now I will buy day one to make sure to support Falcom

That's one thing I *CANNOT* stand in the last 5 years or so -- at times 3 or 4 games release on the same day as a AAA title. I do not remember that happening as often back in the Electronics Boutique days (pre-Gamestop). Now there'll be 2 or 3 lesser known titles released on the very day as a AAA title, then one wonders why the lesser known ones didn't sell well. Hello! Game Republic would still be around with a Folklore sequel if it wasn't for Sony knowing that it was the PS3's fault the 1st Folklore didn't sell.

Alternative title: "Final Fantasy casually overshadowing other franchises like it's nobody's business" xD

Loved shadow hearts. I played 2 first then was lucky enough to find 1 and able to play through it. Wished the series could come back it was great.

I recently played Tokyo Xanadu eX+ on my livestream to kill time before Tales of Arise came out and I loved it! It really is a shame it was such a commercial failure, cause I would have loved to see more of this.

If they make a brushed up TX Definitive Edition and release it on Switch it would actually be so good.

Unique title.

Pretty sure the fact that it was a Dreamcast game was why Skies of Arcadia didn't sell well. Heck if Grandia 2 didn't get ported to PS2 it probably wouldn't have been as well remembered as it was.

Tales of Destiney Director's Cut on PS2 has an excellent fan translation by the way, I would recommend it to anyone who wants to play that game.

Holy shit, these are some cursed releases.

All the games I wanna play come out at the same time, which really sucks for RPGs.

Just goes to show how much of a juggernaut the FF games were during the PS1 era. When it came to sales they were easily the kings back then. No one could touch them.

7:50 Curious, was Fire Emblem a big hit back then? The series was pretty unknown, but I know that Smash Bros Melee brought in a lot of curiosity/excitement because of Roy and Math is SSBM. I wasn't paying attention back then, so no idea if Fire Emblem 7 made a splash on the GBA.

Fun fact Tales of Destiny on the ps1 is actually capable of 2 player and also a special ring that allows you to perform all the special attacks without going in options to change them arouind with street fighter like moves during the battle.

Poor Jeanne D'Arc, one of my favourite strategy RPGs doomed to obscurity!

Some of these really need some loving and our man Erick is here to deliver! Good stuff! Man I hope some of the other Langrisser games get a remake like 1 and 2. Just please, please pleeeeeease give us some quality of live improvement. There´s 0 reason to slowly hover over every enemy that won´t even move yet when some modern games like FE let you skip whole enemy fases with by pressing one button.

Shadow Hearts was a CRIMINALLY underratted series. Man the first two games were amazing!!!!

This is another reason why Grandblue fantasy Re-link RPG hasn't come out yet aside from the pandemic slowing it down too, they didn't want to release it close to final fantasy 7 remake, so they will hopefully before remake part 2 comes out.

Wild Arms 2 is one of the best RPGs in the series, but I have no idea why it wasn't big outside Japan. Feels like it must of had bad timing like the others but I don't know why for sure.

smt 3 aka nocturne was the first smt main line game to be released in the Us it wasn't really on the radar for the US audience at the time. Unfortnate it got over shadowed by other titles due to release dates.

I think that I found the problem: Pretty much all of these rpgs were released in October, the time where Big Games are released. Forcing them to compete instead of releasing them in February-July when players are looking for something new to play and the competition is much, much less steep.

I keep wishing for Skies of Arcadia to get a digital rerelease, it was one of my childhood favourites. I'd love to play it again.

Hey, Eric! Are you keeping up to date with the Destiny DC fan translation as well as the Tales of Abyss HD project?

Had and played all of these when they first dropped. Me and my cousin was heavily into rpgs and Suikoden II is in my top 5 easily. For a long time the Luca Blight boss fight gave me nightmares lol. He was evil af and was a real monster. Taking on 3 six man parties and a duel with Riou. All while being peppered with arrows. The dude literally set himself on fire for his attacks. Everyone thought used a fire rune lol. Great video bro.

I'm surprised that tales of the abyss' PS2 NA release did not make the list. It was in all of bandai-namco's infinite wisdom set to october 10th, 2006 for it's release date, meaning it was sandwiched between two at the time hyped square-enix releases...valkyrie profile 2 on september 26th 2006 and more importantly final fantasy goddamn 12 on october 31st 2006. Another niche game that could have split attention from the crowd that normally buys these types of games was phantasy star universe, which released on october 24th, 2006. Despite being a damn good game, abyss' sales got dumped on so hard that the PS2 version never saw a release in EU. (Which means they had to wait for the 3DS release to even play it). Tales of abyss definitely deserved better, =(

so what i learned is, final fantasy killed a number of games merely by its over blown fame. so konami is killing games since its birth, and nintendo proclaiming itself as video games god, killing off all kinds of competition, in short, if you wish to have a chance in life, don't try to fight a pre-existing giant.

Idk if it's too soon but more recently, I actually think NEO: TWEWY might be able to fit on this list. I heard it only sold 28k copies its first week in japan whereas the original game sold 84k copies in its first week. Monster Hunter Stories 2, Ys IX (PC/Switch versions), and FF1-3 Pixel remasters all launched around the same time as NEO: TWEWY which gave it a lot of competition from what it looks like.

As an owner of half of these games, Im glad I delved into the weirder & more obscure games before they got expensive. Now I mostly just play on my Vita/PC through emulation & its a blast. Great video as always.

Moral of the story... don't release your jrpgs if Final Fantasy game is about to be released.

Would Star Ocean 5's developers being pulled from their game to help with FF15 and other games count as a JRPG being ruined by other JRPGs? Also is that story true? I heard somewhere that that was the case.

I'm playing Tokyo Xanadu is a very good action JRPG. I laughed when talking about Shadow Hearts Covenant that had to compete with Shin Megami Tensei 3 and Paper Mario, because for me Shadow Hearts Covenant was my most anticipated JRPG in 2004 I hadn't played any Atlus JRPG, and I didn't have Game Cube and I didn't even know about Paper Mario. I had played the first Shadow Hearts and liked it so much , it was my favorite JRPG franchise from the PS2 era , surpassing even Final Fantasy .

This is a really interesting commentary. I’m just not sure that it matches reality, because in most cases they “competing” games were on separate platforms. Most people didn’t have multiple competing consoles, really just the most affluent, who could afford to buy multiple games in the same month; similarly, those unable to afford multiple consoles wouldn’t have to choose at all. I can’t argue that some of these publishers had some pretty odd timing though, on top of poor localization and marketing efforts. It’s really interesting to revisit all of this in hindsight though. Thanks for making this video! :)

Final Fantasy VII Remake shouldn't even be counted as a downside since, if you look at all releases in 2020, you'll notice that major releases were avoiding being in January, the initial release month of FF7R. As the release schedule was exposed for several months at the end of 2019, January only really had two or three major releases, being FF7R, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot. The problem came in the fact that FF7R got delayed again and again, essentially becoming this floating guillotine waiting to destroy any given month it landed in. It just so happened to land in April, which dealt a major blow to Sakura Wars and Langrisser I&II, but moreso for Sakura Wars. In fact, FF7R landing in April may have even damaged Square Enix, since they themselves had another major title coming out in April, Trials of Mana, which also got buried underneath FF7R's hype. However, what you completely neglect to mention is there was multiple high profile games that could have killed Langrisser I&II. Persona 5 Strikers released on February 20th, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX on March 6th, and PC players finally got Trails of Cold Steel III on March 23rd. And as if that isn't bad enough, a non-RPG from Nintendo was the death knell later in March, when Animal Crossing: New Horizons launched alongside Doom Eternal on March 20th. Animal Crossing itself became a massive hit, as people needed something light hearted like it during the height of quarantine to bring a little joy into their lives. And Doom Eternal was the highly anticipated sequel to the truly sublime 2016 reboot, which some people might argue was one of the only things that kept Bethesda afloat since then. Caught in between all of these major releases, Langrisser didn't stand a chance. Especially since, being honest, Langrisser lacks any form of western recognition. It's just not a high profile name in the west, while everything surrounding it were long running franchises with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of fans.

I hate the release date problems some of them really did ruin other games.

tokyo xanadu was ok.... but HOLY CRAP it would NOT DIE! you have to "beat" the game like 3 times before its ACTUALLY over!

If Wild Arms 5 had been released a couple of years earlier, it would be considered one of the best RPGs of all time.

I personally own Onimushia tactics, Shadow Hearts : Covent and Tokyo Xanadu, it's a bit sad to hear that they lost to other games in the past, I'm just glad I have these games now and there really fun to play ✌️

I know Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams isn't a JRPG. However, I wonder if you have an interest in this series because it was "ruined" by the makers pushing it out near the release of the PS3. I'm asking if you'd be interested to make a top 10 JRPG video on games ruined by release date. Edit: I asked about Dawn of Dreams before watching the whole video, or even seeing you talk about Onimusha Tactics.

7:12 Aw man, such a nostalgia bomb to see the gang from Onimusha 2 on the cover. I was so sad when the next Onimusha game came out because even though they brought back Samanosuke the series just abandoned Ekei, Magoichi, Kotaro, and Oyu.

This is such a creative idea for a top 10 list. Thanks for showing some love to Jeanne D'arc!

Wikipedia's North America release date for Suikoden 2 is wrong. It likely came out about a month later. Still fairly close to FF8.

i remember when xenogears was ruined by FF7 and it deserves to be Remade into the game it should have been.

World of Final Fantasy by Final Fantasy 15 to some extent. Yes, World came out one month before it, but 15 was the way more known game of them. What Square the hell was thinking to release them together?

I remember when Xanadu EX+ came out on my birthday that year. It looked cool to me so I went to find it. Never did. Wound up buying the special edition a year later and I keep it installed on my PS4 as I think it’s good enough to demand hard drive space.

Hey mate, would you mind listing the games in the comments or in the video description? I often listen to your videos while working, space out for a bit and miss the name of the game you are talking about and often cannot rewind right away. Having a written would be useful for these scenarios

Skies of Arcadia is one of the few JRPG's I've fully completed. And I played both versions. It was one of the best I ever played. Shadow Hearts 1 & 2 were also brilliant.

tfw you just got into Suikoden, started loving it, and the only thing you have to look forward to is a Spiritual Successor (Eiyuden Chronicle).

Well, this isn't just only for JRPG games, there's tons of other games and video game consoles that suffered with the same fate

The shadow hearts ones hurt 😞

Tokyo Xanadu was a great experience

I found a copy of Tales of Destiny in the dirt, all scratched, in the early 2000`s. That`s how my love for the series started.

You should put Neo on here too. Twewy sequel was requested by everyone but was overshadowed by Tales of Arise along with Story of Seasons PooT.

I think Sakura Wars would see a bigger success if they ported it to other console especially PC instead of making it a PS4 exclusive and forcing it to compete with FF7. It's kinda niche but there's always a demand for a Mecha-JRPG games. Persona and Yakuza has seen a huge success with the PC port despite being a rather 'unique' RPG, not sure what stopping them from porting Sakura Wars as well

Langrassier didn't just get ruined, it got utterly crushed...

Wow this was a great video. I still will always be in shock how the Suikoden series wasn’t as popular in the west as It should’ve been ! 😤

I'm happy to report I picked up both Shadow Hearts and Shadow Hearts covenant practically Day 1. The original charmed me with its amazing - for the time - cutscenes. By the time I found out the game was NOT fully voiced - something extremely important to me from 2000 to now - I was committed. THen I found out it was a sequel to Koudelka and that kept me going. Finding out Covenant was a great deal more voice acting I absolutely picked that up and was not disappointed. I did also pick up FInal Fantasy X and Kingdome Hearts 2. Would have picked up Tokyo Xanidu too since I remembered loving YS games back in the day and it looked interesting. Then I found out it was Japanese only voice acting, which is always an immediate nope for me. ANd yes, I realize that criteria has made me miss out on some greats, and yes, that IS very disappointing.

I agree same genre on same console will effect each other sales but disagree for difference console.

The one game I remember playing and loving was Dual Hearts, a hack and slash game that focused around the concept of dreams and nightmares with the RPG mechanics focusing around leveling all the various weapons you acquired. It got destroyed by Kingdom Hearts, they came out barely a week apart from each other.

I played Tales of Destiny back when it came out. It was really fun and a long adventure. It was the first Tales game I ever played and remains my favorite.

I won my ps Vita at taco bell...it mostly sat in a drawer for years(and still does)because none of the games caught my attention. I certainly never would have spent money to buy it(I was a poor starving college student at the time). I really didn't have the time or money to sink into it.

The Wild Arms curse struck again with WA5, don't forget the original Wild Arms had the misfortune of being released around the same time as Final Fantasy VII. And the delay of Wild Arms: Alter Code F for North America ...it's like there is plot or something.

Shadow Hearts ❤️

I actually finished Tokyo Xanadu Ex+ pretty recently. I really hope we get a second one!

The funny fact is - back in the day, i just came to the store, to buy myself "somenthing new with amazing story" - and i got myself "Tales of destiny". So Tales of destiny is one of my first PS1 games ever. And second JRPG in my life! (First was Lunar). And of course, one of my favourite games of all times. I was able to buy Parasite Eve much later. And as for the Xenogears - i NEVER seen it in the stores, and so, i was able to play it after the end of PS1 Era - on PC, through emulator.

I was that one kid who bought the PS1 and got BOTH Suikoden 2 and Final Fantasy VIII as my first games-- both were definitely special in my heart.

The tales series is awesome. The first one I played was tales of phantasia on the emulator, so I was excited about tales of destiny and destiny 2. The wild arms series is one of my favorite. I think they went downhill after wild arms 3. The games got too linear with wild arms 4 and the grid like battle system was boring. I will say the music in all the games were good though.

Tokyo Xanadu is the game that single handedly got me into JRPGs again. Before, I was stuck on the mindset of "they're too long for me". But some day (feel free to judge me xD) I saw it on Steam while scrolling across, and... well... (again, feel free to judge me) I checked it out because I thought Asuka looked hekkin good. No, seriously tho, that's the sole reason I clicked on that game. I looked at the gameplay, thought it looked quite neat, but it was another JRPG that would probably be way too long for me. And, today I can say: Yes, it was just as long if not longer as I expected back then. I didn't get it at first, but gave it a shot when it was on sale like half a year later. I played it, felt like it was way too clishée, and while I liked the gameplay, it didn't hook me enough and didn't play it for like... close to two years? Then, some day I just randomly felt licke picking it up again. And went into it with a much more open mindset. And BOY was I hooked! That game was close to all I played for the next weeks. And it was the first time in ages I actually held off on finishing a game... just because I didn't want it to be over! But I couldn't hold myself too long and finished it. Loved it. And I looked into the publisher to find other games of the same style. Which led me to discovering Ys VIII, which I like at least as much and which I am close to completing right now. Long story short, it is an amazing game that I had never heard before, from a publisher I never played a game from before, and it totally reignited my love for JRPGs. EDIT: Oh, and also, I WANT A FRICKIN SEQUEL. Ys is amazing and very close from it's gameplay, but not quite the same. The story of TX was closed off pretty well, but there was also nothing that would totally close the door to the labyrinths ever appearing again. And the organisations Asuka and Mitsuki were in also didn't get too much detail. While I'd adore getting a sequel where the cast returns, I'd totally also take a sequel with a new cast, in a new area, with a completely new story in the same world.

Should just retitle the video to “JRPGs ruined by Final Fantasy.”

Lol, all these games I bought ruined by all those games I didn't buy...

He started the video with Turtles IV and ended it with Sakura wars. :D

2001 & 2004 were so stacked it's not surprising Shadow Hearts I & II wouldn't garner much attention unfortunately. Those were two of the most game changing years for video games of the last 20 years.

🌸😹It is surprising to find out that Tales Of Destiny shares the same birthday (though different year) as I😹🌸

Funny story about Shadow Hearts. I went to my local EB games to buy Final Fantasy X a couple days after release. Sold out. But what I did find was Shadow Hearts 1, a game I'd literally never heard of before, that quickly became one of my favorite jrpgs of all time, even more than FFX after I eventually played it.

Its sad how the Wild Arms series has been abandoned. We don't even have ports of Wild Arms 4 and 5 on PS4, despite Wild Arms 3 being on there.

Ah Shadow hearts 1&2 my favorite JRPGs of all time. I bought part 1 merely out of curiosity and at the time it was dirt cheap. I fell in love and bought part 2 right away. The games were also pretty dam hard jrpgs since you had to time things just right for combat. Part 1 also caught me off guard since the ending you really had to work for did not end up being the canon ending which was a pretty big blow to me lol. As for Tokyo Xanadu and Sakura Wars it also didn't help they were sub only games which decreased their reach as well.

I’m still waiting for at Arcadia to catch on and have games all along the time line.