The irony of the most beginner-friendly jrpg (Pokemon) existing because of the most unfriendly beginner jrpg (Megami Tensei) is absolutely hilarious to me. Good list man.

Honestly only trying Like a Dragon is a crime, the entire franchise even if most titles aren't JRPG is a masterpiece

Persona is probably a game you play after finishing a couple of jrpgs first. It’s really dialogue heavy and some people might find it stressful by not knowing what they should be doing in their free time.

My friend casually starting his rpg journey with Stramge Journey...

Predicting #1 as Mystic Quest. Then watching. Edit: OH no.

Awesome list! Really enjoyed this and the contract with what not to start with. Great stuff as always, Derek!

A lot of great insight here! When I started my wife on JRPGs, I gave her my DS with Chrono Trigger. I had forgotten that I had FFV in the GBA slot, because I mainly used it as a dust cover. She played FFV instead, and has barely touched a JRPG since. That being said, Child of Light was a game she put almost 60 hours into.

Stick of Truth is one of my all time favorite games. The story is completely packed full of jokes and every single mission is hilarious. Highly recommend to anyone plus Fractured But Whole is a good, not great, follow up to play afterwards.

FF Mystic Quest was my first RPG, too young to understand any great stories at all, so i just enjoyed the music and game, basic as it was.

YLAD is one of the best games I ever played. I mean, the gameplay is simple, but the minigames, and the story make it such a great experience. I was disappointed with Infinite Wealth's story, although its minigames and battles were a lot of fun.

I love your channel 😊 great job as always 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Subbed because of chapters. It worked

Sweet vid Derek! Always great content. I love Hit Point too! Cheers!

Good call with EarthBound. The game is, indeed, excellent, but I wouldn't suggest it to someone who's never played a JRPG before, especially an old-school turn-based one.

FF Mystic Quest is essentially SaGa 4. The team who developed FF legend 3 did it and it shows in so many ways. Lots of assets etc.

This is a great video for reference. Especially the kid friendly games like Super Mario RPG and destiny connect. I think it's a great thing to keep JRPGs/RPGs in general in a kid friendly bucket meanwhile having more mature and difficult games in a different bucket.

That intro was perfect! 😂

Hii! I'm impressed with your list so far and have a question about a game recommendation. I have a deep love over the Suikoden series and unlike others i started with Suikoden Tierkreis, 5, 4 and 3. The ones most of the fandom considered failures 😭 (never played 1,2 and tactics, have read the entirety of the lore though). I have been struggling to get into other franchise because none can match the intensity of emotions i get from their stories. I started tales of Arise a while back and got bored real quick, pushed myself to play 15 hours but yea. Eiyuden is out and i enjoyed the new combat system in rising, however the hundred heroes version got many comment on the bad transition and scared me from actually playing the game. Because of your video im planning on trying out a some of the series you have mentioned. I really miss a world with a deep-lore and interconnected storylines though (persona is great but all the games just exist in the same space, not much connection between series), do you have any recommendation for someone like me?

i am a new gamer and you helped me a lot with dragon quest and final fantasy ,i could not see through the mountains of games in those series . how is finals fantasy chronicles to start with? as a overal new gamer i started with harvestella and ryza (atelier) and i can recomment them too for starters . i never even thought about mario rpg .very helpfull list ,thanks !

Very well done 👍

Great video Derek! I’d also recommend Lunar as a great beginner friendly TBRPG. I introduced my wife to the PSP version almost 13 years ago and she’s been hooked ever since!

LOL, the first two games that came to my mind as good beginner RPGs were the first two immediately listed. Of course, I only get a tin star for thinking of the blindly obvious. I am a little surprised at no mention of Golden Sun (to be fair, you have to either get a GBA or have a Nintendo Switch Online account with the expensive Expansion Pass to be able to access it), but that is another very fitting starting point for the genre.

To be fair to FFMQ, it was my first JRPG when I was around 5 or 6, and I enjoyed it quite a lot at the time. So if you're that young, it might be an option if you for some reason have access to it as a 5-6 year old in 2024 and don't have access to much better options that are available these days.

Great idea and perfect timing with this list, Derek. I've recently been going over some game options to introduce my 6 year old son to the jrpg genre. I think it's going to be Mario RPG or Let's Go Eevee.

I agree with every pick 100%, I think they all deserve a shot and would be good starting points. I only have one thing I disagreed with and that is your comment about the PS4 port of Trails From Zero. I played through that game fully on PS4 and it plays perfectly fine and looks and sounds good as well. It does not have the amount of total work put into it as the Switch and PC ports but the extra text options they added for those other platforms you dont even really consider when you play it through. I would still consider it a perfectly fine option if Sony is who you spend most of the time with. Fantastic list and well made Derek! I will reference others to this video if I'm discussing with beginners!

great idea for a video! ty!

Some great stuff. The "avoids" are great but can be daunting if you're new to the genre. Personally I'm really enjoying my sons introduction to rpgs as he wants to start from the origin (FF1 for example) and work his way up. But he's weird like his dad. Some games are not as newbie friendly and can be overwhelming. Like handing someone brand new to rpgs wizardry or Etryian Odssey their head might explode. Another really good intro game I'd suggest is Terra Memoria. We did a video on it and while I didn't love it, if you're new to RPG's it's not too long and easy to get into.

a decent really simple game i enjoyed was "costume quest" can't go wrong as an entry point hahaha

Great list! I tried FFMQ recently and thought it was too boring, I agree it is not a good starting point for newcomers

I say if you must pick a OGC to start with/recommend, go with Final Fantasy IV. It has the least amount of complications, while having the most amount of what makes the OGCs, classics. And even the optional 1/64 drop items you trade in for the best gear are actually optional to feeling like you're strong enough to take on al challenges. The pixel remaster does a great job with the soundtrack as well.

Bahahaha, that opening title was hilarious!

Thanks for the Pokemon recommendation. I never played a Pokemon game and have been wondering where to start. I was thinking of Pokemon Soul Silver, but buying a copy is expensive and emulating it isn't the same.

Great vid.

I’m amazed that Chrono Trigger manages to be super accessible while also being one of the best JRPGs ever. I do remember there being some difficult boss fights, though, specifically the first Magus fight. I actually stopped playing there the first time I played it because I was just too weak.

The first JRPG that really pulled me into the genre was Octopath Traveler and yeah I can fully understand why you’d put it on the not recommended lol. I’d definitely agree that Chrono Trigger is the absolute pinnacle of the genre and the best place to start though, or Miitopia.

When you mentioned Trails from Zero, I immediately thought “whoever tells you start with the Kiseki series to get you into JRPGs is insane, or has it out for you” that said, as someone who primarily plays the big name modern JRPGs and has been playing through the major RPGs in order of their releases to see if I really like them or not (currently on FE1, FF4, & SMT1), great list. Also, love your content Derek ❤

This is such a good idea for a video! I’m somewhat new to JRPGs, my best friend has been helping me dip my toes into the genre. I’ve tried quite a few so far. Loved Xenoblade 1 and 2 in most aspects but haaated the actual combat. Bounced off FF9 due to the visuals (I have really bad vision so the shifting angles were awful for me) but loved the story/characters. I really liked Dragon Quest 11’s visuals but bounced off the story and music. So far the JRPGs that I’ve LOVED are Chrono Trigger, Persona 5, The Thousand Year Door and Undertale. Which are all so vastly different that we’re not sure which other JRPGs I’ll like and which I’ll hate.

You should do part 2 for beginners friendly (Level 2 in terms of RPG) for little more challenge but not too hard.

Fantastic list and engaging video as always Derek. Your production value continues to improve and impress as the years go on. Huge fan my dude. 😎 An additional game I'd add to the list would be Lunar Silver Star Story.

I want to say that while you said to avoid the OG classics, they actually remade the OG Final Fantasy 1-6 games in the Pixel Remaster series which has some quality of life improvements like boosted EXP and money, turn off encounters and always run.

I'm super happy to see Ni No Kuni on this list! I still own my original PS3 copy and I'm thinking of revisiting this game soon because I never got to finish it due to life

Great list and great reasoning for the picks. I'm not positive I agree with FFX though. Before a couple years ago I totally would have based on memories of the original. But then I replayed it via the HD remaster and oh man is that game a struggle if you don't sit and grind for long periods of time. I just don't have the patience for that these days, so I actually ended up turning on the supercharge mode for a good chunk of the game. Sure there's challenge runs to not use the sphere grid or whatever I'm talking normal people and I didn't think it was a good experience at all. What do you think about Bravely Default for this list? Genuine question as I never finished one. But it presents as a throwback RPG in all the right ways and I think it could be decent for beginners. For the avoid, I would definitely avoid the FF Pixel Remasters. They slot right in to the OGC suggestion, but I think still worth mentioning as they are recent releases. Maybe you could get away with FF6, but nothing earlier

Like many others, Pokémon was my intro to JRPGs as a kid. I think the early titles hold up surprisingly well and could even be a good intro for a crowd who has some history with the IP. I know they’re not as accessible these days with the 3DS eshop closure. But I found the Let’s Go titles to be too different from what I like about Pokemon and JRPGs. I’d personally recommend Shining Pearl/Brilliant Diamond on the Switch. Or Alpha Sapphire/Omega Ruby on 3DS. You can get any of these games for $30-40 and they’re great remakes that have the spirit of what I think makes Pokemon special, plus quality of life features for newer players.

my go to answer was always Nintendo RPGs, but really it's whatever game seems the most appealing to you if you're willing to put the time and effort to learn to play it, although all the more better if there's an easy mode

My obscure starting point RPG is a PSX game called Guardian's Crusade. Stellar soundtrack, blocky graphics but still some cute innovations for 1998. It's very simple turn based combat and the world map/exploration is a bit like Ni no Kuni where the main thing you use in battle is Living Toys. Definitely one of my favourites and with Pokemon is what got me into the genre.

Great list of games, Pokemon is always one of those perfect examples of being a beginner-friendly JRPG!

I loved mystic quest when I was a kid. I would have played anything with the name final fantasy back then.

Mystic quest!! I was so happy to see it, beside pokemon, it was my first real j-rpg! AMAZING point of entry for that genre!! Especially when you are a kid! Because like you said, dungeon design is extremely simple. I'm kinda sad it is in the "avoid" section though. I would totally recommend it for people who want to try the genre :o

i played persona 3 a bit and pokemon games and i want to play FF VII, it is a complicated game to start? Im not a big fan of jrpg but i will like to play it. ty

10:42 it's also on mobile! If you don't have any consoles or etc then you can play it on your mobile devices too

I was already a fan of JRPGs (thanks, Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior) by the time I had played the triple threat of Final Fantasy III (6), Chrono Trigger and Earthbound in '95 and '96. Great list!

Two OG classics than are beginner friendly are Light Crusader and Phantasy Star IV (once you get a handle on what the spell names mean) for the Genesis (both have Switch ports). Phantasy Star II and III would be a nightmare for beginners, though.

13:00 thank you for pointing that out! so many people miss that the laughing scene in FFX is meant to be awkward...it makes sense in context, and it's actually kind of heartbreaking, even if it's goofy when you see it outside of the game

EXCELLENT choices overall! I do feel Paper Mario on the N64 is another great choice for beginners. I got a number of people into jRPGs because of that game alone. And as a fellow early Millennial, I agree with you on NOT recommending the OG classics. Just because they may have worked with us doesn’t mean that we have to indoctrinate others in the same way. We’re spoiled for choice on RPGs, and this is a good thing! Let’s recommend games that are friendly ways to get people into the genre; the more people who play, the more the genre flourishes.

Mystic Quest was one of my first JRPGs as a kid. It was my first Final Fantasy game, it wasnt til 7 that I became a devote FF fan boy.

Pretty good list of choices. The first JRPG I played was one of my dad's games, Phantasy Star, but I was too young to understand much and never got too far. But later on when Breath of Fire released on the SNES, it became the first JRPG I played all the way through and beat. With its sequel and also Chrono Trigger releasing not too long after that, I've been hooked on the genre ever since.

I think another jrpg that intermediate players should play is Shining Force. I don’t really care for the first game, but I really like Shining Force 2. You take control of the hero Bowie(you can name him), who is just a kid in the kingdom of Granseal, when a thief steals these ancient jewels from this ancient tower that seals the demon Zeon, who wants to destroy the world. Due to you and your classmates being nosey and following your teacher after he is summoned to the castle to look after the King after he falls ill. You end up traveling the world to try recruiting others in the fight against Zeon and to rescue the princess Combat is turned based, but you and the enemies move almost like on a chess board and spells/skills are learned with levels. Spells are AOE to discourage clumping your character together on the field. The different terrain you stand on adds a def boost but affects how many spots you can move. The earliest you can promote(evolve) your party is level 20 and certain items affect what job they promote into. Some grinding may be needed because there a couple difficulty spikes, but i think they are needed. If you do some of the side quest you should be more than good enough without grinding. I would give Shining Force 2 an 8/10

Chrono Trigger is so good, especially the soundtrack. I grew up with the SNES sound chip, but even among a lot of classic osts, Chrono Trigger stands tall.

15:48 Wasn’t there an ad in Nintendo Power for Earthbound that literally said “this game stinks”?

for anyone wanting to get into a really old OGC, i highly recommend Phantasy Star!! definently play at least a couple of the games on this list before hand, but I think Phantasy Star 1 does a great job at showing how a lot of older RPGs can be without being incredibly frustrating the whole way through, specifically with the switch port that’s only $8!!

I'll say the mechanic is what hooked me into Octopath Traveler.

If you're playing like a dragon just play the rest of the series, it's usually on sale AND on gamepass

Great list man. You are spot on with octopath traveler. I absolutely love the game , but it is very in depth and holy shit can it get hard!

“If everything is dark, serious, and gloomy all the time, then nothing is.” Oh God, please someone tell DC this. Great vid man. Never heard of that TickTock one. Seems like a decent one to gift to my younger relative.

Those are some good choices! I actually have two recommendations to add if you don't mind. First is Miitopia. Sure the post game will have it's difficulties, but the main game is pretty solid. It's a silly little RPG that has its own dark moments when you think about it. I would also recommend it because of the AI controlling your teammates. It's actually one of the few games I can stomach that force it on me. My second choice is the Rhapsody series, especially the DS version of the original game and Rhapsody 2, now out in English! These games are a little more light-hearted, but also has its serious moments. Occasionally, they break out into song! This even gets lampshaded in a different game where a character named Myao is questioning why people don't randomly break out into song around here! The reason I recommend the DS game for the original is that the combat system may be a bit easier to follow. Cornet even gets more abilities for helping the puppets. The second game handles things very differently and the main difference is how use magic. Casting magic costs money in this game! So as long you have money, you have access to the magic spells between the puppets and monsters currently equipped. Of course you will want to get equipment and maybe some extra items. Speaking of which, I would ask a beginner to avoid Disgaea games for a while. I can't even wrap my head around playing these games. But these games have been very difficult and I acknowledge for me, it could be a me problem. While I love the differences and the stories these games come up with, they are anything but easy.

Some I would say Try: Dragon Quest 4 Dragon Quest 8 DQM the dark prince Fire Emblem 7 Fire Emblem Path of Radiance Final Fantasy 4 Suikoden 1 Shin Megami Tensei 4 Golden Sun Avoid: Live A Live Star Ocean 1 or 2 SNES SMT trilogy SMT Strange Journey Parasite Eve Fire Emblem Echoes Final Fantasy 5 Final Fantasy 8 Final Fantasy 12 Chrono Cross Dragon quest 6 Dragon quest 7 Bravely Default 2

You nailed that title.

Is it iroic that final fantasy mystic quest, sword of hope (gb), and phantasy star 4 are the rpgs i actually beat and loved as a 7-11 year old. I also played illusion of Gaia to near completion but I remember getting pretty bored from time to time with this game

Something turn based for sure I started off with Pokémon and went on to mega man battle network now I’m playing the sky trilogy 😅

Oh man, the music from Breath of Fire 1 was a lovely surprise in this video❤❤❤ Greetings from Mexico

P4G has one of the most fun game starts I have ever encountered. You get hooked in the story and charecters immediately. Gets slower after a few hours which was disappointing to me but you will understand the charm of JRPGs

Nice one

Very cool vid, would just highlight Earthbound IS fairly accessible for affordable prices, because it's included with Nintendo Switch Online, which makes it super accessible in terms of getting your hands on it. But I agree, it's tough to recommend to newcomers to the genre even for me who also adores the game.

Honestly, one of the best lists for this kinda thing I've seen! Even though the last one hurt me personally xD As much as I hate to admit it, most classics just aren't gonna be as timeless as Chrono Trigger or FF6... even my beloved Breath of Fire III. It's also hilariously ironic to me that Mystic Quest has almost exclusively become a historical curiosity that's mostly of interest to long-time RPG verterans... basically being the diametric opposite of what it was designed for

My first JRPG was Super Mario RPG then I tried Chrono Trigger and the rest is history.

I think Paper Mario is a better entry point than Super Marior RPG. It's more straightforward. There were a couple parts of SMRPG that people don't seem to mention where people could get stuck and frustrated.

I think if accessibility weren’t an issue then Pokémon Black and White may be the best point to jump into the series for someone new to rpgs. They have the best story in the series by a longshot and have the largest new cast of pokémon in the whole series

Skies of Arcadia deserves a mention. Get it via a Emulator. Avoid trying to find the original hardware as it was only released on SEGA Dreamcast and Nintendo GameCube. Both are systems hard and expensive to find, both are Region Locked so you need to get the right copy region.

One of the best rpgs for tactical games would be Shining Force 2, it's very easy to get into and more enjoyable than the first game. I'm glad you didn't add SMT Nocturne to the avoid list since it annoys me when people keep on saying the game is too hard because it's difficulty too exaggerated to the point that players sound like drama queens.

Earthbound was my first JRPG that I completed, while I did attempt to play dragon warrior when I was like 5 you can imagine how that went lol. In fact, dragon warrior was so harsh on me that I swore off rpgs because of it. But later on in life when I was about 9 or 10 my mom tricked me into renting Earthbound by saying it was a multiplayer game. In reality, she just wanted to play it, but it ended up on hooking me on JRPGs for life. I actually think at the time it was an extremely good beginner RPG at the time as it came with the guide, and it had some quality of life features that I wish games nowadays had. Like I wish every single JRPG game had the ability to just instantly kill a group of weaker enemies, "here is looking at you Eiyuden Chronicles, Octopath Traveler, and many more". Imagine how many games you had to back track in or go somewhere while facing annoying mobs that are way to underleveled.

I applaud you for not recommending Trails from Zero to a beginner (starting from Trails in the Sky is a must) but I wouldn't write off the PS4 version. If that is someone's preferred platform then it is perfectly ok to play that version. They wont be missing out on anything.

Mystic Quest was actually my first ever RPG and I beat it successfully, the final boss is probably one of the easiest final bosses in a RPG

I think I pretty much agree with all of this. Though I would add Phantasy Star 4 and Shining Force 2 to the recommended list. They are both very approachable, forgiving, and easy to access on every modern console, (and most outdated consoles, too) thanks to Genesis collections being released all over the place. And I always want to spread the love when it comes to Sega RPGs. Mystic Quest is such a weird one. I think that back when it came out it would have been a great introductory game, but like you say at the end of the video, so much has changed since then. Who that game was designed for, were kids who had played Mario and Zelda, which was basically every SNES owner at the time. The game is quite cleverly designed to use Mario's overworld map and Zelda's dungeon puzzles as a way to teach people RPG mechanics. But the genre has developed so much, and even Mario and Zelda don't really work like that anymore, so it won't give anyone a good learning experience now. The dumbest part is that Square called it Final Fantasy. So the only people who bought the game were already RPG fans who didn't need an introduction, and anyone who had already decided they didn't like Final Fantasy would have avoided it. It could have been a great introduction to the genre, but alas, it was marketed to all the wrong people.

This list is great! Now I have kids I'm desperate to get them to play they games I loved, you know so I can re-experience them through said children. But they seem to be resistant to the joys of RPGs and just want to play Minecraft, and yelling at them "play xenogears or your getting no more sweeties" was just making them cry... Kids right? Anyway id love to see a list like this about retro gaming as I think that has quite a few barriers.

Okay, but there ARE some classics that have a charm and fun factor that has rarely, if ever, been replicated: Suikoden I & II, Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen, Final Fantasy Tactics on PS1, Final Fantasy 7, Wild Arms on PS1, Breath of Fire IV, Parasite Eve, and all the Shining Force games are just simply excellent games in every respect, worthy of anyone getting into.

0:20 Are you implying Arc Rise Fantasia is for beginners because as fan of that game regardless of opinion of quality, I would never in a million years call it beginner friendly. The first boss is a scrub filter and I can imagine a newbie messing up the magic orbs.

Definitely recommend the entire Like a Dragon/Yakuza series. Yakuza:LAD isn’t a bad place to start since it’s a soft reboot of the series with a new protagonist, but I’d definitely personally recommend playing Yakuza 0 first as that one is a prequel to the entire series. In general, you will not be disappointed if you pick up the games! They’re often on sale and easily my favorite ongoing game series

I think Fire Emblem Awakening and after and Gust games could be thrown in there too, none of them are too complicated to understand

Completely disagree with avoiding the OG classics. They're usually much shorter and mostly hold up today. Plus you can use speedup and save states to make them less sluggish feeling-even on official versions thanks to certain re-releases. The remake of the first Dragon Quest that's on Switch is perfect for an RPG newbie, for example.

why no p3?

Not a bad list, octopath traveler imo is a bit too Complicated for newcomers, but the rest of the games seem solid, also Pokémon is not just for kids all ages can enjoy the series 😊

For a minute I thought "wait, no Terranigma, wtf". But you saved the best for last 👍

1:42 ...I don't know...with hp being at the bottom...harder to keep an eye on health.

Bravely Default is the game that made me fall in love with the genre.

as much as I think like a dragon is a perfect beginner rpg, as a die hard yakuza fan i have trouble recommending it without first experiencing the other yakuza games. its not necessary, but it makes the experience even better, with so many references, callbacks, and important plot moments you can understand better

hello derek. hope you're well.

My first i think was Dragonforce on the Sega Saturn which i did beat, but i cannot recall how difficult it was back then. Panzer Dragoon Saga was my second jrpg, i beat but again i don't really recall how difficult it was back then.

I remember when Breath of Fire 3 came to PS and it looked awesome. Bought it later on psp and loved it but never finished it. I plages maybe 30 hours and had not even reached half time😄

well the trails series was my firs jrpg and i've faired alright lol

Man you showed Shining Force in the intro but didn’t recommend it lol. Love those games so much and being able to escape battles at any point made them such chill experiences.