I never cease to wonder how Eric remembers all these games. This guy is lowkey a genius

For the NES in my opinion the darkest RPG is Zelda 2: the Adventures of Link, the main plot of the story is that the enemies are after Link's blood to use it in a ritual to resurrect Ganon, when you get a game over screen it gets into a red and black screen with a silhouette of Ganon laughing in a creepy way, many designs of the creatures are darker compared to the first Zelda game, mostly the bosses like Rebonack who is a ghost horseman, and Helmethead a possessed death Knight

7th saga? Monster designs, the ruthlessness of party member stealing your shit, or other characters trying to kill you. The ending. It gets a mention at least. A few more things in there as well.

On PS2 I think the first Shadow Hearts slightly edges out Nocturne in terms of darkness

SMT IV (not apocalypse lol) is maybe the most dark jrpg I’ve ever played. Never tried Strange Journey, but IV is gnarly lol

I was expecting Dark Half to be the SNES/SFC pick. That game... sure is something. Also it has dark in the title.

Drakengard was not only the darkest ps2 game, it is the darkest console game ever. There's a woman who eats infants, your main hero is a serial killer and they are nothing compared to what the priest is which I wont say here but you can look it up. Omori is also the darker than redemption reapers for the switch.

Folklore is a GREAT game. Love to see it mentioned. It's very underappreciated!

Fuga doesnt get a mention? Children fighting a war and dying is pretty dark.

Pokémon when you learn cubone 's origin

NES has sweet Home lol

Tales of the abyss was the first time i saw a kid not make it. I was shocked

If you think Crystalis wasn't dark, then you didn't get the story. :P Granted, it's told in that 80's kinda way, but it's about the extinction of humanity via hubris.

Gotta say Phantasy Star 2 is the darkest Genesis JRPG by far. I won't spoil it, but I will say that Phantasy Star 4 confirms that 90% of the solar system's population died in PS2. That game is dark as hell.

I'm surprised you didn't mention XC2 Torna for Switch. Redemption Reapers definitely seems like the darkest though.

Bigs up Atelier Tototri my favorite Mature Dark Jrpg

Why so dismissive/shocked at The World Ends With You? It definitely is dark. You didn't elaborate on it at all.

Death End Request 2 really shocked me the content is just insane so many characters get killed in so many dark disturbing ways

It's a great distinction at the beginning when comparing Xenogears to Parasite Eve, Dark doesn't mean scary - can be the story and the themes being discussed/showcased. Nice to have that talked about since most people would deem dark as just scary or at least go to that as the reasoning. Awesome choices, some I've checked out - others I've only just heard a bit about or seen a bit of gameplay. Some games to be on the lookout for 100%. Incredible choices from the fans as well. Another incredible video, and a great reasoning behind each choice. Keep up all the amazing work and see you on the next one.

Loved Vagrant Story on the PS1 the substence is pretty nuts too :).

For the snes, I still remember playing Blackthorne as a little kid, killing the prisoners with a shotgun and then having nightmares about it.

Alundra on the ps1 gets pretty dark as you progress the story

Soul Sacrifice is the most Dark Fantasy ive ever played, behind Drakengard 1&3

I would say Conkers Bad Fur Day is the darkest N64 game 100%. Death, murder, suicide, drinking, drugs, pissing, blood and gore, gangs, war, guns, chainsaw, sex, girlfriend dies at the end, literal shit monster, ect. No way anything on the N64 is darker than that my guy. It's not a jrpg, but you should of mentioned it. Also, no mention of danganronpa at all either or nonary. What a shame.

phantasy star 2 may have a bright setting but a lot of really dark and depressing things happen throughout the story that I can't tell here without someone complaining about spoilers

CHAINED ECHOES. It is one of the most underrsted and darkest rpg

These games are mad demonic

Tales of Symphonia is so dark with how many layers that has to it. Vesperia not as dark as it's an alien threat at the end but first half i loved it so much seeing how a politician and holy man can get away wirh crimes that make yuri snao Fe 3 houses gets too much credit for being "dark" it isnt. Its just more direct about it than the other games aside 4. Awakening you got a failed timeline so the heroes already lost and were turned into risen or worse in dlc maps. Nowi and her whole deal and the psychological effects of the children being sent back in time especially Laurent and lucina. Sov what happens to the ladies under purple face.

Super paper mario isnt trolling, its really dark :(

Anybody else getting spammed by afk journey? I hate that game because I can't go anywhere without seeing ads. 😡

I'm surprised that no one picked "Final Fantasy Adventure" for the GameBoy portion of the video. A LOT of characters die in that game!

Gonna have to second Witch and 100 knights, the part where it crashes your PS3 because of one line of bad code was pretty dark

I always love when someone acknowledge the genius writing of my beloved Xenogears...

I can say that Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days is one of the darkest DS JRPG

Awesome idea for a video lol

Xeno Gears is what Evangelion wanted to be

Fear and Hunger on PC )

Vandal Hearts II on PS1....extremely political

the choices for the sega consoles are pretty odd: the sms has a very few games but Lord of the Sword maybe fits the dark mood better than phantasy star - on md there is Exile and sega cd Dungeon Explorer - on saturn Virtua Hydlide o panzer dragoon saga are darker than the super "light hearted" dragon force, or even story of thor 2 - the Dreamcast has the super dark and horror D2 (yes, is an action rpg) or record of loddos war - and the game gear has the heroic fantasy Axe Battler by the way, only who played The Witch and the Handred Knight till the end knows how dark this game becomes near the end, absurdly dark.

I heard that Super Robot Wars D on the GBA is considered the darkest SRW game in the franchise.

For N64 I'd say Hybrid Heaven. It's got mutants and crazy stuff going on, I think. I honestly don't remember much of the plot but it's kind of mature with the sort of approach and style.

Never played Final Fantasy 6, but Final Fantasy 4 was pretty dark. Lots of death, manipulation, mind control, and a feeling of isolation.

On PS1 side, there few more Horror RPG,"Blood Omem Legacy of Kain, Diablo 1, Kings Field",i think i missed some more JRPG.

How exactly are these videos made? Livestreamed with users providing comments that Erick then reads out loud?

Ps4 also had valkyria revolution with the moody revenge plot

Man Drakengard was fucked up like how far into it did you get lol

xenogears It’s a shame they never came out in the UK region. Maybe one day I’ll bring it out and I can play it

Otogi on the original Xbox! I know it's more action adventure but still deserves a mention

For the GBA, my pick is Golden sun

Never in my life would I ever consider Faxanadu a 'dark' JRPG. It's definitely a great one though.

Final Fantasy Type 0 for PS4 ,Xbox One ,PSP, Final Fantasy Type 0 is One of The Darkess Rpgs in Video game History & is The Darkess Final Fantasy Game, No Offense, but you Messed That One Real Hard.

Xenogears! My favorite video game of all time!

25:33 personaly I find fe4 more cruel, the story of Sigurd is very tragic, never see another protagonist suffer this much and still clean You had a very good a list, you really remember all that?

through all of the video no one mentioned suikoden games...sad...

etrian odyssey untold 2 dark af around middle and at the end. After beating it, opening become a crying one

On PC Xanadu NEXT "dark" game )))

WTF is "CIMA: The Enemy" for GBA not here?!

What about Ouya?

"until (drakengard 1) gets remastered" lol so never ever

Koudelka?

no one said anything about suikoden 2 on ps1?

wii u deus ex human revolution director cut, wii, were was fire emblem?

Too bad no TG-16 or Neo Geo Pocket Color mentions.

What about ZANKI ZERO?

Xenogears was pretty scary in .y opinion. Especially the killer in the sewers arc. I was small back then and the POV of the criminal haunting you with its raspy breathing wad horrifying. The rest of the story i couldn't really follow. But the imagery alone was enough to give me nightmares.

I thought that Chrono Cross was a pretty dark game at times on the ps1 specially story wise and maybe Legend of Legaia surprisingly, that game got dark a lot of times for a rated E game lol.

The man, is BACK!

i guess rule of rose doesnt REALLY fit the "JRPG" genre? that was DARK....

I dunno I find Judgement far darker than Like a Dragon, especially Judgement 2. Lately I played Omori which is a great little gem and very dark at that... dark souls and Elden ring I suppose are too obvious being the pillars of dark jrpgs. Then if u want super dark Japanese stuff u have to go Visual Novels more than JRPGs.. world of horror is a VN/JRPG crossover and it's super dark (and "super" dark aside, it's an indie masterpiece). Undernauts (and Labyrinth of Zangetsu) and Redemption Reapers quoted in the video are also all dark and great hidden gems.

Some fine gems dropped here.

I pick hybrid heaven on n64

n64 hybrid heaven,

Damn, Halloween came early this year! 🎃😈👻

25:37

Let's hope KZfaq doesn't decide to shadow ban this one

No one mentioned of any of the Danganronpa Games? Kinda surprising since i thought they were very well known and praised a lot in general. And i would definitely consider them to be very dark games. Maybe i missed it, since i was watching this while playing games :D

Woah another every type of game on every console video???!?!?@?!?! Who could have predicted this?!?!?!?!??!?!?! What a turn of events!!!!!

Labyrinth of Refrain was pretty dark.

Nights of Azure 2 psp vita )))

Genial

Not a console game but Star Shift Rebellion shows a proper understanding of what make authoritarian regimes so bad

It’s time to get dark with JRPGs