I see Vyse, I click. That's science.

He actually added Yuri Hyuga the absolute madman. Infinite respect.

For those who don't know, Ichiban and Kiryu clothing are inverted which basically signals they are the opposite of eachother.

I really have to agree with you about all the points about Ichiban being a great protagonist in a JRPG or in a video game. It's just so refreshing to feel represented to those who grew up in the golden age of the genre depicted in a modern day setting. He's just so relatable and his struggles, celebrations and development is truly a sight to be seen.

Damn, surprised that Luke from Tales of the Abyss isn't on here. He easily had one of the greatest transformations as a person that I've seen in a JRPG.

Great list as always, my favorite is still Yuri Lowell from Tales of Vesperia.

Awesome #1 pick. I would like to add that Xenogears has an amazing and memorable soundtrack as well!

Magnus Gallant being included at all, let alone in the top 10, makes me so happy. I hope more people go back and play that game

My favorite is Alicia from Valkyrie Profile 2. I love the journey that she experiences that transforms her from a pampered princess who always relies on Silmeria when the going gets tough into a fearless leader who will go to the ends of the world and beyond to achieve her goals.

If you like Vyse's design, you might want to check out Captain Harlock, who Vyse shares a great deal in common with. In fact, Space Battleship Yamato, an older anime by the same creator as Harlock, gets referenced in that Skies of Arcadia, as well. Heck, Harlock's spaceship is called the Arcadia!

I absolutely love and have played so many JRPGs and their protagonists for a long time! That being said I am 44 years old and you including Ichiban, a more mature character around my age was fantastic. And the list was great as well :)

The ending of Yakuza Like a Dragon was incredibly well done and emotional and I agree that the vocal performance for Iciban was next level stuff.

Top 10 villain in JRPGs. in the next.

Great list of some amazing characters! My favorite protagonist in a JRPG is probably Haku from the Utawarerumono series (I know it's more of a visual novel, but it has strategy rpg gameplay segments). Another favorite is Lloyd Bannings from Legend of Heroes: Trails. Thanks again guys for the great video!

Damn, your music selection in this vid was incredible! Great list too (Lmao at how she decided to clean your hair as you were editing)

Dude, you got all of the best underrated rpgs on here! Thank you for making this! It totally brought me back to my childhood.

I enjoy your laid back presentation style and you really sell each of the games included in this ranking. It'd be cool to see you rank each JRPG based on the areas where they excel for the best all-rounder.

Didn't expect Ashley and Virginia from Wild Arms, some of my personal favorite characters. Also thanks for making me realize I need to beat Xenogears hahaha

Love that Meis from Thousand Arms made the honorable mentions

I really like tidus. I love the narration he gives.

Thanks for the list, there are some nice choices and I enjoyed hearing your reasons for each inclusion. It's also nice to see Alis Landale from Phantasy Star get an honorable mention, she's long been one of my favorite JRPG protagonists.

Ogre battle 64 was one of my fav N64 games, extremely underrated and a true masterpiece showing what kind of possible rpgs the N64 was actually capable of. I appreciate that you chose to put Magnus Gallant somehwere on this list.

My fav protag is Alex from Lunar. Could be nostalgia but i just like the story and following his adventure was fun.

You haven't played Radiant Historia!? Ohh man, you have an absolute banger left on your plate in that game. I think you'll love it and I can't wait to see the video you make on it.

This is a great video. I figured it would be just the normal, same heroes getting the top 3. You told us why and it made sense when you described it. I would have added some of my own favorites, but your list is great.

You really make me wish I played a lot more JRPGs, love this channels aesthetic and your narration is top notch

GB: I like that he (Fei) fights with his fists. *Clip shows Fei going DBZ on an enemy with energy blasts* Fancy fists there. : P

Those beginning 5-7 hours of final fantasy 9 were so awesome.

Great video as always dudes! Hope theres a top 10 villains version of this video at some point too

Sad Justin from Grandia inte here, think his character developement is really great, all character he meta helps him form to the hero in the end

Glad my boys Yuri (my absolute and most favorite fictional character ever) and Fei (the best character arc in fiction) made the cut.

There were a lot of great picks on here but the number 1 pick got me so hyped because I was looking for them the whole list and they made it to the number 1 slot. Thank you for such a fun heartwarming video woot

Great stuff, you should do a top character casts and villains in JRPGs! That would be so cool.

Awe yea another Broduction production!!!! Keep up the awesome work gents!

I need to play Xenogears and Grandia 1 and 2. I would love to see a video of this, but for Silent protagonists next 😆

seeing meis triumph on the list even though he is an honorable mention is still great.

I actually love squall from ff8. I remember feeling the way he felt when I was his age

Can't have a Gaming Broductions video without a praise for Xenogears, i'm definietly not complaining tho, i would love to see a dedicated Xenogears video from you

nice video yes for #1 :3 happy to see Stock and Ramza mentioned here really awesome characters

So happy to see Meis and Thousand Arms get a mention!

I LOVED seeing the shoutout for Ashley from Wild Arms 2! He’s been a favorite character of mine for years!

Fei of course, he himself is his entire family

great list. couple from me: Maxim from Lufia II - he's fun, relatively realistic, has a realistic love story, good friendships, and ultimately makes an immense sacrifice for love and the future. Yuri from Infinite Space - You start as an ignorant kid taking his first steps into space and end up years later as a grown, mature anti-hero, former pirate captain leading an entire fleet of advanced ships and creating alliances across conflicting nations to fight a universal evil. Yuri grows, sacrifices, loses people, makes hard choices, etc. The game play isn't for everyone, but the story is incredible. You mentioned Cecil and Ramza from FF, I'd add Locke as well. Characters which grow and are motivated by their past mistakes and wrongdoings to try and do good resonate with me, and they all fit that mold.

Might be presumptuous of me, but it looks like you've put more editing in this video than usual. That's pretty cool man.

Really enjoy your videos! Would be nice to see your favorite JRPG soundtracks.

Great video! And that Legend of Legaia OST...wow...it just pulls my heartstring I can't even describe! Everytime I hear this song the urge to replay it gets unbearable!

You totally nailed it with Fei!

Not surprised to see Ashley from Wild Arms on the list. Great video guys

I loved Vyse as a Protagonist character in Skies of Arcadia, would have loved to know the Japanese version of him because of how the Western version was heavily censored. I am sure that Vyse while being brave and heroic, also had a perverted side to him in a more playful way especially with Aika his childhood friend.

Good stuff. Keep making videos.

Thank you for mentioning Rudy from Wild Arms! He has a great character arc.

Huge thumbs up for having Fei, Ryudo, and Yuri on this list. And please play Radiant Historia, it's one of the best written JRPGs I've ever played, and actually does time manipulation right.

I'm glad you included Zidane here as your Final Fantasy representative. Great character.

You make the best videos thanks guy

My top 10: 1. Yuri Hyuga (Shadow Hearts) 2. Edge (Panzer Dragoon Saga) 3. Julian (Shining Force III) 4. Kevin (Trails in the Sky 3rd) 5. Estelle (Trails in the Sky FC & SC) 6. Medion (Shining Force III) 7. Vyse (Skies of Arcadia) 8. Ichiro Ogami (Sakura Wars 1 - 4) 9. Lloyd ( Trails Crossbell Duology) 10. Justin (Grandia)

Cool selection. Ryudo from Grandia 2 is one of my all-time favourites as well. Also, I love Meis from Thousand Arms. His design is cool and I love the world and the characters in it. But you're right, he would be cancelled as hell today hahaha

My top picks would be . Squall I love how he was emotionaly damaged and closed off, and throughout the game he started opening up to his crew and the people around him.

Love the vid as usual! Im sure my fav protag is obvious but mine is Squall Leonhart as well as being my favorite video game character in general. Ff8 is my favorite game ever despite its honestly really glaring flaws it just means a lot to me. I first played that game on the switch 3 years ago when i was 17(same age as squall) and going through a lot of tough shit causing me to adopt a really bad self-defeating personality. Playing that game and watching squall's growth over its events genuinely made me a better person and helped me see the harm i was causing myself. I also personally feel like hes a lot more complex than people give him credit for. Other favs are Ryudo, Tidus, Serge, and Stocke to name a few. I like my standoffish protags idk

This continues to be the best channel on KZfaq

bro, best possible conclusion. damn my man, perfect.

My personal favorite is Ni No Kuni’s Oliver. His story and journey is emotional. Not only that he stands out in terms the role he plays in battles. He’s not a swordsman, heck he isn’t even a martial fighter. He’s a WIZARD. A mage! A role mostly seen from the side characters, usually the female love interest or little girl. It’s such a breath of fresh air to see a magic-user of all people to be a JRPG protagonist.

Would like to see a video on who you think are the best companions in terms of their designs and character arcs. One of my favorites in Imca from Valkyria Chronicles 3. Too often we get the 'driven by revenge for a past tragedy' arc but it's not often we get it with a character where it ultimately ends in failure and them learning how to live on despite of that failure and the fact they will never get the revenge they seek. She also has a cool design with a even cooler weapon in a multi purpose buster sword/artillery cannon.

Most satisfying thing of today is obviously the Ryudo appreciation in this vid :D (Grandia II is underrated - it was popular for a while during its Dreamcast release then totally fell off the radar). Vyse and Yuri and Zidane were also great choices 👍

Great list! I was expecting to see Laharl (Disgaea 1), Priere (La Pucelle) or any other NISA protagonist, as they have created some pretty awesome characters

In case anyone is wondering, the background music at the start is from Legend of Legaia

You touched on a few of my faves here like Yuri Lowell, Rena Cloud and Ramza, but I do want to throw in my love for Marche (Tactics Advance) who resonated with my young self, Dean from Wild ARMs 5 and Rex from Xenoblade 2. I guess I like my good-natured protagonists quite a bit xD Estelle Bright and Toma (Shining Force EXA) are potentially on my list as well, though I need to play farther in the games

Yo, nice that you included Ichiban Kasuga from Yakuza Like a Dragon on this list, he's definitely by far my fave JRPG protag, maybe cuz I'm older and I can easily relate to him more, also, the fact that he's also a HUGE nerd of Dragon Quest games, makes him such a dork and likeable. Jrpg genre needs more adult protagonists.

legend of legaia background music, nostalgia trip right there, i hope cort grows up a good person

Skies of Arcadia is my favorite video game of all time. So you just earned a like and subscribe for giving Vyse some love on this list.

A list of favorite party member (non protagonist) would be cool too. But muuuuch harder to choose a favorite one :D

God the JAM from Legend of Legia at the start... ONE OF MY ALL TIMES... underrated classic

Well the FF protagonists are really good so no surprise on them. I really liked seeing some love for Stocke and Ryuudo, those names don't come up very often. One Name from a huge overlooked series I want to throw in there is Maxim from Lufia 2. The guy is the legendary Hero from Lufia 1's old tales, you even get to play him and his party for a bit and in Lufia 2 you get to see how he became said hero. Normally media is really bad at portraying legendary hero type characters. Either you only get to see them at their peak, they have some serious flaws (mostly played for laughs) that of course legends don't talk about. Sometimes he is a flawless blank slate and other times the transition to the Legend is not believable. Not this time. Maxim might already start out as a righteous person, but he's not flawless. He struggles along the way, has his fair share of losses too, but always keeps a certain optimism. He falls in love, marries and has a child during the events of the game (not in the end when the credits roll). During the story he and his party believably grow stronger and he finally acquires a magical weapon to become the legend that has been shown in the first game. Also the game breaks away from the traditional anime tropes (with one exception) in both design and peersonality and especially in the art of the SNES game, but also in the SNES sprites, he looks heavily influenced by european fantasy settings. I also like it when protagonists are already somewhat capable at the start of the game and Maxim has already been a monster hunter for several years. Sadly the remake for DS did the original game really dirty.

You have such great video themes

My dude, you gotta ply Radiant Historia. It got me back in the genre after a long many year burnout and I've been mote in love with JRPG'S than ever before.

absolutely just dropped a like cause you included a megaman x command mission clip....but yeah video was so good!

Very nice and diverse list. My favorites without any particular order: - Shulk (Xenoblade) - Zidane (FFIX) - father / brother Nier (Nier Gestalt / Replicant) - 2B (Nier Automata) - Ryu (Breath of Fire 3) - Alundra (Alundra) - Joker (Persona 5) - Shion (Xenosaga) - Ashley Lionet(Vagrant Story) - Aya Brea (Parasite Eve)

Yuri from Shadow hearts and Ryudo from Grandia 2, 2 of my most favorite heroes ever. Good old days of the ps2 ! They were my top 2, but now there is Rean Schwarzer from legend of heroes trails of cold steel 1 to 4. My top 3 now but I cannot tell who should be 1st 😅

Seeing xenogears get love always makes me happy. One of, if not my favorite game of all time. Fei as a character and the entire story of xenogears is one of the best ever. Great list man

I think in Star Ocean 2, Claude is meant to be your first play through, more of an outside view of the events of the entire game, while Rena is a bit more of the inside story at times. With her already having knowledge about the first planet you're on, and with her being centrally impacted by many of the plot twists. I think it's more impactful to play Claude first when, not only are you the player new to the story, but you also have to view everything happen from Claude's perspective on top of seeing it the first time, where Rena feels more like that second play through where you get to see more scenes. I might be oversimplifying it, but I mostly recall Claude's scenes being "teenage boy being a teenage boy," while Rena's were much more emotionally devastating, and not just because she's the girl.

Love that rim elm theme in the intro. :)

I completely agree with Ichiban. We need more older protagonist. Ichiban really played his role really well, and there was a lot tied into that main story that really hit the heart hard.

There's a soccer player whose last name Zidane. He was the one who head butted an opponent in the 2006 World Cup.

Damn nice list. Fie for the win !!

How about a best supporting cast list? i.e. best sidekicks? Great content.

I loved xenogears so much I wrote it on top of my playstation in permanent marker. Then my brother pointed out it wasn't spelled with a 'z' so I have zenogears etched into my PS1 forever. Wish it would get more love from SE.

Interesting choice for #1. He was in my Top 10 too, as well as Estelle.

Not only do I miss the character battles from game FAQs, I was a huge recurring member on the message board board eight where there is a surprisingly thriving community there Sadly, the last contest they had was a second game of the decade contest for any game released from 2010 to 2019 and the vote totals were pitiful

I would add Prier from La Pucelle Tactics to this list. Be sure to get the remaster if you haven’t played La Pucelle before.

Gotta put in a good word for Velvet from Tales of Berseria, and Yuri from Tales of Vesperia. Critically underrated, especially outside the Tales of Community. 2B and 9S are OK from Automata, but not nearly as good as the characters from Replicant Then, I know this doesn't include silent protags, but "Nier" from Replicant/Gestalt is pinnacle protag. Glad you put Estelle in the list. As much as I have trouble getting through some of the encounter design in the Sky games, she is the... "Bright" part of Sky.

Zidane is my absolute favorite ❤️. Also appreciate the mix of guy and girl protagonist s on this list!

Fei on top, this is the best top ten ever

Thanks for the video and your take on the best protagonists. No offense, but your pitch during sentences is all over the place and had me laughing out loud at times, cause I was reminded of the Portal announcer :D This is just a friendly hint on how you could further improve your content :)

I honestly thought I would hate Ichiban but hot damn is that dude seriously my favorite now. For many of the same reason as well. I guess as a kid I loved the angsty teen protagonists but by the time I turned 18 and had responsibilities I began to shift towards well thought out mature characters. These are fewer and farther between but are often immeasurably better than the alternatives. Thumbs up for Ichiban!

Rebecca and Fei are amazing main characters. Thanks to bring on me those reminders dude.

I agree with what you said about Zidane and the double bladed .. thing lol but he looks really cool when wielding the dual daggers. I agree with EVERYTHING you said about Zidane even his not cool looking design. Also you’re lucky. I was born in 1984 so I had to wait for FF8 and FF9 to come out lol. When I got into RPG’s FF7 had just come out. Love your channel, brother. You and your brother make good content

1. Yuri Lowell (Tales of Vesperia) 2. Ramza Beoulve (Final Fantasy Tactics) 3. Aldo (Another Eden) 4. Terra Branford (Final Fantasy 6) 5. Sora (Kingdom Hearts)

This channel is comfy AF.

I renamed Ashley Winchester in Wild Arms 2 as Dean Winchester and I renamed Gallows Carradine in Wild Arms 3 as Robert Carradine. I also knew someone named Brad Evans just like the character in Wild Arms 2.

Sad to not see Shulk, but Fei as the number one pick 100% makes up for it

It's great seeing Ashley from Wild ARMs 2 getting some love