Best JRPG'S of the past.

[Sparda4]

1Just as the title indicates what are your best JRPG'S from the past generations ?

Mine will speak for itself

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[dniv]

I only got into this series recently, but everything the legend of heroes (starting with game VI anyway), but especially the trails in the sky trilogy. Master-class worldbuilding+story+battle mechanics+characterization+ost. (What more do you need?)

If we define past really loosely, then Bravely Second, AA6, Pokemon Ultra Moon, and Persona 5 are also up there.

But yeah, I think the series with the most generic name ever, is better than those four games though.

An honorable mention is final fantasy tactics advance. That was one of my favorite games growing up. It still stands to the test of time.

[Indalecio]

-The Legend of Dragoon
-Chrono Trigger
-Suikoden 2 & 5
-Final Fantasy 6, 7, & 9
-The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky trilogy
-Shadow Hearts: Convenant
-Persona 3 & 4

[BassGSnewtype]

Oh...nostalgia trip but I'm going with Final fantasy 6, Breath of Fire 2 and Chrono Trigger with Super Mario RPG as an honorable mention, they were among my first RPGs and got me into the genre.

[dragon1412]

depend on what you actually defined as past, for example, ages past like Suikoden and Chrono trigger, the more middle one like Xenosaga series. to even Legend of heroes

[Kafriel]

I'll second Breath of Fire II and Chrono trigger for being way ahead of their time. Also, the Megaman Battle Network series, we'll never be seeing anything close to that again...

[kuroishinigami]

It's still Suikoden series for me. I'm a sucker for war story like Suikoden, and it's a pity that lately JRPG has not taken on this theme too much and concentrate more on individual heroic theme more

[Sixth]

Chrono Trigger.

Xenogear was good but too bad Disc 2 screamed RUSHED!

[Diluc]

Definitely Suikoden and Legend of Dragoon.
Too bad both games are deeply buried on past now

[Sparda4]

Let me be more accurate on the whole question before 2008.

[Seafoam]

An underappreciated one is Final Fantasy XII I think. It was ahead of its time with content, and the story almost played out like the original trilogy of Star Wars. It's not super old but since it came out at the end of the PS2's life cycle a lot of people skipped it.

[Jazzrat]

I think for sake of ease, it's probably better to go by console generations instead of year.
If we are to go by PS2 era and before, here are some of my personal bests for each generations.

1) Persona 4 (PS2) is an easy choice for a candidate, successfully marrying a life simulator with hardcore JPRG mechanics while tackling the modern life settings that most JRPG rarely wander into. Granted it came out in 2008 and at the tail end of PS2.

2) Front Mission 5 (PS2), this is an odd beast since it was never officially translated but if you love mechs, SRPGs and modern day settings, this is something you have to check out even if it requires you to jump through some hoops.If not Front Mission 3 is still a great one to check out.

3) Seiken Densetsu 3 (SNES), an ARPG with multiple controllable characters and storyline with solid gameplay mechanics. The only modern game that even came close to repeating this success was Odin Sphere (PS2) which is another personal favorite but I still felt Seiken Densetsu 3 was a better overall game as a whole.

4) Ogre Battle / Tactics Ogre (SNES) : Consider how similar most of them are so i m just gonna lump them in as awhole, this is the best traditional fantasy SRPG series in my book over FFT. Great story and great mechanics.

[The Green One]

Another good thing about Seiken Densetsu 3 was it's replay-ability, not just with the vast combinations of characters and classes you can do, but the fact that there's three different storylines due to there being three different bad guy factions so you can have three different playthroughs to enjoy.

[erneiz_hyde]

Back in the day I absolutely fell in love with Legend of Legaia. I cleared it over and over and over again before I finally stumble upon Final Fantasy 8. Then I backtracked all the other RPGs I could find.
I never did stumble on Xenogears but I played the Xenosaga series.
The only Suikoden I've played to this day is the 2nd one and I liked it very much.
I played Chrono Cross but never managed clear it and have never touched Trigger.
Of the 2 Wild Arms game I finished (2nd Ignition and 3rd Advance) I liked them both.
Legend of Dragoon was cool but somehow the only impressions left in me as I finished it was all meme material.
Oh yeah, there's the Lunar Series too, man that takes me back. Aside from the game I very much like the songs in there as well (and the fanservice of course, I was young! )
Brave Fencer Musashi counts as RPG right? I also remember finishing this game several times.
Tales of Eternia (known as Destiny 2). The first time I played this I kind of rage quitted because it was too hard for me. Of course I revisited it years later when I was a bit older and this time managed to defeat all the secret bosses. Aside from this, the only other Tales series I've played was Abyss and the actual Tales of Destiny 2 (in Japanese).
Valkyrie Profile had a similar story, the first time I didn't know my left and right around the game but later on I managed to beat the last secret boss, was it 9 times over for that badge item? I only cleared VP2 and didn't bother with the secret dungeon.

[Mad Pierrot]

Brave Fencer Musashi is more like an action rpg like the Kingdom Hearts series. Now to share my favorites

Now these are my favorites:
1. Final Fantasy IV
2. Persona 4
3. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
4. Final Fantasy VII
5. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked

Honorable mentions: Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix and Final Fantasy X

[DragoonKain3]

I've only really played RPGs a bit late in the 16-bit era (before that I was a fighting game addict), so these are my hallmarks before around the year 2000 (not counting ARPGs or TRPGs) in no particular order:

1) Final Fantasy 4 - it's my handle for a reason, as this character driven narrative pretty much defined what will be known in the future as a JRPG. Before that it was bland MCs tasked with saving the world kind of thing, if even there was a story. Also, ATB's debut

2) Chrono Trigger - branching routes was a thing with eroge beforehand, but this made it mainstream. Doing different endings was interesting when I first played it

3) Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - not in the RPG sense, but this REALLY put the mini-game aspect into overdrive.

4) Tales of Phantasia - pretty much bridged the gap with ARPG and regular RPGs, which is still done to this day via Tales, Star Ocean, Shining RPGs etc.

5) Suikoden - the original gotta catch'em all.

6) Persona - I think there was another game not realesed in the west, but this in my mind pretty much cemented the High School setting in an RPG.

7) Lunar - not really in the RPG sense, but this is the game that proved Limited/Collector editions made money

8) Xenogears - Imma slide this in here because I frigging love RPGs AND mechas (plus Bart and Margie <3). Seriously though, this is the NGE of RPGs, with tons of hidden messages, philosophy and subtext, if you care to dig deeper.

9) Diablo - pretty much popularized the rogue-like AND dungeon crawling, and really upped the ante with it's second iteration.

10) Baldur's Gate - pretty much revived the DnD brand singlehandedly, and made PC RPGs distinct when compared to Console RPGs.

[Der Langrisser]

My favorites ones, in no particular order were:

-Suikoden I & II

-Star Ocean 2

-Valkyrie Profile

-Front Mission 3 & Front Mission

-Der Langrisser / Langrisser II

-Final Fantasy VII & VIII

-Wild Arms

-Growlanser IV

[ZGoten]

10) Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn (Great story, super memorable maps and moments, awesome cast)
09) Tales of Berseria (incredible set of protagonists, nice story, check out my review)
08) Final Fantasy XII (super fun gameplay, stellar world design)
07) Final Fantasy IX (very emotional, amazing soundtrack, so much love in there)
06) Lost Odyssey (near-perfect gameplay, love the premise and story)
05) The Last Story (short but sweet, well-told story, super fun customization)
04) Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter (great music, unbelievable atmosphere, best post-apocalyptic setting ever)
03) Fire Emblem 7 (perfect tactics rpg)
02) Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (less perfect tactics rpg wth better characters)
01) Final Fantasy X (the greatest game ever made)